The Haunted House
1929 · 7m · USA
Directed by Walt Disney
Genres: animation, comedy, horror
On a dark and stormy night, Mickey Mouse takes shelter in a haunted house where a skeleton dressed as the Grim Reaper forces him to play the organ while a troupe of skeletons dance wildly around him.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Skeletons making Mickey play organ at gunpoint is a pretty metal premise for 1929 Disney. Banned in Ohio for scaring kids — that's a recommendation.
An early Mickey horror riff that recycles Skeleton Dance choreography but retains genuine pre-Code menace, sufficient to alarm 1929 Ohio censors. A revealing footnote in the Disney macabre.
Disney reusing Skeleton Dance animation and getting banned in Ohio for scaring kids in 1929 — that's a film that genuinely understood horror rhythm before talkies had figured out pacing. The 6:41 runtime in the YouTube page lets the skeleton dance breathe without padding.
Reviews
Another comedy wow. Mickey Mouse in a haunted villa is fast with laughs throughout. Delightfully mad, this short can be added to any bill and improve it thereby.
The early scenes of this cartoon manage to evoke a genuine feel of horror, but in the end the short resembles the boring song-and-dance routines of both the early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony series too much to be a standout.