[1] The film, which depicts a brief pantomimed sketch in the style of a theatrical comic fantasy, tells the story of an encounter with the Devil and various attendant phantoms.

A single remake, also by Méliès, was produced one year later under the title Le Château hanté (The Haunted Castle), which is often confused with this film.

The Devil's assistant pokes their backs before instantaneously teleporting to different areas of the room, confusing the pair and causing one to flee.

The cavalier draws his sword and attacks the skeleton, which turns into a bat, then into Mephistopheles, who conjures four shrouded spectres to subdue the man and then vanish.

[7] However, it is known that Jehanne d'Alcy, a successful stage actress who appeared in many of Méliès's films and became his mistress and later his second wife,[8] plays the woman who comes out of the cauldron.

[1] In the book Universal Monsters: Origins, Christopher Ripley writes, "If Méliès was shooting for terror, he fell short of the mark.