I Watched A Buster Keaton Short...

only faintly connected to the spooky season-1921's The Haunted House-but I did not feel like doing much else last night: 

Yep, this was watched for the “creatures”, even if they were of the Scooby Doo variety.

Last night I wasn't feeling like watching anything full-length, even though there's literally hundreds of horror films I could watch either on various streaming services for free or for the cost of a few dollars via Amazon. As most can be viewed at any time in the future, after a bit I decided not to worry about that, be happy about what I've seen since September-although it will be nice to have more a variety starting in November-and for the first time see this particular short from someone that I love-at least in the silent era-Buster Keaton. The last 40 percent of this occurs in the titular haunted house, which is not actually haunted but rather it's some villains donning costumes as if they were Scooby Doo villains.

In this 21 minute short, Keaton works at a bank which is held up by some rascals. Of course there are funny gags even during the robbery-mainly involving glue. After that, a random performance of Faust nearby goes awry, which is only shown to also bring someone dressed as Satan to the house. Thus, once Buster by happenstance ends up at the bandits' hideout, there is a Devil running around alongside heels wearing sheets (they aren't KKK members... it's to portray ghosts) and a few skeleton costumes. More pratfalls occur there, including stairs that change into a slide.

While not my favorite Keaton short, The Haunted House provided me w/ enough entertainment for me to think of it as “pretty good.” It mainly suffers if you compare it to something like The General or even another short like One Week... their plots, gags & pratfalls are all superior. If you're not as big a fan then your rating may be lower... for me, the surprises that happen-there's a few-help make this a pleasant diversion. If nothing else, a macabre gag involving skeletons & a man being "constructed" made it feel worthy for late October.