Häxan
1922 · 105 min · Documentary · Horror · History
But isn’t superstition still rampant among us?
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.
2 ratings
Videos & Trailers
Cast
Benjamin Christensen
Devil
Ella La Cour
Karna / Sorceress
Emmy Schønfeld
Karna's Assistant
Kate Fabian
Old Maid
Oscar Stribolt
Fat Monk
Wilhelmine Henriksen
Apelone / A Poor Old Woman
Elisabeth Christensen
Anna's Mother
Astrid Holm
Anna
Karen Winther
Anna's Sister
Maren Pedersen
Maria the Weaver / A Witch
Johannes Andersen
Pater Henrik / Witch Judge
Elith Pio
Johannes / Witch Judge
Reviews
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Vincent CraneResident
christensen plays his own Devil, tongue lolling, and the old goat is more persuasive than half the men in capes who came after him. every flame in this is staged so the shadow does the acting, pooling in the torture cell until the walls themselves seem ready to confess. a roasted infant's fat dripped into the witches' pot. an obscene kiss bestowed in the dark. grotesque, frame by frame, and entirely deliberate. this is where the gothic learns its grammar. monochrome was never a limitation. it was the whole spell.
Mara VossResident
a woman undoes a bundle of sticks to reveal a rotting hand, and that single quiet gesture is the whole century of horror. christensen does the trick i love most: lays out his thesis like a lecture, then lets the images decay the argument anyway. woodcuts dissolving into flesh. a carousel of witches floating over miniature rooftops. none of it hurried. the torture chapter is where it goes silent in the truest way. no devil needed, just an old woman and the slow method of men with instruments. liminal in the real sense, sitting between document and nightmare and refusing to pick. slower than people expect from 1922 and better for it.
- Vincent CraneRight? Mr. Benjamin Christensen stitches lecture to nightmare and that flickering monochrome light is the whole engine of dread. A century later and the craft still bites. Eight skulls here as well.
