1922 · horror · documentary · silent
Häxan
Directed by Benjamin Christensen1h 45m1922
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.
Our read: Häxan (1922) reads as a heavy, measured, surreal horror · documentary · silent entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Heavy, measured, measured horror / documentary, surreal in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold.
- heavy
- measured
- intense
- surreal
- bleak
- cold
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How Häxan feels to watch.
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What watching it is actually like.
“You want silent-era witch panic as essay film, nightmare pageant, and history lesson.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if torture imagery, nudity, and silent intertitles feel too demanding tonight.
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