Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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.
Häxan is a singular achievement in early cinema — a proto-documentary horror hybrid that blends illustrated lectures, dramatic vignettes, and proto-Surrealist imagery into something that defies easy categorization. Its cinematography is genuinely stunning for 1922, with elaborate special effects, rich chiaroscuro lighting, and inventive practical effects that hold up remarkably well. Novelty is sky-high: no film before or since quite resembles this pseudo-scholarly yet gleefully lurid tour through medieval superstition and hysteria. The plot is loosely structured by design — functioning more as a thematic essay than a narrative — which works for the form but limits dramatic momentum. Acting is pantomime-broad by necessity of the silent medium, though Christensen's Satan is memorably expressive. The ending, which pivots to a more sober modern-day psychiatric comparison, is intellectually satisfying but somewhat deflating after the delirious Sabbath sequences.