Häxan (1922)

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Blistering performances.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

When I first watched this I was so pleasantly surprised, because I had just never taken to the silent film medium before let alone genuinely loved one, I found them tedious and frankly didn't have the viewing patience required. But with this, well from the opening images of the intricate paintings of hell and demons and souls I was near-instantly hooked by the visuals of this strange production, the well thought out imagery that charted the myths and folklore of witchcraft and devil worship from ancient Egypt through the middle ages to the very real and true horror of the Inquisition was so endlessly absorbing and fascinating to me. The dreamlike sequences were so exactly what I always imagined when I thought of old Gothic fairy tale tomes and legends sprung to life that it was uncanny. It was so rich and darkly enchanting to me in its scratchy faded old decrepitude, the gnarled old witches in their filthy dank hovel giving the potion of the vilest ingredients to the woman so that she could gain the fat pig priest's attentions, and the obscene tongue lashing maniacal devil having worshippers lining up to kiss his backside and the people in creative monster costumes as well as being completely nude, dancing around in a fiery black mass. Pretty groundbreaking stuff indeed for 1922! There's such a kind of low key weird exuberance about it, and for me how it looked had a real stark, etched, weather-beaten beauty to it, it's beautifully hideous, if that makes sense! I do enjoy it as visual and thematic entertainment rather than anything that's playing at being an educational piece, and that whole side of it. If I were attempting to watch it as a kind of documentary I would have found it a real chore to sit through. For me it worked for the best when it was heaping on the bizarre special effects amid the chaotic randomness that was the otherworldly shifting scenarios that made up the narrative structure. But for how much of a messy hodgepodge of a viewing experience this 'movie' is, it consistently held my interest and I never found it growing too boring or slow. And to say it was made before my late sweet grandma was even born, it really wasn't all that stuffy and didn't take itself too seriously, it had a lot of sly mean-spirited humour about itself and the hellish and sombre subject matter. I like the special effects, for what they were they're still surprisingly decent and hold up well, such as the animated imp that crawls through the hole in the door or when the old woman is tormented by a small fortune in gold coins that scatter and leap out of her path each time she reaches down to gather them up! It's mostly like a dusky nightmare merry-go-round of freakish imagery and characters that is in fact more like something conjured up by Satan than a picture made by any mere human director! It's quite unique, among films from this or any era by my reckoning. So yes I was pleasantly Haxed, ideal spooky eye candy and a surreal and eerie atmosphere that was pitch perfect won out, and Haxan is one of a kind, nothing else quite like this one. I got quite an education!

Even as I don't think the 1st and 7th parts work really so well - the former is more like a Powerpoint-slide presentation (albeit some dark slides) and the latter doesn't really add much and is dated with terms like 'hysteria' - the more times I watch this, the more I get into how disturbing and honest the imagery is, or at least the intent behind it.You're left to make your own assumptions by the majority of what this director shows you, and the images of the many monks and so-called "religious" men (aka Men in Power) is like pre-Joan-of-Arc Dreyer imagery. It's akin to how Scorsese shows gangsters and criminals or Jordan Belfort: you'd almost think this movie is borderline endorsing the burning of women at the stake for actually being witches, but such is the power of the anthropological state of things.Its impact lies in how much it sticks to its guns as far as showing what the world was like then from that of late 15th/early 16th century Middle Ages when the Inquisition was still going on (that part is left out, this is squarely about witches and while men are mentioned among the "8 million men/women/children" killed during this time, you know who is really the target of the Church at the time), and this includes the director showing us how someone like Maria the Weaver's descriptions of hell and Satan and people literally kissing his ass is conjured up in the minds of these men, and the torture devices that were used.The first time I watched this I almost thought the director sided *with* then men in a way, but I was mistaken; it's pretty clear to see how women were basically massacred in the name of, literally, witch-hunts. I think it's because of how effective the sets are, how the actors are as far as the choice of their faces (primarily Maria the Weaver who looks like she was plucked from 1488), and certain effects like showing the witches on brooms flying around - a dazzling sight today - and the costumes for the devil worshippers. It's a high quality production that I wish was really all one full story instead of something closer to a documentary anthology. But as it is, it works really well.

HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES is the famous Swedish/Danish documentary exploring the history of witchcraft through to the modern day. It's a stark and unsettling film packed with the kind of horrific imagery that has since become clichéd in the cinema, and yet some scenes retain their brutal power and feel surprisingly fresh and terrifying.The documentary begins on a slow note with lots of description and not much in the way of life, but after a time the staged dramatisations begin and this is where HAXAN comes to life. The whole "witch hunt" subject has been done to death, yet the storyline which plays out here is never less than engrossing. It's also surprisingly strong stuff, with explicit sequences of torture and black masses which are still tough to bear even today.Danish director Benjamin Christensen elicits strong performances from his cast members, particularly from Maren Pedersen who gives a haunting turn as the condemned witch, and the 1920s-era special effects are a lot of fun; strange how the flying broomstick scene looks better nowadays than the lamentable CGI of the Harry Potter franchise. It's interesting to watch how political sentiments - pro-feminism, anti-religion - creep into the finished film. HAXAN is a must for both horror fans and cinema fans in general.

A Wow Inducing Silent Movie that was, to say the least, Ahead of its Time. A Docu-Drama Study/Presentation of Witchcraft. It Presents in Wild Abandon, Bizarre, Sharply Defined, Horrific, and Surrealistic Images of Satan and His Dominions Performing Diabolical Acts that were and are Impressive, Repulsive, and Highly Entertaining. Things on Screen Rarely Seen and were Never Remotely Approached after the Code.It Adopts a Back and Forth Style of Title Card Information on the Subject, Combined with some Straight Forward Dramatizations of Witches, Clergy, and the Inquisition. Heavily Stylistic Scenes with Pseudo-Animation and Tons of Makeup combine with Disturbing, Ugly, and Pathetic People. There is some Artful Model-Work with Broom Flying Witches that was Liberally Cribbed by Disney in Fantasia (1940).Incredibly Influential and a Phantasmagorical Treat that has been Restored and can be Enjoyed by those who Normally Stay Away from Silent Films. It is a Halloween Perennial for Hipsters and it is one of those that Defies Description. The Criterion Collection Contains two versions that are Equally Inviting with many Insightful Extras.