Recreation Geography: May 2024

14 May 2024

Häxan

Häxan is a 1922 (105 minutes) Swedish silent film written, directed and starring Benjamin Christensen. It was re-released and edited for the western market as Witchcraft Through the Ages (1968, 74 minutes). The pseudo-documentary style traces the history of witchcraft from the Middle Ages to the 20^th century. The movie is based on Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) written by German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer that was published in the late 1400s. The author blamed women for the troubles of the world and promoted torture and death as a means to get confessions and finally death as the only way to remove witchcraft from the planet. Despite criticism by top leaders in the church, it was nonetheless popular among the normal “Joes.” (get my drift?)

Special effects included reverse motion, makeup, color tinting and others. Even with intertitles, it was not until the English subtitles were added that this title reached a global audience.

You need to remember that witches were a constant threat to humanity during the period and translated in the horrific events of the Salem Witch Trials in America in 1692. While Salem and Häxan have similarities, the interest to the Fright Tourist is the theme of witches. For the fright tourist a basic understanding of the evil centered on witches is essential. For this reason, this film is popular in film studies University classes, since it would likely be banned in primary schools found in Red States.

In Häxan the film is broken down into several parts or chapters. The first is based on early paintings and wood carvings illustrating demons and witches and the role of hell within our finite Earth. Next are a series of short vignettes that illustrated, with the help of the intertitles, witchcraft supporting the work of the devil.

This prompted the formation of witch hunters in the Middle Ages, where any unusual death or malady could be attributed to a woman, typically the wife. A subsequent torture would cause the woman to confess, only to be burned at a stake. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

The more modern parts of the story relate the behavior of witches as a psychological disorder that we would not find in the current edition of the DSM.

We must be reminded that witches are found in every culture in the world. While the reader is most familiar with America’s examples, including Charmed (US TV 1998-2006) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (US TV 1997-2003) where witches are shown to be some of the beautiful people, this is certainly unlike Häxan’s characters. Elsewhere, the witches of Europe have been frequently displayed in film and include the Witchfinder story line in the 1960s and 70s that catered to the violence loving audience. See Witchfinder General (1968) with Vincent Price for one of the “softer” rated themes.

Witch movies are still found around the globe albeit with different names like Aswang, Djambe, Bruja, Majo, Phu Thuy and more. Häxan is in public domain so is readily available for viewing on the web. The definitive source is available since 2019, the Criterion Collection released the 2016 digital restoration exclusively on Blu-ray in the US.