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 20th 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.
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