Fresh
Swedish and Danish pictures easily hold the palm for morbid realism and in many cases for brilliant acting and production.
Variety Staff, Variety
Häxan
But isn’t superstition still rampant among us?
1922 · 1h 45m · Not Rated
Documentary, History, Horror
Directed by
Benjamin Christensen
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Häxan
Overview
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.
Director and cast
- Benjamin Christensen Director
- Benjamin Christensen as Devil
- Ella La Cour as Karna / Sorceress
- Emmy Schønfeld as Karna's Assistant
- Kate Fabian as Old Maid
- Oscar Stribolt as Fat Monk
- Wilhelmine Henriksen as Apelone / A Poor Old Woman
- Elisabeth Christensen as Anna's Mother
- Astrid Holm as Anna
- Karen Winther as Anna's Sister
- Maren Pedersen as Maria the Weaver / A Witch
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
93%
Tomatometer
Fresh
A silent curiosity made in Denmark in 1922, with an episodic, rhetorical structure that would have appealed to Jean-Luc Godard.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh
A weird and rather wonderful brew of fiction, documentary and animation based on 15th and 16th century witchcraft trials, Christensen's film has a remarkable visual flair that takes in Bosch, Breughel and Goya.
David Thompson, Time Out
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