Haxan

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Audience Member A GOOD DOCUMENTARY ABOUT WTCHCRAFT IT HAS A REALLY GOOD ATMOSPHERE AND LOOK FOR 1922 Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/07/24 Full Review BigD J This film is a century old and so very creative, innovative, and really well thought out by Christensen. Not to mention, the creep factor of this film is quite glorious! Fantastic depiction of witch fear mongering. Seeing as it’s over 100 years old (1922, not ‘29 as listed), a silent Danish/Swedish film that requires English subtitles, it can be construed as a bit boring. This, because we’ve become so desensitized, over the decades. But, for those who appreciate creativity and detail, this film is a must! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/14/24 Full Review Teddy B An effectively haunting and informative piece of work, 'Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages' provides a frankly unforgettable and quite stylish look into both the religious aspects of witchcraft and the very real, very horrifying, and very inhumane side and how modern psychology plays into both. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/21/24 Full Review Matthew B One of the more interesting experiments made during the 1920s was Benjamin Christensen's Swedish-Danish semi-documentary film, Haxan. The title means ‘Witch', and it has sometimes been renamed ‘Witchcraft Through the Ages'. The film is a curious hodge-podge of text on the screen which relates facts about witches, close-ups of old pictures portraying Satan, hell and witchcraft, and dramatized recreations of medieval scenes. The film is not without its flaws. There is some confusion of tone, structure and content. It is not always clear whether Christensen is accepting the reality and horrors of witchcraft, or condemning the treatment of those who were falsely accused. He seems to do both. The final section of the film in which Christensen tries to find modern-day parallels in our treatment of neurotic patients also involves a few tenuous connections. Nonetheless Haxan remains an impressively original film, and its unconventional structure was a deliberate choice by Christensen. The director did not just wish to make an adaptation of an existing story. He wanted a new and looser construction, one that avoided narrative, characterisation and sentimentality. Christensen studied his subject meticulously before putting it on screen. Despite its absence of a clear storyline, some cinematic trickery was involved. A carousel was used to create the impression of a large number of witches flying by on broomsticks. Also many of the scenes were shot at night to give the scenes an ominous atmosphere. The director also appears in the film. He plays himself in early scenes, and later he plays both the Devil and Christ. I cannot speak for the factual accuracy of Christensen's film, but the focus is often on dazzling the audience with extraordinary images that stick in the memory. Haxan was banned in the US, and heavily censored elsewhere. The world was not yet ready for grisly images of torture and infanticide, not to say nudity and sexual perversion. Even watching it today, I find myself a little shocked. Christensen ends the film by comparing medieval people's responses to our own attitudes today. We still believe in superstitions, such as card-reading and crystal balls. Christensen also likens the women accused of witchcraft in the past to contemporary hysterical patients. Nervous disorders cause sleep-walking, kleptomania and other aspects of unusual behaviour that were once misunderstood. Haxan was the most expensive Scandinavian silent movie ever made, and it is unfortunate that the bans put on the film prevented it from recovering the cost of the production. Christensen was unable to work in Sweden any more, as he was considered too extravagant. Viewed today, Haxan is a more admirable creation. It provides a disquieting glimpse into the fanatical superstitions of the past, and the cruelty and injustice of allowing irrational beliefs to govern the laws and thinking of society. I wrote a longer appreciation of Haxan on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/11/15/haxan-1922/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/24/23 Full Review Audience Member The documentary style and basic plot are only mildly engaging, however the effects are pretty cool, the imagery is memorable and probably daring for its time, and above all it's really interesting to see a film made a hundred years ago express ideas still relevant to this day about how societies turn their old, poor, mentally ill, weak and different into scapegoats, forced confessions, how superstition survives through the ages and how life's mysteries have been and will be explained by science. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Benjamin Christensen creates a very brilliant film called Häxan. A film that explores witchcraft, horror, etc. The film was pretty nuanced with the cinematography especially when scenes are either in blue and red to gives audiences what kind of atmosphere we could witness. The costume designs for the Devil and those who worship the devil are pretty terrifying even by today's standards. Speaking of terrifying, the visual effects were pretty impressive as well. What could also be praise worthy for Häxan was the art direction as it can gives people a terror atmosphere at times. But what makes this film so unique is that Benjamin Christensen tells us that those who were accused of bringing in witchcraft were never witches at all but just simply people whom are suffering mentally. Mr. Christensen gave us a logical explanation about those with whom are suffering from a mental illness because in the Middle Ages, we treated those people has evil and sinful beasts but as time goes by and once we became more civilized, we are kinder to them all because we have better understanding of what is around us. Benjamin Christensen's Häxan gives audiences a very deep thought about not only people who are suffering from a mental illness but how we are not so different from the Inquisitors. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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