1922/SWE Dir: Benjamin Christensen
Partially based on: Hammer of Witches by Heinrich Kramer (Treatise)
Back in the 1920s the genre of 'documentary' was ill-defined and Haxan really pushes the boundaries of what a documentary could be. Director Benjamin Christensen gives us a detailed look at witchcraft and witch trials. At times it's quite academic, using printed images and models of the solar system to discuss beliefs. Christensen uses a pointer to highlight things and it's essentially a 1920s version of a PowerPoint presentation. I didn't find it as dry as I would have imagined, it's genuinely interesting.
Perhaps the most memorable section are a series of vignettes about what people believed the relationship between witches and the devil was. Christensen himself plays the devil and makes for a particularly creepy one. There's images of witches giving birth to demons and the whole section is genuinely scary. It might be based on historical beliefs and made as a documentary but it's a really well collection of horror films.
There is also a long narrative section which follows the process of someone being accused of witchcraft and most of the women in the community ending up being accused too. It's an effective demonstration of the witch hysteria but the point is overplayed and the section drags as it basically just keeps repeating the same idea over and over again.
The film ends with a discussion about witchcraft potentially being explained by the women having mental illness and compared the contemporary treatment of such women. It's interesting looking back at this a hundred years later as you can see he has a point but a modern version would have to focus more on the history of sexism. I can't really see how you can discuss witch trials without looking into gender. It's disappointing that Christensen didn't do this though it would have been a very forward-thinking position at the time he made the film.
It's a fascinating piece that at times is a serious documentary and at other times superbly well made horror. It's not the easiest thing to watch because of it's disjointed style but it's a must watch as a piece of film history.
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