Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (The Witches) (Haxan) poster & wallpaper
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Benjamin Christensen, Clara Pontoppidan, Astrid Holm, Oscar Stribolt, Maren Pedersen ... see more see more... , William S. Burroughs , Gerda Madsen , Elith Pio , Tora Teje , Elisabeth Christensen , Ella La Cour , Jean-Luc Ponty , Karen Winther

Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen's obsession with bizarre lighting effects reached its apotheosis with his 1922 masterpiece Häxan. Beginning in a deceptively sedate fashion with a series of woodc... read more read more...uts and engravings (a technique later adopted by RKO producer Val Lewton), the film then shifts into gear with a progression of dramatic vignettes, illustrating the awesome power of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. So powerful are some of these images that even some modern viewers will avert their eyes from the screen. Though obviously a work of pure imagination, the film occasionally takes on the dimensions of a documentary, a byproduct of the extensive research done by Christensen before embarking on the project (incidentally, the director himself can be seen in the film in a dual role as Satan and the Doctor). Häxan marked a parting of the ways for Christensen and the Danish film industry; thereafter, he confined his activities to the German cinema, before answering Hollywood's call in 1928. A separate version of this film exists, with a shorter running time, retitled Witchcraft Through the Ages and released in 1968. It features narration by the legendary Beat writer William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) and a score by Jean-Luc Ponty. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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80% liked it

3,866 ratings

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16 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 14 min.

Directed by: Benjamin Christensen

Release Date: May 27, 1929

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DVD Release Date: October 16, 2001

Stats: 284 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (284)

  • bottcorecords1
    March 29, 2012
    bottcorecords1
    Writer and director Benjamin Christensen paints a meticulous picture of witchcraft through the ages in his film (titled fittingly enough), "Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages". Part documentary-style narration, part dramatic "passion play", Haxan toys with the idea of a real sat... read morean (played by Christensen himself) tempting virtuous people away from their holy christian lifestyles. Witchcraft is seen as the power one acquires from consorting with the devil, and various abilities, such as flying and casting spells are gained from worshipping the dark lord (and 'literally' kissing his ass). Eerie, sometimes shocking, sometimes horrific, Christensen uses light and shadow to his advantage, creating a dark fantasy world made real through the eyes of superstitious and backwards medieval folk. And really, far from glorifying belief in the supernatural, Haxan tells with great sadness the tale of mankinds brutality and mindless terror of the unknown. It's more a warning tale than anything. When we put our faith in supernatural superstitions, we sacrifice scientific knowledge and the analytical process, cutting out anything we've learned from the past. Those who put faith above all else will deny reality if it conflicts with their beliefs. Mankind can revert to the stone age at any time. In order to move forward as a species we must discern with an unflinching eye what is reality and what is fact. To do otherwise is to doom ourselves to the dark ages. Haxan is positively haunting in the spell it weaves.
  • fb1664868775
    October 27, 2011
    fb1664868775
    One of the first horror films, this silent masterpiece still has the ability to shock and entertain today's audience.
  • ajv2688
    September 21, 2011
    ajv2688
    There were some things I liked about this movie, but there were also things I didn't like. First I didn't like the documentary style history lessons. The movie would have been a lot better with just the stories and actors acting them out and everything. There were some nice vi... read moresuals, and I really liked that. But overall, I thought it could have been better.
  • 366weirdmovies
    November 1, 2010
    366weirdmovies
    Curious early "documentary" mixing fact with recreations of medieval witch hunts and diabolical fantasy sequences. There are five to ten minute stretches of this film---the phantasmagorical black sabbath with an old woman giving birth to monsters and witches cooking babies and l... read moreining up to kiss the devil's arse---that are 5 star horror moments, but the documentary side doesn't hold up and the ending is a letdown. Enormous historical importance, however, and no one has ever created scarier-looking demons than these.
  • matertenebraum
    March 1, 2010
    matertenebraum
    I thought that Häxan was a very good film by Benjamin Christensen. The film is a documentary about the history of witchcraft, told in a variety of different ways, from slide shows to dramatized events of real-life events, up to the early twentieth century. when the film was first... read more premiered in 1922, it caused a lot of outrage from the general public and religious groups. by the way that it showed dramatized satanic activities and rituals. In the way that witches were tortured and killed. It was re-released in 1941 and there was a new release in 1968, which was a narrated film by William S. Burroughs called Witchcraft Through The Ages I found this quite a weird sort of film but it was still very interesting.

    haxan Pictures, Images and Photos

    haxan Pictures, Images and Photos

    Muthafuckin Haxan Pictures, Images and Photos
  • kiriyamakazou
    August 8, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    Haxan does an excellent job of chronicling something that is still very much a part of our lives. Mass hysteria and paranoia. This film predates Joseph McCarthy and the mass media coverage of paedophiles and terrorists, that we have today. Then why is it people are still so stupi... read mored? The simple answer, fear. Haxan shows us the tragic fates awaiting "witches" and the things they had to do to survive. It contains some fantastic imagery for the time. With the demons being very disturbing. The story itself is patchy and it starts with still pictures and a lot of text. This is cinema in it's infancy, made almost 90 years ago, and yet, we can still apply it to today's social climate.
  • pier007
    September 17, 2008
    pier007
    Daring and suggestive semi documentary with a plethora of dark, diabolical imagery.
  • Saxia
    June 27, 2008
    Saxia
    The things that people are capable of through the process of dehumanization caused by fear and the basic human 'need' to explain and control the world around them (trough myth and religion) are exemplified in this movie focusing on the persecution of witches (mostly women) in the... read more middle ages.

    That's my take on it anyway, I'm not sure if the director intended to put it down like that.
    What surprised me is that he drew a parallel between the symptoms of hysteria in 'modern society' and the symptoms that indicated women as witches in the middle ages. "Poor little hysterical witch! In the middle ages you were in conflict with the church. Now it is with the law" Somehow that proves to me that he is missing the point. Any way, I'm glad psychology is more advanced today, although in some cases it's just a matter of putting a different label on it.
    I'm looking forward to seeing more movies like this, so if you read this and come up with one: fill me in!!
    haxan
  • rubystevens
    June 2, 2008
    rubystevens
    a surreal accounting of the medieval witch hysteria, one of the saddest chapters in the long history of the persecution of women. made in 1922 so it is somewhat dated; still well worth watching with many bizarre scenes. a really odd historical document. gotta love the psychoti... read morec nuns.
  • DrBenway
    May 24, 2008
    DrBenway
    Part documentary on witchcraft and part dramatization of a woman accused of such, Häxan is full of innovative and outrageous imagery. The subject matter is enough to draw attention from horror fans but also historians with facts as it presents origins of religion and the belief ... read morein demons that caused plagues and discusses the nature of hysteria well into the twentieth century. The director declares the witch trials were humanity's greatest tragedy, but were also the result of an unenlightened, long-gone people and claims nothing similar could happen again, without any insight to the Holocaust. Fascinating historical document and an enjoyably watchable film way ahead of its' time in 1922.

    Included on the dvd is a 1968 version of the film with a soundtrack featuring Jean-Luc Ponty and narrated by William S. Burroughs.
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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
May 16, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Swedish and Danish pictures easily hold the palm for morbid realism and in many cases for brilliant acting and production. Full Review

Dave Kehr
August 15, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

A silent curiosity made in Denmark in 1922, with an episodic, rhetorical structure that would have appealed to Jean-Luc Godard. Full Review

Anton Bitel
September 25, 2007
Anton Bitel, Film4

In fact Haxan is a deeply rationalistic piece of humanism, exposing the horrors of superstition and hysteria rather than of witchcraft itself. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
May 26, 2006
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Begins as a documentary about witches but turns into a real, honest-to-goodness horror film with scary images of witches, devils, evil spells, etc. Full Review

Mark Bourne
April 8, 2006
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com

Ostensibly an exposé of religious persecution born from ignorance of science ... or, when filtered through the bong water of the psychedelic '60s to become Witchcraft Through the Ages, a trippy e... Full Review

January 26, 2006
Time Out

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... Full Review

Jon Niccum
June 7, 2003
Jon Niccum, Lawrence Journal-World

The sophistication of these 1920 special effects are hard to believe

Bryant Frazer
May 7, 2003
Bryant Frazer, Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

One of the earliest films that takes misogyny and sexual repression as its subject. Full Review

Ken Hanke
August 21, 2002
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Fascinating pioneering horror

John A. Nesbit
July 12, 2002
John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews

Before you think the filmmaker is one sick dude, he also develops scenarios to show how innocent women are deceived and trapped into witch accusations... Full Review

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