Häxan
Short description
Häxan is a Swedish film from 1922 that blends documentary and dramatic fiction to examine witchcraft and Satanism across centuries. Using a semi-documentary structure with reenacted episodes, it moves from ancient Persia through medieval Europe, focusing largely on the fifteenth century and the mass hysteria of the witch hunts. Written and directed by Benjamin Christensen, the film treats its subject as a kind of scientific treatise, drawing on cultural-historical research and medieval manuscripts. Its vignettes depict torture, possessed nuns, grave robbing and a satanic Sabbath, while Christensen himself appears in the role of the Devil. The cast, numbering thirty-one credited performers, includes Ella La Cour, Emmy Schønfeld, Kate Fabian, Oscar Stribolt and Wilhelmine Henriksen. The film also draws a parallel between the persecution of alleged witches and the psychiatric patients of Christensen's own era, considering whether the two shared a form of hysteria.
Häxan runs 105 minutes and is among the earlier works in Christensen's filmography. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.6 from 451 votes, while critics' reviews average 7.5 across 24 reviews, a close alignment between professional and audience assessments. Produced by SF Studios and Aljosha Production Company, it remains one of the earliest features to treat occult history at length, mixing naturalism with fantasy across its episodic structure.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was banned from screening worldwide for a long time.
- When writing the script for the film, director Benjamin Christensen initially hoped for the help of historians, but abandoned this idea when it turned out that almost all the specialists he wanted to consult were strongly opposed to the idea of such a film.
- Upon its release in 1922, it was the most expensive film in the history of Scandinavian cinema.
- For the most part, the film was shot at night, which was unheard of for that era. And although the film was shot during dark hours, Benjamin Christensen preferred studio shooting, believing that he could better create the desired atmosphere indoors.
- To film the scene in which witches fly over city rooftops, Benjamin Christensen and cinematographer Johan Ankerstjerne photographed a model of the city (the buildings in it were no more than 2 meters high) on a huge rotating table. It took the effort of 20 men to rotate the table. After that, several actors in appropriate costumes riding on brooms were photographed against a black background. To create the effect of clothing flapping in the wind, the director bought an aircraft engine. A total of 75 "witches" were photographed, each separately, after which they were combined into a single frame using a device invented by the cinematographer.
- The gloomy skies against which some characters are shown were filmed in Norway. Benjamin Christensen specifically sent the cinematographer there for this purpose.
- Swedish censorship demanded the removal of many scenes from the film before its release. These included a close-up of a finger being cut off the hand of a hanged man, trampling on a cross during a witches' sabbath, scenes of a baby being held over a cauldron of boiling water, a close-up of the face of a woman crucified on a stake, close-ups of torture instruments being used, and a scene in which a demon embraces a naked woman. All of these scenes were later re-edited back into the film.
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