Haxan

Benjamin Christensen’s legendary silent film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages and early modern era suffered from the same ills as psychiatric patients diagnosed with hysteria in the film’s own time.

AroView: This docu-dramatised tour of the history of witchcraft is an astonishing and unsettling parade of black masses, grave-robbers, ghouls and god-fearing souls that depicts a humanity bedeviled by fear, ignorance, intolerance and injustice. Still an absolute treat for contemporary audiences with its potent Gothic visual tableaux and bold, progressive agenda.