Review – Haxan

This is one weird movie. It’s silent. It’s Danish. It’s a combination of history lecture, drama, and experimental art piece. Despite all that, however, it’s an oddly effective treatment of the medieval witch hysteria. The bizarre recreations of satanic doings at sabbats alone make this visually radical, especially for the era. This rewards a look, but be careful about what version you watch. The Janus Collection print recreates the tinting, but it also reproduces the random and often mismatched soundtrack from the original screening in Denmark. There’s also a version that sticks to black and white, and William Burroughs reads the narration. Mildly amusing