Year: 1922
Country: Sweden/Denmark
Language: Silent
Number: 16
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Starring: Benhamin Christensen, Elisabeth Christensen, Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan
IMDb: 7.7
RT score: 88%
Benjamin Christensen's Hãxan is actually a documentary, or rather a bunch of dramatized scenarios about the theme witchcraft in the middle ages and in modern times. It shows us the medieval superstition dramatized with real demons and all, with explanations of why the people who was seduced by demons acted the way they did, not because they where cursed but because of diseases, which is perfectly demonstrated in the part of the film where we follow a lady in the present who suffers from the same distress and human weakness, but only this time instead of being crucified she's getting medical help.
Häxan is a pretty scary, macabre and mystical film, specially when it comes to the demon themselves, and the fact that this is a silent film only makes it more scary. It was actually banned in the United States and heavily censored in multiple countries because of the nudity, violence and torture, which is the element that makes it a great horror film, almost realistic in an honest way, more scary than any of the German expressionistic films, and the fact that this is actually how the medieval people thought how it actually was. A really scary film.
Grade: A-
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1 kommentar:
Yeah, a nice surprise this film. Only, at some point I feel the director cannot hide his own facination and how he is himself gorging on this feast of wickedness. His attempts at keeping an objective tone seem forced at times and fails at others. Yet, highly entertaining.
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