Haxan (1922): watch the full film free, legally

Witchcraft through history and hysteria

Häxan is a 1922 Swedish-Danish silent horror essay film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Its title means The Witch in Swedish and Danish, while an English title is The Witches. Combining documentary-style storytelling with dramatized narrative sequences, it sets out to trace the historical roots of witchcraft and the superstitions surrounding it from the Middle Ages into the 20th century.

The film draws partly on Christensen’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide for inquisitors. Rather than treating witch-hunts simply as proof of supernatural forces, Häxan proposes that misunderstandings of mental or neurological disorders may have helped trigger mass hysteria. Medieval beliefs, inquisitorial practices and images of witchcraft are placed alongside this later explanation.

Christensen had found a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum in a Berlin bookshop and spent two years, from 1919 to 1921, studying manuals, illustrations and treatises concerning witches and witch-hunting. A lengthy bibliography appeared in the original playbill at the premiere. He wanted to make an original film instead of adapting literary fiction, stating, “I seek to find the way forward to original films.”

Night shoots in a rebuilt Danish studio

Swedish AB Svensk Filmindustri produced Häxan, although it was shot in Denmark between 1920 and 1921. Christensen chose funding from the Swedish company over local Danish studios because he wanted complete artistic freedom. The money enabled him to buy and refurbish the Astra film studio in Hellerup, Denmark.

Filming ran from February to October 1921. Christensen and cinematographer Johan Ankerstjerne worked only at night or on closed sets to preserve the film’s dark hue. Film historian Casper Tybjerg wrote that Christensen worked at his own pace, often at night, while rumours circulated about activity behind the closed studio doors. Post-production then took another year before the late-1922 premiere.

The lengthy schedule and meticulous recreation of medieval scenes made the production exceptionally costly. Svensk Film’s total expenditure, including the Astra studio refurbishment, reached between 1.5 and 2 million kronor. At the time, Häxan was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made.

For the Sweden premiere, the accompaniment was assembled from existing compositions, though details of the selection have been lost. It was probably the same documented music used for the Copenhagen premiere two months later. In Copenhagen, a 50-piece orchestra played a score combining music by Schubert, Gluck and Beethoven.

Premieres, censorship and later versions

Häxan premiered simultaneously in Stockholm, Helsingborg, Malmö and Gothenburg on 18 September 1922, an unusual arrangement in Sweden at the time. Copenhagen received the Danish premiere on 7 November. Denmark re-released the film in 1931 with an extended introduction by Christensen; the intertitles are thought to have differed in that edition.

The film received some positive reception in Denmark and Sweden. Censors in Germany, France and the United States objected to depictions then considered graphic, including torture, nudity and sexual perversion, and also objected to its anti-clericalism. Since its initial release, the film has received praise for combining documentary-style and narrative storytelling with visual imagery.

Metro Pictures Corporation re-edited and re-released the film in the United States in 1968 as Witchcraft Through the Ages. That edition added English-language narration by William S. Burroughs and a jazz score by Daniel Humair, played by a quintet including Jean-Luc Ponty on violin. The Swedish Film Institute restored the original Swedish-language film in 1976, 2007 and 2016.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Häxan”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.