Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages, dir. Benjamin Christensen

Wiz RECOMMENDS Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages More of a visual essay than a documentary, Häxan can be best described as a college course that was performed by a theater troupe and directed by the professor. In fact, the film is very academic: it cites sources in the movie while showing pictures like a visual dissertation. Honestly, it this was a film that was made today, it would feel very dry and clinical. And yet, it's fascinating to watch. Häxan tells an academic timeline about witchcraft and how it's interpreted in specific times. At first, I was thinking it was going to be a Reefer Madness but with witches, but it actually shows more about the bad side of the witch hunts and the people it brutalized. Visuals in some of the scenes are actually very well done. The music that's accompanied with the Criterion Collection version of the film is excellent. And on top of that, the theories that Christensen toys with at the end are strangely intelligent, almost prescient. Honestly, the best way to think about Häxan as a TV docu-series like Unsolved Mysteries or America's Most Wanted but about witchcraft. It's strange: I was ready to laugh about this film, but I ended up being sort of mesmerized by it.