20. WITCH, PLEASE!: Watch a saucy spell caster do her damnedest.
Häxan
Danish director Benjamin Christensen’s ghoulish essay movie, Häxan, is the definition of a tricky promote. It is over 100 years outdated and silent, save for a hypnotic rating carried out by the Czech Movie Orchestra within the Criterion version. However Christensen’s witches’ brew of demonology and medieval superstition can be completely singular, and form of humorous, too. Must you throw it on within the background at a Halloween get together? Sure. Must you try to sit down down and watch the complete 105-minute movie with out distraction? Additionally sure.
Häxan (“the witch” in Swedish) explores the notion that accused medieval sorceresses could have been scuffling with psychological issues. Christensen theorizes that compulsions like sleepwalking, pyromania, and kleptomania would possibly’ve been accountable for the habits of ladies who had been labeled as witches and killed. Does it veer barely into “FeMaLeS are cRaZy” territory? I do not know, possibly. However Christensen additionally argues that medieval “witches” had been typically poor, older ladies with out enough social assist, and that torture performed a central position in confessions. All of that appears doubtless.
General, we’re higher off with Christensen’s funky, horror-tinged, quasi-feminist studying of misogyny on this planet. This movie is bananas. Miniatures and creepy props (together with a functioning “mechanical illustration of hell,” shrouded in purple smoke) illustrate a realm during which witches kiss butts, rub on particular ointments, and prep meals fabricated from infants. Christensen’s additionally received jokes—his cross-eyed, tongue-wagging satan is hardly scary. Torture, grave robbing, piss-throwing, ecstatic dance, disgusting little troll-beasts, and steaming cauldrons are all represented right here. What extra may we ask for, actually?
Maybe most significantly, Häxan taught me that “slut” means “the tip” in Swedish. Blessed be.
The Stranger is collaborating in Scarecrow Video’s Psychotronic Problem all month lengthy! Each October, Scarecrow places collectively a listing of cinematic themes and invitations of us to comply with alongside and watch a horror, sci-fi, or fantasy flick that meets the standards. This yr, Stranger staffers are becoming a member of the enjoyable and we’re sharing our each day suggestions right here on Slog! Learn extra about Scarecrow’s 2024 problem—and get the watch listing—right here. And you may observe our each day suggestions right here! 💀
