Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan
is the rare movie that gets to have its cake and eat it too. The film wants to
be a serious exploration of the very real, very vile, historical persecution of
witches—and it manages to pull that off surprisingly sympathetically, though a
bit patronizingly. It also wants to be a full-blooded horror movie at
a time before that term had even been coined. This is where the film really
soars like a coven of broom-riders. In illustrating the ignorant superstitions
Christensen sought to dispel, he makes gold coins dance about a room, releases
witches into the sky on their brooms, and unleashes some startlingly grotesque
creatures, the most disturbing of which is the director, himself, dolled up as
a devil with incessantly wagging tongue.
For its informational value, tremendous visual
imagination, and sheer Halloweeniness, Häxan
is my personal favorite silent film and must-viewing at this time each
year. This year, there’s the option to watch it in a new 2k digital restoration
as the Criterion Collection upgrades the film for blu-ray. Clearly a great deal
of work went into sweeping all the speckles, scratches, and other instances of
major damage present throughout Criterion’s 2001 DVD from the frames. The film’s
heavy grain remains intact. There have also been some changes in the tinting and intertitles.
Unusually, the Criterion Collection has not included any new
features aside from the visual upgrade. However, all previous features from its
2001 DVD have been ported over: Benjamin Christensen’s introduction to the film’s 1941 release, the
inclusion of the William S. Burroughs-narrated re-edit called Witchcraft Through the Ages (which has
not been restored as the main feature has been), film scholar Casper Tyberg’s
audio commentary, the Bibliothèque
Diabolique featurette on Christensen’s sources, a few outtakes, and booklet
essays. Despite the lack of new material, that enchanting 2k
transfer may be worth a re-purchase to dedicated cultists.
