Dir. Benjamin Christensen
1922 | 105 mins + Intro
Silent film
Benjamin Christensen, Ella La Cour

SHOWING TIMES:

• Sun 30 Oct: 8pm

Supposedly intended as a moral education tool, Häxan instead is ripe, bawdy, and more than likely to give you sympathy for the devil. Director Benjamin Christiansen took the Malleus Maleficarum – the medieval witch finder’s handbook – and made a documentary on witches. Having it deliciously both ways, Christiansen’s film gives us incubuses seducing maidens, medieval torture devices and witches’ sabbaths, while also unpacking the myth of the witch as a tool of oppression.

Full of sumptuous recreations – in brilliant red and blue filters – of witch burnings, goblin parties and ostentatious devilry, on its release Häxan was the most expensive Swedish film yet made. A phantasmagoria worthy of William Blake or Albrecht Durer, it’s guaranteed to make you look askance at a church gargoyle and see silent film in a new light.

An enthralling mix of documentary and fiction, this early horror film explores the history of witchcraft from its earliest days through to 1922 (when the film was first released). It shows representations of evil in a variety of ancient and medieval artworks, offers vignettes illustrating a number of superstitious practices, demonology, and satanism, and presents a spine-chilling narrative about the persecution of a woman accused of witchcraft.

Performing Live: MEMORIALS Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire) and introduced by Dr Eddie Falvey.

This event is kindly sponsored by Evolution Exeter.

IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS: A season of Folk horror

Cultures will clash and satanic urges expressed through a series of features, short films, immersive walks, live scores and zines we will explore the themes that have influenced Folk Horror through the ages. Drawing on Exeter’s connection to the last witch hangings in England, audiences will delve into the power of nature, explore the root of past anxieties and witness evil beasts awaken across a variety of locations.

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, STUDIO 74

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>