Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages

If you want a shorter film about Satan set to a jazzy soundtrack, there is another version of the film included on the DVD for your viewing pleasure. It is also narrated by a very famous person with a voice that just makes you smile every time Satan gets a mortal soul eternally damned to hell. Nothing beats laughing at eternal damnation while listening to an excellenct jazz soundtrack.

Basically, Haxan is a very good film if you like silent films. It isn't the best silent film out there, but it is still extremely interesting. Of course, it isn't for everyone, mainly just for the collectors and those who enjoy the fine intracacies of the silent film era. There is good news though! Even if aren't a film buff, a fan of silent films, or interested in this film in anyway, there are a couple of ways that this film can appeal to you (both of which have been experienced first-hand with highly positive results...honestly).

1. Play this film at a party, when everyone gets drunk, nothing is more hilarious than watching peasants kissing Satan's [behind]. In fact, watching that scene over and over again while drunk can be the life of any dead party.

2. If you are in a death metal band (particularly one that seems obsessed with the 80's hair metal scene) then grab yourself a digital projector and project this film behind you while you play. You are guaranteed to have roadies before the stockades make an appearance. If you have an extremely long set, either hit play again or switch out Haxan with Freaks halfway through.

Updated in 1967 with narration by William Burroughs (author of "The Naked Lunch"), "Haxan: ..." is a study of ignorance, misery and poverty. The film attributes the origins of disease (including sexual dysfunction) and agricultural blight (with implied bestiality?) to witchcraft. The film discusses using a knotted cord (a modern witchcraft / Wiccan sigil) to cause male impotence and to prevent pregancy, while lager and wine goblets are dosed with aphrodisiacs. Numbness of women's backs (a reference to sexual dysfunction) is *stressed* as a sign of demonic possession. The film discusses the use of flails, spiked belts and spiked collars to purify the endangered soul by scourging the polluted body. Suspected witches are tortured both to confess their demonic possession and also to identify other witches. To escape further torture, suspected witches eagerly identify their personal enemies as practicing witches. ***The use of torture makes witch epidemics a self-fulfilling prophecy.***

"Haxon: ..." discusses 'The Burning Times' -- the inquisitions where convicted witches were burnt at the stake. Modern-day witches and Wiccans consider 'The Burning Times' a period of social and religious discrimination. One explanation for 'The Burning Times' _not_ discussed in "Haxan: ..." is that inquisitors viewed peasant and livestock's epileptic-like seizures from eating moist, ergot-infested grain as signs of demonic possession. Another explanation for 'The Burning Times' more in line with Haxan's sexual emphasis is that embarrassment and insecurity over bad marriages and/or illicit sexual affairs coupled with naive or overambitious inquisitors initiated the witch hunt, then torture-extracted confessions and accusations created the resulting witch emergency.

Daniel Humair's avant garde jazz score helps communicate this macabre film's message. If one picture is worth a thousand words, then "Haxan: ..." is an perceptual encyclopedia concerning witchcraft and demonic possession.