Sightlines · reception
How Häxan was received
1922 · Benjamin Christensen · Häxan on Sightlines
The arc
Scandalous on release — banned in the US and heavily censored across Europe for its nudity, torture and blasphemous devilry — it's since been fully canonized as a visionary one-of-a-kind, a founding text of folk horror and the documentary-fiction hybrid.
What’s debated
Fans perennially argue over which version is the 'real' one: the full 1922 cut with orchestral score, or the trimmed 1968 'Witchcraft Through the Ages' narrated by William S. Burroughs over a jazz score.
Its footprint
Its horned, tongue-flicking Devil is one of silent cinema's most screencapped images, and the film is a fixture of every 'spooky season' watchlist — Robert Eggers pointed to it while making The Witch, cementing its status as folk horror's ancestor.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd Halloween perennial and silent-horror rite of passage — the century-old film that reliably shocks first-time viewers into 'how was this made in 1922?' reviews.
Did you know? Director Benjamin Christensen cast himself as the Devil — and the film was reportedly the most expensive Scandinavian silent film made up to that point.