Häxan

Benjamin Christensen, Svensk Filmindustri, 1922: a Swedish-Danish essay film on witchcraft, part lecture, part dramatized Sabbath. Christensen had studied the Malleus Maleficarum. Grave-robbing, inquisition, possessed nuns, then a modern coda that treats the accused as psychiatric cases. Variety called it wonderful and unfit for public exhibition. It opened in four Swedish cities on the same day, unusual for the country then. About 105 minutes in the restoration. Christensen himself plays the Devil.