Häxan (1922)

Director: Benjamin Christensen
Country: Denmark

I was totally flabbergasted by this incredible fiction-documentary silent film divided in eight vignettes telling the history of witchcraft and how it has existed since Egyptian times, how it was manufactured (along with the existence of the Devil) and fueled by superstition, fear and different sets of beliefs mainly based on Catholic doctrines which interferred with the development of science, medicine and even in people's affairs of the heart . 

Using different brutal torture methods and techniques many people were forced to confess deeds they did not do; we can see how the power of the mind (autosuggestion) played an important role in supernatural events such as demonic posessions or collective paranoia; mental disorders such as histery or sleep walking were interpreted as a form of witchery or a deal with the devil; the misconception of genetic physical disabilities or physical ugliness, those ones suffering from that were also accused of being Devil's pupils; and human emotions such as jealousy or sexual attraction were interpreted as Devil's forces.

Christensen plays himself the role of the Devil and the film has an amazing production design, customes, superb dramatized reenactments full of details and disturbing images divided between real and unreal (or imaginary) situations, which Christensen decided to differentiate on the screen using a simple cinematography technique, red color for the former ones and blue for the latter ones, also the soundtrack is powerful and well adapted into the film. 

Watching Häxan nowadays could be laughable at times because science has taken the place of superstition and ignorance, but when it was released one can understand why it was censored and chopped off in many theaters around the world. A powerful horror film and a masterstroke of pure cinema.