häxan

Based on the filmmaker’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum (previously), Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent “Witchcraft Through the Ages” is sometimes accorded with the recognition as the art form’s first documentary work—though there some elements of classic horror are established as well, the film is one of the first not based solely on fiction and included meticulous research over a long period of production, and goes about dispelling superstition, misunderstanding and misogyny which can result in witch hunts. Censored in many places during its initial release in Scandinavia, Häxan saw something of a revival in 1968 when an abbreviated version premiered set to an eclectic jazz soundtrack featuring Jean-Luc Ponty and intertitles read by William S Burroughs.