A very interesting precedent for horror films/documentary films/persecution films. The movie is a combo of early documentary, with a presentation of the history of witchcraft through years, although the focus on Medieval history and the scenes “re-enacting” the scenarios are more like narrative moments rather than documentary b-roll or a behind the scenes look and it brings to light the images and methods of the History Channel in some of its “re-enactments”. However, beyond that there is a storyline of persecution that is followed with characters and dialogue and exchange that elevates this film beyond documentary to a narrative movie as the scenes are shot and cut to play as a movie.
The film is known for establishing production design tropes and tones of violence and horror that horror films later will cite as precedence. The use of chiaroscuro lighting and heavy production design especially for the clergy are totally a precursor to Carl Dreyer’s films. Passion of Joan of Arc as well as Day of Wrath absolutely take from this movie. The close up images of a woman begging and crying under intense religious torture and interrogation absolutely are direct influences and links to Passion, and the wide shots and production design of the old women being rounded up by the inquisition forces in this film totally correlate to the scenes of the old woman being rounded and up burnt alive in Day of Wrath.
I would argue this film Haxan, which was a swedish movie, completely had influence over Dreyer’s work and vis-a-vis Bergman’s work.
You can definitely connect the dots in terms of the establishment of films on religious questions and the nature of humanity within the confines of this religious torture that humans inflict on other humans as well as on ourselves and inner psyche. This movie in particular towards the end does a great job of jumping all the way to Bergman by showing the process of previous external wrath inflicted on the body as punishment being transformed to internal punishment, almost internal flogging, that creates the hysteria and mental illnesses surrounding women especially in Scandanavia and mental breakdowns in relation to religious questions. You can see the woman at the end of the film who is being diagnosed as having hysteria sharing a lot of characteristics with Bergman’s female protagonists in Through a Glass darkly, Persona and Cries and Whispers.
The scenarios depicting the torture too are extremely vivid and scary for their realistic depiction of the insanity of “witch-hunts” which show how human beings create inner torture in people by accusing them of being not human when they are just different and honestly vulnerable. He makes the great point of showing how most of these witches were old, unprotected women who were probably suffering some semblance of mental disorder due to the fact that they were previously socially ostracized and that helps exacerbate a sense of disconnect from community.
It’s what fed the Holocaust, a scapegoating to persecute the different and other because you don’t understand them.