The Best Movie Ever | Witchcraft

When it comes to the subject of witches, storytellers like to have it both ways. On one hand, telling the literal story of magic-wielding individuals, be they heroic or villainous, is an intensely cinematic idea. On the other hand, the very real, very sobering concept of “witch hunts” means that these beings of immense power can also be portrayed as martyrs, whether they wielded actual supernatural powers or not.

To that end there are an awful lot of movies about witchcraft that tackle the subject from all possible angles, from the goofy nostalgia classic Hocus Pocus to this weekend’s disturbing new film The Witch, about an isolated colonial family falling prey to religious fervor and interpersonal strife (and who may be using witchcraft as a scapegoat, or may actually be afflicted by Satan’s influence).

Also: Now Streaming | Five Great Horror Films Directed by Women

But what, dear readers is the best witchcraft movie ever? We wanted to find out, so we asked our panel of film critics – Crave’s William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold, and Collider’s Brian Formo – to present their individual picks. They can only pick one film a piece, and this time two of them picked the same film, meaning that we have at least narrowed the contenders down more than usual.

Find out which bewitching films they picked, and come back every Wednesday for an all-new, highly debatable installment of Crave’s The Best Movie Ever!

Brian Formo’s Pick: Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)

The Criterion Collection

The inability to explain religious superstitions in court systems—of devils and demons possessing livestock, or compelling people to steal, for example—created the human Witch in Benjamin Christensen’s curious film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. With Robert Eggers’ The Witch (which is an excellent film) recently receiving the Satanic Temple’s endorsement for showing witchcraft as a way to escape patriarchy, Christensen’s early oddity is made even more intriguing for showing how witches essentially replaced demons in what townspeople blamed their superstitions (or outright failures in business) on.

Christensen’s part-documentary, part-folk artwork re-enactment, part-beatnik film (Häxan was re-released with narration by William S. Burroughs and an acid jazz score) is mostly concerned with how narratives of possession change throughout decades, and how those narratives are routinely used to overpower women who don’t follow Christian rules. His film itself has no narrative to speak of, but it was hugely influential because it was the first (known) film to use re-enactments in a documentary. And since this is witchcraft, the re-enactments of testimony are rather salacious, particularly for a film shot in 1921. There’s some nudity and lots of Satan cameos (played by Christensen himself). 

What’s great about Häxan is that Christensen recreates the scenarios exactly how the drawings from the Middle Ages through Puritan hysteria represent them. His devil is a red, bare-chested, flapping-tongued devil.  His devil rises up to snatch nude maidens and religious nuns in Haxan. And since it’s a moving image, it looks even more ridiculous than the old drawings of town’s people saying this is what came to them when in the presence of a woman they accused of being a witch. A mockery of new systems of justice was made with witchcraft accusations, and Christensen ends by saying a mockery of public health institutions that replaced it.

Witney Seibold’s Pick: Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)

The Criterion Collection

The 1922 Danish film Häxan (English title: Witchcraft Through the Ages) written and directed by Benjamin Christiansen, gets to have its cake and eat it too. Ostensibly, it is a case study about how paranoia, local superstitions, mass hysteria, and a general misunderstanding of certain mental illnesses was what has, historically, led to the belief in – and persecution of – witches throughout the Western world. The film acts as a counterpoint argument to an infamous 1486 treatise called The Malleus Maleficarum written by an ousted monk about how real witches were, and what a danger they posed to people. The film claims that it wants to put an end to superstition, and poses as a call for healthy skepticism. It also posits that we now live in a more enlightened time. 

But Häxan is not is considered a cinematic classic for its call to logic or for its thesis. Indeed, film scholars and film fans are drawn to it for its eerie ability to make witchcraft seem palpable and real. The film is staged as a documentary, but extended portions of Häxan are elaborate staged recreations of Satanic rites and witchcraft in action. Christiansen himself appears as Satan, and the whole of the film plays out like a legitimate horror movie. None of this is real, the film says, but look how real it is. When it comes to truly frightening depictions of witch-based horror, one cannot get better than the so called “fake” scenes in  Häxan.

Also, I’ve seen all 13 films in Witchcraft series, a string of cheap, lurid, softcore horror movies loaded with bare breasts and bad dialogue. This has nothing to do with the above, but it’s something I’ve earned the right to brag about. 

William Bibbiani’s Pick: Witchfinder General (1968)

American International Productions

Witches are an enormous bag of worms, thematically speaking. Over the years they have represented actual demons, metaphoric demons, political conspiracies, misogynistic men and empowered women and everything in between. Depending on your own personal views, a fairy tale film like The Witches might be “the best witchcraft movie ever.” Or a feminist thriller like The Craft could do the trick. Or maybe film about hysteria, like The Blair Witch Project, deserves the title.

Personally, I look at the history of witchcraft and see a series of brutal persecutions, and it seems as though filmmaker Michael Reeves agreed with me. His 1968 drama Witchfinder General is about a shyster in the mid-17th century who traveled from town to town, torturing and executing witches for profit. Played by Vincent Price, whose characteristic smarminess never seemed scarier, the “witchfinder general” of the title openly admits, to his co-conspirator at least, that witchcraft is a sham. 

Heck, even those who employ his services usually speak of the occult as if it were an awkward euphemism. Everybody knows what’s really going on here, and that makes the witch hunt that much more despicable. The mob in The Crucible seems genuinely duped in comparison to the disgusting characters in Witchfinder General. There’s a plot about a soldier racing home to save his accused lover, but Reeves prefers to revel in the day to day gruesomeness involved in monetizing oppression, under thin disguise of social consciousness. 

But there are many other interpretations of witchcraft, both literal and allegorical, and depending on your point of view they may be all the more valid. Regardless, see this movie. I maintain it’s “the best witchcraft movie ever,” from a certain point of view.

Previously on The Best Movie Ever:

Top Photo: The Criterion Collection / American International Pictures