Join Video Bazaar on Halloween for a night of occult imagery and esoterica with a rare screening of the 1922 silent horror masterpiece Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, accompanied by a special live score from Leeds psych-rock quintet, Self Immolation Music.
Released in 1922, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages is a silent documentary-style horror film by Danish director Benjamin Christensen. Blurring the lines between history, myth, and the macabre, Häxan is an ambitious exploration of witchcraft, demonology, and the persecution of witches throughout the centuries. With its surreal blend of historical reenactments, animation, and early special effects, the film dives deep into medieval superstitions and religious hysteria surrounding witches.
Häxan is divided into seven parts, each illustrating various aspects of witchcraft and the occult, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond. The film provocatively combines real historical research with nightmarish dramatisations of demonic rituals, witch hunts, and torture. Christensen himself appears as Satan in some of the film’s most striking sequences, tempting women to forsake their faith for dark powers.
Orchestrating the sound of this demonic iconography will be Leeds’ Self Immolation Music, who run the gauntlet of dreamlike pulsing basslines, nightmarish synthscapes, and acid soaked guitar licks, all filtered through a punk lens. After years of experimenting with a completely new sound palette, they emerged with a cohesive and unique take on psychedelia. There are nods to the quintessential psychedelic bands that inspired them (Spacemen 3, Hawkwind, The 13th Floor Elevators) but we get something raw and heavier than you might expect.
This screening is presented by the cult film collective, Video Bazaar, who are proud to present this rarely screened film and are dedicated to bringing the weird, the obscure and forgotten classics to London audiences at The Garden Cinema.
