11. Häxen (1922)
A Swedish/Danish co production which is based on the Malleus Malifecarum - a 16th century German instruction book on how to deal with witches. Director Benjamin Christensen does a pretty impressive job of bringing those old, barbaric, superstitious days to life. The film is like a documentary, although it is staged. Christensen brings the torture and persecution of witches through the ages alive on the screen by recreating some of the worst persecutions and superstitions. He ends the film on the idea that a lot of 'witches' were mentally ill and asylums are now their holding ground. Christensen knew his stuff. He spent two years studying witchcraft before he made the film and then he obtained Swedish funding for his project so that he could have complete artistic control over the movie. Given the prestigious Criterion treatment, the film, which is nearly 100 years old, has now reached a new generation of fans who appreciate the vividness of the vignettes and the attempt to portray both witchcraft and how it was persecuted. The film must have shocked the pants off viewers whenever it was released in 1922 and it has lost none of its scare factor over the years. The scenes with the devil and the witches are effectively creepy and the film is an important historical relic.