Häxan Blu-ray

Release Year: 1922

Runtime: 105 min

Director: Benjamin Christensen

Cast: Benjamin Christensen, Ella La Cour, Emmy Schønfeld, Kate Fabian, Oscar Stribolt

Studios: Aljosha Production Company, SF Studios

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

Special Features:

New 2K digital restoration

Music from the 1922 Danish premiere, arranged by film-music specialist Gillian B. Anderson and performed by the Czech Film Orchestra in 2001, presented in 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio.

Audio commentary from 2001 featuring film scholar Casper Tybjerg

Witchcraft Through the Ages (1968), a seventy-six-minute version of Häxan narrated by author William S. Burroughs, with a soundtrack featuring violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

Director Benjamin Christensen’s introduction to the 1941 rerelease

Outtakes.

Bibliothèque diabolique

A photographic exploration of Christensen’s historical sources, created in 2001.

PLUS

Essays by critic Chris Fujiwara and scholar Chloé Germaine Buckley, as well as remarks on the score by Anderson.

Technical Specifications:

• 2K digital restoration
• 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio
• 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio