Häxan - SCREAM QUEENS - met live muziek • Nederlands Filmhuis Denhaag

Benjamin Christensen

Häxan - SCREAM QUEENS

A surreal collision of history and hysteria, blurring witchcraft with the madness of belief.

Mixing documentary, dramatization, and surreal imagery, this silent film explores the history of witchcraft and superstition. It reveals how fear and ignorance fueled centuries of persecution. A hybrid of scholarship and nightmare, it defies easy categorization.

Häxan is a feverish, boundary breaking work - part documentary, part occult spectacle and something like a century-old video essay. Drawing on medieval woodcuts, it traces the history of witchcraft from the Middle Ages to modern psychiatry. Beneath its lurid demons and witches’ sabbaths runs a surprisingly progressive undercurrent: the film highlights how superstition, misogyny, and the persecution of women shaped the witch hunts, and even hints at early ideas about mental illness and social oppression.

To set the mood for a festive Halloween, we invite Klankspoor to perform a live improvised score to the backdrop of the fantastic silent film Häxan (1922). Klankspoor is the modular techno project of The Hague based musician Quinten de Jongh.

SCREAM QUEENS

Welcome to Scream Queens at Filmhuis Den Haag, our chilling October programme that reimagines the women of horror. From final girls to witches, bitches and killers, these films explore a century of fear and power on screen. Dare to see the full line-up? Click here.

Regisseur Benjamin Christensen
Cast Benjamin Christensen, Elisabeth Christensen, Astrid Holm
Land Zweden, Denemarken
Taal Geen
Ondertiteling Geen
Speelduur 104 min

LIVE KLANKSPOOR PERFORMANCE ON HALLOWEEN

To set the mood for a festive Halloween, we invite Klankspoor to perform a live improvised score to the backdrop of the fantastic silent film Häxan (1922). Klankspoor is the modular techno project of The Hague based musician Quinten de Jongh.

With a love for live performance, Klankspoor weaves deep basslines, steady rhythms, and hypnotic textures, all shaped through the ever-shifting possibilities of modular synthesis. Each performance is 100% improvised, creating a one-of-a-kind experience where control is surrendered and beauty is found in raw, imperfect moments.

For us, the combination of live electronics with a 1922 silent witch horror film is a match made in heaven - or should we say, hell? We have no idea how this is going to end up, but one thing is certain: we are in very good hands. The hands of Klankspoor.