Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1968)

Häxan (English title: The Witches or Witchcraft Through The Ages) is a 1922 Swedish/Danish silent horror film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Based partly on Christensen’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide for inquisitors, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. The film was made as a documentary but contains dramatized sequences that are comparable to horror films.