Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922) - National Silent Movie Day

Jump Cut is celebrating National Silent Movie Day Wednesday, September 29th with a screening of the legendary silent film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) at The Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks.

On April 20, 2021, local film archivist and director of the Pittsburgh Silent Film Society, Chad Hunter, announced that he, along with a group of film archivists with a passion for silent movies, had established September 29 as National Silent Movie Day – an annual day to celebrate silent film history and raise awareness about the race to preserve surviving silent films. With an official proclamation from National Day Archives naming the day, the inaugural National Silent Movie Day will be held on Wednesday, September 29, 2021.

Jump Cut is participating in National Silent Movie Day with a screening of the gothic silent horror film, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. A mix of documentary and fiction, it depicts the evolution of witchcraft from its early pagan days to its more modern misperception as psychosis. The film was once considered too disturbing and unfit for public exhibition in the United States and other countries, but it turned out to be a breakthrough for its Danish director Benjamin Christensen that would serve as a foundation for future horror films.