Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages

The Parkway Theater is bringing Häxan back to the screen on Wednesday, October 28, with a live score by Paris1919. It's part of the venue's Halloween series, which pairs iconic silent films with original live scores.

Häxan is a 1922 Swedish-Danish silent horror film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen, widely considered his masterpiece. It unfolds in dramatic vignettes to explore the idea that the witches of the Middle Ages and the early modern era suffered the same ills as psychiatric patients diagnosed with hysteria in the film's own time. Christensen drew in part on his study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German inquisitor's guide, and the result is a witches' brew of the scary, the gross, and the darkly humorous.

The music comes from Paris1919, the collective led by composer Chris Strouth. He's joined by Twin Cities musicians Natalie Nowytski, Kent Militzer, David J. Russ, and beatboxer Terrell X D'avion, also known as Carnage The Executioner. Strouth's roots go back to the 1980s punk art scene around downtown Minneapolis's Rifle Sport Gallery, and he describes his work as "aggressively ambient." This will be his seventh silent-film score for The Parkway.

Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the music and film start at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $15 for advance general admission ($20.21 with taxes and fees) and $20 at the door ($23 with taxes and fees). The theater is at 4814 Chicago Ave in Minneapolis.