Large Fierce Mammal

Some sentiments are dark because they come of ignorance which is the darkest sentiment of all. Remember the words spoken to Ebenezer Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Present when the spirit exposed the two wretched, grasping urchins huddled beneath his robes, “This boy is Ignorance, this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.” What follows is all about doom spawned of ignorance.

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is a Swedish/Danish silent film production titled Häxan, written and directed by Danish film director, screen writer, actor of film and stage, Benjamin Christensen. Häxan was made in 1922 and subsequently reproduced in a number of iterations for worldwide distribution, including one shortened version narrated by William S. Burroughs who really should never have thought of quitting his day job. That version postures to a degree that changes the film’s intent and does not do the original production justice. This presentation is the full bodied subtitled version.

Häxan requires no other input from me. It stands on its own

(LFM Editorial Note: The original YouTube link to this film was broken when the user account to which it was uploaded was deleted. As of 18 October 2018, the same content has been re-embedded here from an upload that post dates this article by 7 years, and should NOT be taken as evidence of any rifts in the space/time continuum.)