Flatpack Festival
Film for all the senses

HÄXAN

+ Live Accompaniment & Live Translation from Reece Shearsmith

Tuesday 17 April, 2018

Birmingham Town Hall | 19:30 - 22:00

Brace yourself for a voyage into the underworld, as Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen, Inside No.9) and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Horne (a regular star turn at previous Flatpacks) team up to create a live score for a supernatural oddity from cinema’s early years.

Once banned in the USA and unseen for decades, Häxan (dir: Benjamin Christensen, 1922) blends horror, documentary, animation and woodcuts to paint a lurid picture of witchcraft through the ages. Featuring the director himself as a disturbingly Grinch-like Devil, the film immerses us into a world of torture and superstition while suggesting that witch persecution was a medieval response to mental illness.

Conjuring up a storm on piano, theremin, percussion and much more, one-man band Stephen Horne is here joined for one night only by actor, writer and horror devotee Reece Shearsmith to perform Christensen’s original narration.

Made possible by the hard work of film curator Miranda Gower-Qian, Reece and Stephen collaborated on this unique programme when it was first screened at The Phoenix in London last Halloween.

Dir: Benjamin Christensen
Sweden 1922, 105 mins

This is a BSL interpreted performance, please email booking@flatpackfestival.org.uk to let us know you are coming so we can ensure you get a good seat.

Join our mailing list

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required