Witchhammer (Blu-ray)

Otakar Vávra’s Witchhammer (1969) transforms the horrific tale of a notorious 17th Century witch trial into a powerful allegory of life under totalitarian rule. In a small Czech village, an investigation into a simple superstition quickly becomes a full-blown Inquisition, unleashing a tide of hysteria and cruelty.

 

The script, co-written by Ester Krumbachová (Daisies, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders), draws on original court transcripts and forced confessions, revealing the malevolence of the Inquisitors who exorcise their own greed and lust through gruesome torture and execution.

The beautiful, stark cinematography echoes Bergman, Dreyer and František Vlácil, and finds literary antecedents in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudon. Like Ken Russell's controversial, expressionistic adaptation of Huxley’s text, The Devils (1971) and other films of the period such as Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General (1968), Witchhammer transcends horror to create a chilling political fable, revealing power to be the ultimate weapon of evil.