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Häxan poster

Movies that feel likeHäxan (1922)

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

If you loved Häxan, the closest films we have are The Phantom of the Opera (1925), White Zombie (1932) and The Wolf Man (1941). All three share Häxan's dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Black Cat (1934).

🍅 93% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Benjamin Christensencontemplativedreadunsettlingepic
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Peacock Premium

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If Häxan hit the spot, these will too

The Phantom of the Opera poster
The Phantom of the Opera
1925 · dir. Rupert Julian
🍅 90%★ 7.5horror

Both keep coming back to the same thing: black and white

The difference: Easier on the stillness than Häxan

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

White Zombie poster
White Zombie
1932 · dir. Victor Halperin
🍅 77%★ 6.2horrorPrime Video

Common ground: black and white

A wealthy landowner living in Haiti convinces a sorcerer to lure the woman he has fallen for away from her fiancé. The madman later betrays their agreement by keeping the woman for himself…as a zombie.

The Wolf Man poster
The Wolf Man
1941 · dir. George Waggner
🍅 91%★ 7.2horror · dramaPeacock

The same mix in both: stillness, then dread

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Häxan does

After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf.

Dracula poster
Dracula
1931 · dir. Tod Browning
🍅 96%★ 7.3horrorPrime VideoPeacock

One thread runs through both: superstition

A British estate agent travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a London castle. After Dracula enslaves and drives the agent to insanity, the pair return to London together, where Dracula, a secret bloodsucker, begins preying on socialites.

The Most Dangerous Game poster
The Most Dangerous Game
1932 · dir. Irving Pichel
🍅 100%★ 7.1thriller · adventure · horrorPrime VideoMax

Unsettling where it counts, epic underneath

When legendary hunter Bob Rainsford is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff. While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge, to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter.

The Mummy poster
The Mummy
1932 · dir. Karl Freund
🍅 90%★ 6.9horrorPeacock

Dread-soaked horror in both cases

An ancient Egyptian priest named Imhotep is revived when a British archaeological expedition finds his mummy and one of the researchers accidentally reads an ancient life-giving spell. Imhotep escapes from the field site and searches for the reincarnation of the soul of his lover.

The Phantom Carriage poster
The Phantom Carriage
1921 · dir. Victor Sjöström
🍅 100%★ 8drama · fantasy · horror

Both lean on stillness more than on documentary

An alcoholic, abusive ne'er-do-well is shown the error of his ways through a legend that dooms the last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde poster
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1931 · dir. Rouben Mamoulian
🍅 91%★ 7.6horror · science fiction · dramaMax

History built on unease, twice over

Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men: one that is good and one that is evil. He believes that by separating the two, man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes. When he discontinues use of the drug, it is already too late.

Faust poster
Faust
1926 · dir. F. W. Murnau
🍅 91%★ 8.1fantasy · drama · horror

Contemplative horror, and it commits to that

Murnau’s epic adaptation of Goethe’s tragedy stands with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis among the supreme achievements of German silent cinema. Gösta Ekman plays the alchemist who, his faith shaken in a time of plague, is offered the gift of healing and eternal youth… in exchange for his soul.

Onibaba poster
Onibaba
1964 · dir. Kaneto Shindō
🍅 90%★ 7.8horrorMax

Both are built on the same subject: demon

The difference: Made in the 1960s, in a different era of the craft

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

King Kong poster
King Kong
1933 · dir. Merian C. Cooper
🍅 97%★ 7.9adventure · fantasy · horror

Documentary with a pulse of scale, in both cases

Adventurous filmmaker Carl Denham sets out to produce a motion picture unlike anything the world has seen before. Alongside his leading lady Ann Darrow and his first mate Jack Driscoll, they arrive on an island and discover a legendary creature said to be neither beast nor man. Denham captures the monster to be displayed on Broadway as King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world.

The Black Cat poster
The Black Cat
1934 · dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
🍅 89%★ 6.9horror · thriller

Dread-soaked history, and it commits to that

After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.

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The best-reviewed films that share Häxan’s defining feeling.