The Power of the Witch: Real or Imaginary?

Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling journey through European horror cinema, from the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the 1920s to the Belgian lesbian vampires in the 1970s, from the black-gloved killers of Italian bloody giallo cinema to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, and finally reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition.

In the Middle Ages, the earl Wetter von Stahl is accused of having bewitched Catherine, the daughter of the blacksmith of Heilbronn. The earl tries to be exonerated by proceeding himself to the interrogation of the young woman, who apparently shows an "unnatural possession".

Reverend John Keyes and his wife, Lorna, on their way to a new congregation out west, break down in the desert and are rescued by the residents of a nearby town. At first warm and welcoming, the townspeople become more and more solicitous of John and insistent that he stay on as their minister, against the wishes of Lorna, who goes unheeded and slowly becomes deathly ill. Will John realize the danger before it is too late?

When Rupert and his friend Amelia find the new substitute teacher doing odd things, they discover that she is actually a witch with a magical talking cat who sought them out in order to stop an evil coven of witches from destroying her.

A documentary portrait shot in Positano, Italy in 1965 about Australian artist and occultist Vali Myers.

A couple, Maggie and Ben Porter, inherit an old farmhouse and move in, hoping to reinvigorate their marriage. When they learn the home was occupied long ago by a woman who was executed for practicing witchcraft, Maggie begins to have nightmares about her.

This documentary takes an in-depth look at the witch hunts that swept Europe just a few hundred years ago. False accusations and trials led to massive torture and burnings at the stake and ultimately to the destruction of an organic way of life. The film questions whether the widespread violence against women and the neglect of our environment today can be traced back to those times.

A country family of five take in charming cousin Julie, whose parents recently died in a car crash, though teenaged daughter Rachel grows suspect that she has an alternative agenda; one that possibly includes witchcraft.

A man discharged from the hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown is taken to a remote Italian villa by his strangely-behaving wife. But he has strong premonitions that the house is possessed by some force of witchcraft, which he has been experiencing in his recurring nightmare.

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.

Cautio Criminalis

Magic and murder connect an actress, a private eye, a senator and a witch in 1950s Hollywood.

An ancient church is being dismantled and moved to a new location, stone by stone. One of the gargoyles from the stones falls into the possession of a mother who takes the stone man back to her family. Soon after, four strangers show up in the village and the Sogood & Firkettle children seem to be the only ones who question the mysterious things that begin to happen. This film was originally broadcast across six 25 minute episodes with a total runtime of 150 minutes. A few years later, the US cable network Nickelodeon edited the miniseries into a 2 hour (including commercials) movie block. This 2 hour edited version was shown throughout the 1980s on US television.

A seventy-six-minute version of Häxan, re-edited and re-released in the United States by Metro Pictures Corporation in 1968. It is narrated by author William S. Burroughs, with a jazz score and soundtrack featuring violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

A native of Sennwald, Anna Göldi arrived in Glarus in 1765. For seventeen years, she worked as a maidservant for Johann Jakob Tschudi, a physician. Tschudi reported her for having put needles in the bread and milk of one of his daughters, apparently through supernatural means. Göldi at first escaped arrest, but the authorities of the Canton of Glarus advertised a reward for her capture in the Zürcher Zeitung on February 9, 1782. Göldi was arrested and under torture, admitted to entering in a pact with the Devil, who had appeared to her as a black dog. She withdrew her confession after the torture ended, but was sentenced on June 18, 1782 to execution by decapitation. The charges were officially of "poisoning" rather than witchcraft, even though the law at the time did not impose the death penalty for non-lethal poisoning.

Salem, Massachusetts. A small town—with no clear governing body—became embroiled in a scandal that forever stands as one of the darkest chapters in American history. For those accused of witchcraft by their neighbors and friends, there was little chance of clearing their names; the mass paranoia that ravaged through the community took the lives of 19 innocent men and women.

Pseudo-documentary about black magic and the study of witchcraft with a rare appearance by real-life occultist Alex Sanders.

A "documentary" on witchcraft, most notable for depicting a black mass in which a cockerel is sacrificed in order to initiate a newcomer into the coven. Very little information is available online about this film.

A television reality crew has arrived in town to document facts about an isolated Amish sect. Filming is interrupted when the grandmother of their host family, a shunned witch, dies and is denied a Christian burial. When paranormal activities begin to plague the family, they ask the crew to document it. But they never foresee the dangers that the spirits have in store for them.

Narrator Lawrence Dobkin examines unusual paranormal activities and conspiracy theories in several eerie segments. Subjects include flying saucers and alien encounters, the disappearance of Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle and the origins of Bigfoot, telekinesis, witchcraft, and the unusual notion that human evolution and technology might have been moved forward with assistance from intelligent extraterrestrial beings.