Day of Wrath (1943)

Ah, Carl Theodor Dreyer, it's been a while. When you're not dabbling in artistic horror, I can count on you for some sort of religious message. This film, based on a play, is more drama than horror, but it seemed appropriate for my October lineup due to a focus on witches.

It's set in 1623 small-town Denmark, which apparently had the same problem as 1692 Salem. Early on, a woman begs Rev. Absalon to get her off the hook for alleged witchcraft, as he did for his eventual mother-in-law. He shows concern only for her soul, not her life, even when she threatens blackmail if not a posthumous curse. The thought weighs heavily on him after her execution, but it's rather incidental to his most immediate problem: His young wife, Anne, who apparently married him for convenience and not love, falls for his son from a previous marriage. What's more, Absalon's mother has suspected from the get-go that Anne takes after her mother in wickedness.

The only form of witchcraft anyone mentions in this story is the power to make someone die with just a wish. If you don't read the spoiling Netflix jacket, you can still imagine how the prospect might come into play. Once again, we're left to wonder whether a certain event is supposed to be real magic or just a coincidence.

Anne certainly doesn't seem evil up front. Sure, she goes from emotionally distant from her husband to emotionally unfaithful, but that's almost guaranteed with a stodgy old witch hunter like Absalon. That said, I don't care for her attitude that acts of love can never be sinful. It's possible that she uses witchcraft without meaning to, having only so much control of her feelings.

This time I didn't mind Dreyer's deliberate pace. It helps that the plot neither meanders nor leaves us scratching our heads. Dreyer also made some unusual choices to enhance credibility, such as forbidding makeup and, well, tormenting someone who was supposed to act tormented. Yeah, another one of those directors.

As simple as the movie turns out, I basically like it. Now part of me wants to explore other old-time witch story possibilities.