Along with Sexcula, the Vancity Theatre’s Halloween-themed Witches series gets off to an appropriately uncanny start on Saturday (October 26) with Häxan, Witchcraft Through the Ages. Based on the 15th-century Inquisitor’s guide, Malleus Maleficarum, the Danish-Swedish silent classic is a cult fave that still maintains the power to surprise, not least of all thanks to the film’s astonishing effects.

Even better: Vancouver’s dark-ambient wizards Funerary Call will perform a live improvised score. “It’s a great film, even to this day,” said Funerary Call’s Harlow MacFarlane in a call to the Straight. “Some of the stuff’s pretty racy. The imagery is just really powerful and intense.”

About the film’s impressive visuals, MacFarlane—who works in the effects field himself—mused that “it’s tapping into that more subconscious thing...I think today’s films, because you can do anything you want if you have the money, it kinda loses that power. You just sort of take it for granted.”

Häxan, Witchcraft Through the Ages screens again next Thursday (October 31). Other films in the series include Ken Russell’s ever-controversial The Devils, plus Mario Bava’s classic, Black Sunday, and Dario Argento’s Inferno, the (superior) 1980 sequel to Suspiria. More information is at www.viff.org/.