Witchhammer (1970) User Reviews

Malleus Maleficarum !!!

[elo-equipamentos · 9/10 · 25 June 2019]

After the book Malleus Maleficarum that was publish on late 15th century in the Germany, all Europe afterwards suffering the evil power that start on Spain as the Spanish Inquisition spreading as fire, this picture was made under the old and authentic transcriptions between 1678 to 1695, describing the modus operandi over the citizen, starts to the poor's people, the next they were under torture nominate some wealthy mid class, until to reach in members of the clergy, that supposedly were against those inquires, no one dared faces such power, their properties and money was used to pay the high costs of those trial process, a fabulous picture from Czechoslovakia, a true piece of cinema, according some sources in a priceless documentary which l'd watched recently, something near of the sixty thousands people were killed in those darkest era, mostly by mental disorders, weird behaviors, hunchbacks, facial asymmetry among others abnormalities, indeed a black page of the mankind!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9

Bleak, dark and allegorical

[dmlucifer · 9/10 · 7 June 2013]

While the setting and the historical source of the movie is that of the late 17th century, don't be fooled, this is a movie about communism. More accurately, about the wretched logic the communist justice system has used to imprison and kill hundreds of people in the Czechoslovakian 50s. The forced confessions, self-accusal, torture and naming of innocent accomplices were all part of communist processes in which such as Milada Horáková perished.

There are plenty of analogies in the movie which I don't intend to spoil. The atmosphere is crafted masterfully, giving the film a bleak and dark look and amplifying the effects of its story. The performances are very good, however I don't know how well does the original czech translate into the subtitles. What keeps this from being a 10 out of 10 is the pacing. In a certain point of the movie, the end becomes obvious and the rest is just a hammer that drives the nail of absolute despair into your brain.

I liked it more than any other movie about persecution of witches.

[Octopussy78 · 8/10 · 28 February 2006]

I have just seen the movie and I liked it more than any other movie about catholic persecution of witches. The last one I saw (and I think last one made) was The Crucible - that one wasn't bad, but I could not feel as much despair, corruption and that fear to speak up your mind as in this one. Kladivo na Carodejnice - with all the brutality, torture and all that injustice is real and very hard to forget. It is very well played and made. "Kladivo na Carodejnice" is a movie, that definitely catches your attention even when it's nearly 40 years old (not as if it was a bad thing)...that pathetic way in which some movies were made in 60's (I think it is about the lightning in these black&white movies) makes it look so threatening, so dark and sad....and so beautiful.

Beautifully Excruciating

[josephbrando · 10/10 · 12 October 2012]

I've seen many movies about the persecution of witches in medieval times, but this one rightly stands on top of that pile, surpassing even peer masterpieces "Mark of the Devil" and "Witchfinder General". The cinematography is gorgeous, the writing is smart and sophisticated, the performances are excellent, and the story itself is gut-wrenching and brutal. Rarely do horror films haunt my mind like this Czech production did. With its roots based in historical fact, the true evils of mankind certainly are much more diabolical than any conjured up monster or serial killer. It is quite an experience to watch a movie that is simultaneously, strikingly, so beautiful and yet so harrowing.

Superb

[JHC3 · 10/10 · 22 April 2004]

In a Czech town in the seventeenth century, an elderly woman enters a church

to accept communion. Her true purpose is to collect the holy host for a midwife who needs it to treat an ailing dairy cow. The woman is caught and is forced to explain her sacrilegious actions. Religious and secular authorities agree that she is in league with witches and may even be a witch herself. This prompts an inquisition where confessions are obtained through threats and torture. A

tribunal is held to provide a legal facade. Though the hunt is initially confined to the impoverished fringes of local society, the hysteria soon expands to the point that no one, not even leading citizens, is safe. The ultimate target is a

clergyman, Deacon Lautner, who defies the righteous men of the tribunal.

Based on actual trial records from the 1678 to 1695 period, this well made

Czech film features excellent performances and strong production values. It is somewhat extreme by 1969 standards.

Critique of the Unbridled Power of the State

[Borec · 10/10 · 15 July 2005]

Possible Spoilers Within. I might be presuming too much about the intentions of the film makers, but given the time period of the films release, following the Prague Spring and the short-lived relaxation of the censors, this film is a clear condemnation of the Stalinist state, or at least of an autocratic regime. There are so many positive qualities to this film it is hard to comment fully on it. However, the film does depict the main inquisitioner as a man driven by avarice, greed and power. Connivingly, he used his power to usurp judicial and law-enforcing power from the town and tortured "witnesses" and "criminals" into submission, thereby being able to take their property from them as "payment" for the trials. Unfortunately, the film maker could have illustrated the pain of torture more, but he possibly might have had problems with the censors, even given the relaxation, or he might not have wanted to offend the viewer. Further, the total inaction by the Austrian government tends to make the viewer of a Kafka- esquire government, in which the people's rights and pleas go unheard. This film, if anything, astutely illustrates the power of the state and its propensity toward abuse, if gone unchecked. Also, I was constantly reminded of the US's current problem with torture in the Middle East. Who is to declare the "Truth" in such murky circumstances. One of the Guards, who supplied a running monologue throughout the film, added another layer of If you don't know Czech, you might lose a little meaning in the subtitles, but the film is still worth watching, regardless.

Witch's Hammer

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 27 July 2010]

Inquisition film, from Czechoslovakia. You know the drill. Innocent women are unjustly accused of witchcraft and tortured by sadistic inquisitioners into admitting they committed acts at the command of Satan. Religious persecution and sadism towards imprisoned women, particularly those that won't cooperate. Boblig, the inquisitioner, is an obvious fraud who was "retired" and since granted power by Her Grace to "rid her castle of the Devil", he more than happily inhabits his former role, not in any hurry to return to a life as a poor innkeeper. When you have the finest clothes, sleeping quarters, and food, provided courtesy of Her Majesty, one can see why a cruel fiend(and his clerk) might not wish to scurry home to an insignificant existence.

Before you know it, all the village women are fair game, with the men worrying that their beloved girls will be next on his checklist. When he's not fattening himself with beef or drinking himself into a near stooper, Boblig is having women round up for trials, his clerk always scribbling edicts of his choosing("Put that down in the protocol"). Deacon Lautner, the only crusader for the people that seems to have any courage, appeals to the "His Emminence" for support, but Boblig, for whatever reason, had curried favor with Her Majesty(and, in particular, "the Church") and there's no going back. Boblig becomes tyrannical and unstoppable, a pathetic waste of a human being who used some sort of reputation from his past to supplement his future, to torture and terrorize with Her Majesty's blessing(we see that she's easily manipulated and ignorant, fodder for Boblig to use at his advantage).

When Lautner is accused of sorcery(clearly as a means to remove an obstacle which stands in his way for ultimate power), Boblig will have free reign to do as he so wishes without resistance, succeeding in having his rival imprisoned for his advocacy of "heretics" and housing a young woman(a cook who was given a his mother).

This movie is grim and bleak in the tradition of other Inquisition movies such as WITCHFINDER GENERAL & MARK OF THE DEVIL. There are narrative interludes by some woman-hating religiously fanatical monk with rotting teeth, going on and on about how the female sex is the root of all evil, worthy of extermination..he's pretty foul and as obnoxious(purposely so, of course)as these loons typically are. These are the kind that need to get laid and snap out of their insane fervor.

Like many of these movies, we see things spiral out of control as one man gains a position to inflict harm on others, while enjoying the luxuries and benefits that come with it. "I'm not a theologist. I'm a jurist," that's Boblig's flimsy excuse for sending innocent women to the stake to burn by fire.

Thumb-screws. Leg vices. Bodies stretched by a machine(called "the rack") that pulls on the body, rope for extra pain. Lautner's cook, Susan, tortured, stripped naked, and forced to confess against the man she loves. This film can be unpleasant.

As expected, these pious hypocrites with their fancy garments use God as a way to partake in their atrocious acts, when it's actually about securing property and wealth..Satan is the perfect tool in order to achieve this as Boblig goes from inquisitor to Bishop to Master, with fellow clergymen behind him also passing judgment. Deacon Lautner is a martyr who Boblig wishes to yield to acts of carnal lust in the name of Satan, for which he stands strong, with integrity, but how long can anyone last when put through the rigors of torture over a period of time?

Elo Romancik's face is angelic, appropriate since his Lautner is to be put on trial and falsely accused by Boblig for ridiculous crimes he didn't commit. Vladimir Smeral is well cast as the cold-hearted Boblig, and I imagine the closing information written on screen will be sure to infuriate many viewers who, I imagine, were hoping he'd have a more gruesome fate as those he sent to death(all thirty something of them, mostly women and their husbands who confessed after enormous torture).

Arty film on the persecution of witches

[The_Void · 7/10 · 25 March 2008]

The persecution of witches is a rather popular cinematic topic; the best film on the topic undoubtedly being 1968's Witchfinder General. This Czech effort follows a similar plot line to the earlier film, though the result is much artier and less graphic and while I preferred the older film - this one has its merits and will be of interest to people who find this topic interesting or who enjoy arty foreign films. The style of the movie rather reminded me of Ingmar Bergman's work (though less 'deep') and fans of his (a group of people that doesn't include me) will probably like this film too. The film begins with a sequence that sees an old woman take something from a church in order to help a cow give birth. Naturally, the powers that be aren't amused and after being caught, she is put before them to explain her actions. The council agree that she is involved in witchcraft, but other people are also implicated during the trial; and after she is put to death, the 'town cleanser' goes on a crusade to rid the town of all "witchcraft".

The film features very stark black and white cinematography and this helps the film in terms of atmosphere as it feels very dark and unpleasant, which bodes well with the plot. The film is not very graphic - especially not compared to other films on this topic and not in its own right either; only a scene that sees three people burned alive could really be considered graphic. Most of the plot line is made up of debate between the lead characters and while it's fairly interesting, the film did start to grate on me after a while and I would have preferred it to be a bit more visceral. Witches' Hammer is very well acted and the ensemble cast all fit into their roles well. This is the first (and probably last) film I've seen from director Otakar Vávra but clearly he's a director that pays attention to detail as every frame of the film feels carefully crafted. Overall, I won't say that this is a favourite of mine and if you're looking for a film about the witch trials, I would recommend Witchfinder General first; but Witches' Hammer is an interesting film and may be of interest to some people.

"I denounced innocent people."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 10/10 · 30 April 2016]

After watching 29 Czech films from the Cold War era in April,I started searching round for a title to finish my viewing season. Since starting things with Otakar Vávra's superb Sci-Fi Film Noir Krakatit (also reviewed),I was delighted to stumble upon another Vávra film,which led to me getting ready to surf the Czech wave for the final time.

View on the film:

Casting a spell the year that the occupying Soviet Union destroyed the reforms from the Prague Spring,co-writer/(along with Ester Krumbachová) director Otakar Vávra's adaptation of Václav Kaplický's real life novel nails allegorical Horror,courtroom Drama,and historical Melodrama to the cross.

Set in the 1600's,the writers cut to the bone in making a powerful case against the futility of torture, (which the KGB were infamous for using) with every "witness" being brainwashed by torture into confessing to anything,no matter how outrageous the allegation is.

Sitting in on every courtroom "hearing", Vávra and cinematographer Josef Illík build an atmosphere of breathless unease,by tightly holding the camera over the accused faces,and capturing the moments of torturous pain shatter across their face.

Smartly keeping the stabs at gore limited and occasionally cutting to a Shakespeare- style narrator , Vávra subtly explores the horrors of an unequal society,from the royal households and the courts being blazed with an impeccable set design,that covers every wall with gold and paintings,which are rubbed away by the accused being stuck in dusty,burnt to a crisp households.

Going against each other, Vladimír Smeral & Elo Romancik give impeccable performances as Boblig and Lautner. Labelling anyone who questions his methods as "the devil" Vladimír Smeral gives a formidable performance as Boblig,whose existence Smeral wraps in a burning rage to keep a grip on the power he has gathered.

Speaking out over what he sees, Elo Romancik gives a fantastic performance as Lautner,thanks to Romancik's burning all sign of Lautner's faith and hope piece by piece,as the witchhammer comes down on Czech cinema.

A Tough Watch

[derek-duerden · 7/10 · 19 June 2023]

Whether we are talking about the real "witch trials" of the past, or alluding to more recent government (or other) uses of torture to advance or "prove" their causes, we quickly drift into very murky territory, IMHO. Even when used by a "good guy" such as Jack Bauer (in "24") to expedite things there's an inherent concern that, if people will say anything to escape the pain, then what's the point, and what is "proved"?

As this film well illustrates - whether it's about Communism or Witches - the wider issues of power, greed and societal control can provide ample cause for those willing to go down that path. Personally, I found it a tough (and somewhat depressing) watch, even though there is sparing use of graphic violence - but enough to get the point and add to the escalating mood of oppression.

Not for children, but otherwise recommended.

While not exactly pleasant, it is very well done...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 17 November 2011]

This is a recreation of a series of witch trials that occurred around 1600. Since it's a Czechoslovakian film, I assume it is set somewhere around there. The film begins with an odd occurrence--an old lady pretends to eat a communion wafer at church but instead shoves it into a handkerchief. When confronted about this weird behavior, folks immediately assume it's because she's involved with witches and that these devil worshipers plan on using the host for some unholy ceremony. THe woman really is just very superstitious and she's really taking the wafer to trade someone--as they want to use the wafer to supposedly cure a sick animal. This is goofy--but the priest certainly does not think it constitutes witchcraft and admonishes everyone to forget about it. However, the elders insist on bringing in a witch-finder and determining if it's all part of a demonic ceremony. From there, everything gets way out of hand and they start burning practically anyone--all due to an overzealous and evil man bent on abusing the gullibility of others.

The film gets very high marks for realism. The torture and subsequent confessions seem very well done--though are a bit difficult to watch. And, the entire abuse of the silly system and complicity of the Church is quite interesting--as well as the lone priest who fights this evil tribunal. My only complaint is the opening scene. It's jam-packed full of very gratuitous nudity. Later, there is some explicit nudity but it is necessary for the film and should have been used (such as when they stripped the lady to look for 'the Devil's mark' on her as well as to humiliate her). So, the violence and nudity make it a film I would NOT recommend to your kids or mother-in-law! Otherwise, extremely well done but possibly not the sort of thing you'd want to watch (it can be a bit hard to take).

Absolute power corrupts . . . and destroys

[rdfranciscritic · 21 February 2023]

Courtesy of AIP Studios' Witchfinder General (1968), everyone knows of the exploits of British witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins (as portrayed by Vincent Price) and his fictionalized counterparts in Count Christian von Meruh and Lord Cumberland (as portrayed by Udo Keir and Herbert Lom) in Mark of the Devil (1970) and Mark of the Devil II (1973). And now you'll learn of the even bloodier exploits of Witchfinder Inquisitor Boblig von Edelstat.

Born in Austria-Hungary, Czech Republic filmmaker Otakar Vavra's lone foray into the horror genre is this historical-drama concerned with the brutal inquisition of witches during the medieval era-a film that won several awards at Argentina's Mar del Plata International Film Festival in 1970. One of those wins was for cinematographer Josef Illik who, after watching Witchhammer: you'll wonder why Illik's name is not as revered in international film circles as Hungarian-American cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Deliverance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind).

Based on a best-selling Czech history novel (1963) by Vaclav Kaplicky, the 17th century tale chronicles the real-life, human rights atrocities of the North Moravia Witch Trails of the 1670s by Witchfinder Inquisitor Boblig von Edelstat in which 100 people were murdered. The book's main protagonist, Priest Josef Lautner, is a cleric who tries to help his people, but soon falls victim to the trails for opposing "God's Law." The book is heralded as an important to literary lesson of man's ills in political-based paranoia and political prosecution on-level with Arthur Miller's The Crucible (1953) (required high school reading for many years).

The resulting film adapted by Vavra was banned, ironically, not for its graphic nature, but for Vavra adapting the film as an acidic allegory to the Communist show trails that rocked Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. While the film was banned from showing by the Czechoslovakian government, it was accepted by the international marketplace as a cinematic masterpiece.

I won't sugarcoat: Witchhammer, as was Pier Pasolini's Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), isn't pleasant (Pasolini's film even more so), but it is an exquisite example of perfection in cinema.

Watch this movie. Then watch it again.

You can find my more expansive review -- as I get into Vavra's resume -- under "Critic Reviews" for B&S About Movies.

Historical vs allegorical

[returning · 6/10 · 6 January 2005]

This film claims historical accuracy, but it seems to be more allegorical than similar films which don't make that claim. I'm still trying to decide how exaggerated some of the "confessions" were, but then again this is a period of history I know little about. The Christ figure was interesting, and the parallel was loose enough to be interesting, but it was made too explicit at times to be considered very clever. Explicitly calling one of his "friends" a Judas is a little too much. Huxley created a more interesting Christ-figure in "Devil's of Loudon," voluptuous, yet gifted and filled with a righteous aim.

What was most interesting to me was how the hypocrisy of those on high was related to the camera. Not in an exaggerated way, but in a way where we are given insight into the decisions being made, and witness the final hypocritical decision. The Queen anxiously touches her neck when she hears that one of the "witches" has been strangled, only to gracefully gaze at her complexion in the mirror and fix her makeup. A beautiful symbol of priorities, and how a minor amount of sympathy is trumped by pride. Another scene placed the Inquisitor in a large chair sipping on a snifter of wine, dictating to his secretary a letter describing the trial, asking him to underline how "horrified" they were at what they discovered, when of course, he hardly seems horrified anymore.

Throughout the film is the battle between what to implicitly express visually, and what to explicitly allude to, and they don't often work well together. Still, there are enough scenes which focus on the former to overshadow the latter.

3 out of 5 - Some strong elements

Respect is due

[tony-70-667920 · 9/10 · 22 October 2021]

Otakar Vavra was the great survivor of Czech cinema. Not only did he live to be 100, but in a career which ran from the 1930s to the Velvet Revolution, and which was mostly spent under dictatorship (Nazi then Communist) he managed to keep working, averaging almost a film a year. This has been held against him, and he's been accused of being a mediocrity and a conformist, careful not to offend those in power. "Witchhammer" is a really powerful film which shows that not only was he a fine director, but he was willing, at least with this film, to criticise the Party to which he belonged. I suspect it was conceived during the Prague Spring, but it wasn't released until 1970, long after the Soviet tanks rolled in.

It's hardly surprising this film was soon suppressed and didn't re-emerge until 1989, the year Communism fell and Vavra's career ended (well, he was 79.) The parallels between the treatment of witches in the 17th century and the show trials staged by Stalin in the USSR and then by the Czech Communists under Gottwald in the early 1950s were clear. Ridiculous confessions made by victims who couldn't stand the torture any more (with devout Communists admitting to being agents of the West and devout Catholics admitting to being servants of Satan), the climate of fear, the escalating madness: it's all there. Starting with an old hag who's stolen a communion wafer, the greedy and power-hungry witchfinder Bobling tortures and burns his way through many others. People with property were particular targets, as he could seize their property. I rather hoped he'd go for the countess who'd started the process, as she was almost certainly the richest local citizen.

Everything about this film is first-rate: the actors (none of whom I'd seen before), the black and white photography, the sense of period. I've seen three of Vavra's early films: "Virginity" (1937) and two made during WW2, "Girl in Blue" and "Turbine." They're all well worth seeing but it probably didn't help Vavra's reputation that all three starred Lida Baarova, who was Goebbels' mistress. Nor did the fact that he signed a declaration supporting the Soviet invasion. Still, what really matters about any artist is their work, and apart from being a top director and scriptwriter for decades Vavra also taught for years at FAMU, Prague's film school, and taught many who went on to create the Czech New Wave, including Forman, Menzel, Passer, Nemec and Chytilova.

Two recommendations: Costa-Gavras' "L'Aveu" with Yves Montand deals with the Czech show trials, and I'm surprised that while other reviewers have mentioned films which deal with witchcraft, such as "Witchfinder General' and "The Devils" no-one has mentioned Carl Dreyer's "Day of Wrath", which is better than either of them.

A Czechoslovakian Crucible

[gizmomogwai · 8/10 · 1 April 2012]

Arthur Miller may have written his knockout play The Crucible condemning witch hunts in 1952, but that doesn't mean the Czechs should be denied the opportunity to take a shot at capturing the subject matter. Coming from the other side of the Iron Curtain, Witches' Hammer achieves basically the same thing, highlighting the inherent injustice in torturing innocent people into confessing witchcraft, and then brutally executing them. What we have here is evil disguised as good, and when a priest points that out, he becomes a target in the hunt as well.

The movie starts with a heavy indication of the misogyny found in witch trials. A man says woman is sin. This is juxtaposed against women bathing, and while you may call that gratuitous nudity, it is basically a contrasting view of women not as evil beings, but just women.

After this, the movie simply shows us the process of witch trials, which the modern day audience will recognize as backwards. But were audiences also supposed to recognize it as something else? If Miller was attacking McCarthyism, could this movie in fact be attacking the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia? I'm not so sure. Nothing seems overly communist about the inquisitors. On the contrary, they're driven by a warped form of religion rather than an atheist leftist doctrine. Of course, tyranny can look much the same no matter what ideology is being used to justify it.

Ultimately, Witches' Hammer may not be quite as great as Miller's play, but it is better than the 1996 film adaptation of Miller's play. A savage view of Europe's past, it is a film worth seeing.

The Corruption of the Absolute Power

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 29 September 2023]

In the Seventeenth Century, in Moravia, the altar boy report to the priest that an old beggar woman has hidden her host in a piece of cloth during the communion. The priest brings the woman to question why she did it, and she tells him that another woman has promised food to her since her cow is not producing milk and she wanted to give the host to the animal. The priest brings the case to the Powers that Be in the town and priest Krystof Lautner (Elo Romancik), who is an intellectual man, tells him that it is a superstition from ignorant people and to give a penance to her. However, the priest brings the unscrupulous witchfinder Boblig von Edelstadt (Vladimír Smeral) that comes with his associate to Moravia and using torture, sentences three women to be burnt alive at stake. Then, he targets to the wealthy men in Moravia to get their fortunes, and to Lautner, who is a threat to him.

Serious movies about the Inquisition in the Dark Ages are usually unpleasant and disturbing. "Kladivo na carodejnice" (1970), a.k.a. "Witchhammer" is no exception to this rule and shows the corruption produced by the absolute power. In the present days, we have dictatorships, fanatic regimes, McCarthyism and supreme courts with excessive power in certain countries to show that this dark side of the mankind still prevails. The torture associated to the absolute power like it was in the Seventeenth Century completes the idea why this period of history is called Dark Ages. The direction and performances in this film are awesome associated to the black-and-white cinematography that gives the sensation of a documentary. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Martelo das Bruxas" ("The Hammer of the Witches")

Typical behind Iron Curtain stuff without propaganda.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 23 February 2022]

If you have seen any Polish, Czecholovakian, Hungarian film from the fifties to the early nineties, you'll probably have notice that all those films are rather austere, gloomy, dark, rough; at least not made for the bulk of western audiences. This one belongs to that kind. It looks as a mix u between Ken Russel's THE DEVILS, or WITCHFINDER GENERAL or MARK OF THE DEVIL, but in a bit more talkative, intellectual way. The good thing about this topic, is that's a sort of critism of the Communist, oppressor regime. So, no propaganda message here. Not for the squeamish at least.

hopes are high for this mid sixties Czech tale of 17th century Inquisitors and their passion for torturing women

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 16 April 2020]

As the film opens with glorious wide screen b/w landscape imagery and a fabulous rapidly edited sequence of young ladies bathing, hopes are high for this late sixties Czech tale of 17th century Inquisitors and their passion for torturing women. A dark hooded figure begins to tell of the awful rituals that witches enjoy at the behest of Satan and we should be away, but instead we are introduced to a wordy costume drama that will dominate proceedings for most of the film's length. True there are gruesome and torturous close-ups, more talk of what witches might do but little in the way of vast landscapes or spooky corners. This may or may not be an allegorical tale referencing the totalitarian state of the time but the spectacle with much repletion becomes rather tiresome and so very predictable. Such a shame with such promise and possibilities but this is not to be another Witchfinder General and certainly no rival to Ken Russell's The Devils in spite of its pretensions.