Book excerpt: Benjamin Christensen's macabre masterpiece from 1922, H¢xan (The Witch), is the first true `film maudit' (literally a `cursed film') and can justifiably be considered the world's first cult movie. Greeted by angry protests upon release, it was censored, banned and condemned everywhere. Was H¢xan the first and most perverse exploitation film, replete with Satanic debauchery, or the original classic of documentary cinema? Who was this mysterious man, Benjamin Christensen, and what really drove him to create this extraordinary epic?