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Religion Scandinavia Torture Witchcraft

Day of Wrath begins with a scrolling manuscript on which the lyrics to a song called Day of Wrath are printed. Cut to a closeup of a hand as it dips a quill into a pot of ink then signs a proclamation: "Herlofs Marte has been denounced as a witch and is to be brought to trial". Cut to a couple of women as they drink tea made from herbs grown under a gallows and remark on its power.

While looking out of the window, the older of the two notices that yet another witch hunt is in progress. On hearing this, the younger of the two women hurries out the front door. Through the open window we hear some pretty frightening chanting, which refers several times to burnt flesh and flames. Suddenly, there's a knock at the front door. On hearing this, the older of the two women hurries out through the back door.

Cut to Anna, Absalon Pedersson's new and very young wife {Lisbeth Movin}, at the rectory enjoying a bit of pleasant conversation with his mother {Sigrid Neiiendam}. Mom knocks on a door and tells Reverend Absalon {Thorkild Roose}, that his son, Martin, who's been abroad for some time now, should be here soon then takes the keys from Anna and lets her know that she carries the keys in this house. While Anna goes to the bedroom to sulk, we learn through conversation that she's actually Absalon's second wife and that Martin is, in fact, her step son.

Cut back to our fleeing witch {old woman who drinks tea grown under a gallows} then to Anna as Martin {Preben Lerdorff Rye} enters the house and asks where his father is. Anna introduces herself as his new mother. Cut to our fleeing witch again and back to Martin and Anna as Absalon arrives at home. The two youngsters decide to play a trick on him: Martin hides so as to surprise his father and, when he appears from out of nowhere, all is suddenly joyfulness and light. Dad is thrilled and Martin certainly looks happy to be back at home with his family. While Martin and Dad reminisce in the study, Herlofs Marte {witch {Anna Svierkier}} pops in the door and insists that Anne hide her. Marte helped Anne's mother when she was denounced as a witch and she's calling in the favor.

Once the old woman his gone upstairs to hide, the witch hunting party arrives and tells Absalon that some children saw her sneaking into his house. It doesn't take them very long to find her and the screams from upstairs seem to put a real damper on the homecoming festivities below. It takes a few days of torture but eventually the little old lady confesses to being in league with the devil and doing all sorts of evil and twisted, unwholesome, things. Of course, while this is all going on, Anna and her new stepson are off romping about in the forest and falling in love with each other.

Herlofs Marte's burning goes well, aside from making Absalon feel horribly guilty. The time he spends with God, contemplating this whole mess, does give his wife and son a chance to fully enjoy their affair. Don't let that give you the impression that there's a cheery moment to be had in this film. They don't really enjoy themselves because there's just all of that guilt and and all of those wages of sin to deal with. It doesn't help matters when the story about Anna's mother and her witchcraft begin to circulate. There are a few smiles at the beginning of the movie but, from somewhere near this point, you'd be hard pressed to find any humor anywhere on the screen.

This includes some nice performances by Roose, Svierkier and Movin. Rye's not bad either and Neiiendam is just great at being nasty and conniving. The film quality could be a bit better but, given the age of this movie, it's not too terrible. You do have to put up with the occasional flicker.

The imagery is really nifty. At times the film looks a bit like a romantic painting and at times, it manages to draw pretty heavily from the Old Masters. Dreyer being something of an "Old Master" himself; that's probably pretty apt. This is like many of Dreyer's films: heavy on the guilt, religion, pain, suffering and so on. It's also beautifully put together and very nicely written and perfect for those folk that like their melodrama with a side order of angst.