What is there to say about Mother Joan of the Angels (Polish: Matka Joanna od Aniołów), other than perhaps the fact that this is one of the few works that could legitimately lay claim to being the scariest films ever made? Jerzy Kawalerowicz somehow managed to construct an unhinged religious drama that dives deep into the roots of faith, without being a self-indulgent exploration of how good can triumph evil – in fact, the contrary is what is most applicable to this film. Based off a novel by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, which in itself was loosely based on true events in the 17th century, Mother Joan of the Angels is a masterpiece of horror filmmaking, with the director creating something that transcends the boundaries of what horror is supposed to be, and instead goes in search of something far deeper and more profound, which creates a sensational, but utterly disconcerting, experience that no viewer is going to come out of entirely unscathed. The rare kind of horror film that is both an ordeal and an unforgettable thrill, Mother Joan of the Angels is one of the most important works of 1960s European arthouse cinema, for many reasons – its filmmaking, the approach it takes to the story and, perhaps most significantly, how it refuses to settle for the obvious choices. Kawalerowicz is far too interesting a filmmaker to just allow his work to reflect conventions – rather, he ventures deep into the soul of the human condition, looking at some of our most primordial fears and allowing them to manifest in some truly disconcerting ways throughout the film, taking the source material in unexpected directions, and in the process scaring the viewer beyond any reasonable belief. For that reason alone, Mother Joan of the Angels is an absolute masterpiece, and one of the best films of the 1960s.

The film is set sometime in the 17th century (around the same time as the aforementioned incident in Loudon) in a barren corner of the Polish countryside. A young and hopeful priest, Father Jozef Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit) is sent to investigate a small nunnery on the outskirts of the town, where another priest was recently executed by the nuns, who claim they were possessed by multiple demons, which drove them to eliminate the priest, who they believed was the embodiment of evil and their natural enemy. Father Jozef isn’t quite sure what to expect – he is a man of deep faith and strong principles, and he naturally assumes the best in everyone he meets, taking his vocation as a chance to not only spread the word of God but also help those that may have strayed from the path of righteousness. From his experience, everyone is capable of salvation – however, this belief is soon proven to be implausible when Father Jozef is introduced to the head of the nunnery, Mother Joan of the Angels (Lucyna Winnicka), the young but ferocious Mother Superior who claims that she is possessed by eight demons, all of which have compelled her to fight against anyone who comes in the way of the anarchy they so gleefully assert on the locals. The priest initially believes that this can easily be cured by an exorcism, and while it does momentarily yield results, it’s not long until the forces of evil are back and with a vengeance. Gradually, Father Jozef begins to lose hope that these women are able to be saved – but this doesn’t mean he will stop putting in the effort. However, he realizes that there is some resistance to his methods, but that it might not be coming from any sinister entities, but from within the women himself. Not only does he have his faith tested, but he begins to question his own identity, which he realizes is not nearly as strong as he thought it would – and it’s only a matter of time before he surrenders himself to whatever forces are terrorizing this humble religious order.

Faith-based films have tended to acquire something of a poor reputation, especially since a recent revival in motivational films centring on belief have been the bane of the existence of many, who find their poor production values and overly-saccharine storylines overshadow the more meaningful core. However, there was a time when films about religion could be far darker, especially when the approach was not to be inspirational, but rather demonstrate a more sinister side of religion. The Loudon possessions that took place in France are most-remembered cinematically through Ken Russell’s magnificent but deeply uncomfortable The Devils – and in many ways, Mother Joan of the Angels is a perfect natural successor to that story (despite predating it by a decade), since it covers the immediate aftermath of those events, shifting the narrative from France to Poland, but adopting a similarly-dark tone. The approach to horror we can see in this film comes from Kawalerowicz’s meticulous control of both the narrative and the form it’s delivered in – the director effortlessly creates a nightmarish reality, where nothing is quite what it seems, but like any work of great horror, the atmosphere is unsettling but deeply seductive. We’re drawn into this nunnery, curious to see what secrets hide behind these walls, and even though Kawalerowicz makes it very clear what is happening (there aren’t many secrets in Mother Joan of the Angels, with everything being laid entirely bare throughout), we’re driven to near-insanity trying to piece together the mysteries surrounding this film. Mother Joan of the Angels is an incredibly enigmatic film, and it consistently manages to be fascinating, even when we’ve been witness to so many horror films centred on religious figures – there’s something so compelling about the purity of the church being eviscerated by the influences of evil – and creates an unforgettable atmosphere of unhinged terror that shows no sign of abating at all.

Kawalerowicz’s methods in making Mother Joan of the Angels are truly something to behold, with some of his decisions in adapting Iwaszkiewicz’s novel being quite revolutionary, but still outright refuses to become enveloped by its own ambitions, which is often the downfall of some of the most audacious works of horror. When it comes to inspiring terror in your viewers, it takes a little more than just unsettling situations and a few well-placed scares. What makes Mother Joan of the Angels such an incredible piece of filmmaking is how, despite being focused on the intimidating subject of demonic possession, there is very little tangible evidence towards the supernatural throughout the film. These kinds of stories tend to heighten the impact of what they’re saying by having characters levitate or produce actions that no human possibly could – but Kawalerowicz keeps everything at the fundamentally human level, never venturing out of the realm of reality, and instead looking at the more grounded aspects of these events. We’re never sure if the Loudon incident was a result of actual demonic possession, or just mass hysteria (no pun intended), but it doesn’t matter, since Mother Joan of the Angels is about more than proving the validity of the situation, but rather exploring the more human side of terror, which is often even more disconcerting, since it causes us to think about the extents to which the human mind can become warped by perception, and where such violence and debauchery, which is normally cited as being the result of interference by some otherwordly beings, actually comes from within. The director is refusing to take a hard-line approach to answering these questions or solving the mystery as a whole, instead choosing to allow it to flourish all on its own and giving the audience the chance to interpret it in their own way. It’s a bold approach, and goes against the tenets of more traditional horror (whereby the story is supposed to be scary but not traumatizing), but for the sake of doing something fundamentally more unique.

This is not a mere dramatization of real events that seeks to heighten them – if anything, the more austere and bare appearance of Mother Joan of the Angels is amongst its most significant merits, since it defies the idea of terror lurking in the shadows. Some of the most unsettling moments in the film take place in empty rooms, between two or more individuals, as we witness the horror manifesting in other ways. Kawalerowicz is challenging the form while still being somewhat traditional, rooting the fear in reality, so it remains recognizable, but still slightly off-kilter. The horror lurks in the performances, with Mother Joan of the Angels being perhaps the finest piece of filmmaking that uses the human body as a narrative tool since the silent era. There are some wonderful moments of dialogue throughout the film, but the real spectacle is in how the director extracts these performances from his cast. Every moment of expressivity is used to the film’s benefit – each movement, gesture or facial expression carries with it some deeper meaning, with the actors creating unforgettable characters without often even saying all that much. Lucyna Winnicka is absolutely spellbinding as the titular Mother Superior, with her oscillation between her “real self” and the eight demons that supposedly reside within her, being absolutely sensational to witness, but deeply petrifying at the exact same time. Add in some disconcerting dialogue between various characters (including in a few lighter scenes that see outsiders commenting on the events), which give context to situations that are more haunting than outright terrifying, and a misplaced giggle or distant scream, and you have a film that is insatiable in its pursuit of some visceral kind of terror, cutting to the core of what scares us the most, and showing the audience a kind of fear that many of us didn’t even know existed.

Mother Joan of the Angels proves that horror can come from anywhere, and that convoluted plots and extravagant filmmaking techniques may give off the illusion of fear, but that real terror comes from when a film taps into something more carnal and intimate within the viewer, causing us not to simply sit in passive complacency, but rather actively engage with what we see on screen. There’s no doubt that Mother Joan of the Angels is a harrowing piece, but it succeeds in being so much more than just the terror embedded within the story – its hauntingly intelligent, touching on issues of faith and identity that aren’t often explored cinematically with such precision, and asking questions in the process that are both terrifying but also incredibly relevant and thought-provoking. Whatever it was that drove Kawalerowicz to make this film in such a way, where some of the most fundamental guidelines of the horror genre aren’t only disregarded, but openly challenged, is as much a mystery as the intentions behind these characters. However, there’s very little doubt that it all worked extremely well, since the result is one of the most exceptional pieces of filmmaking to come out of Europe at the time. There are some moments in Mother Joan of the Angels that are simply jaw-dropping, with the pure anarchic terror inspired throughout the film being a true spectacle, and some of the choices made by the director being absolutely stunning, in both senses of the word. I truly adored this film – gorgeously-made, beautifully-written and composed with an extraordinary amount of effort that went into making it such an unforgettable, powerful experience, and one that I also I would never want to sit through again as long as I live.