Come for the Demons, stay for the Inquisition

I just watched this film for the first time, knowing very little - only that it was a silent film about witches that had witch coven/ witches' sabbath scenes. I thought I'd get some fun, little thrill-terrors with ghouls and demons and things - somewhere between B-movie and that dread that a horror from the '20s can still manage (lookin' at you, Nosferatu).

What I got was completely different. Yes, there was some of that, but then come the scenes of the Inquisition, and these judges going from town to town, spreading this disease of witches, and then later scenes talking about how we still take people we don't understand and treat them poorly, how we still treat women we don't like or have time for badly, etc. That was sobering. And the depths of evil that humans can sink down to is far more terrifying than any of the evil spirits in the film (even the super-creepy one above the gate).