Final Rating: 3/5
Hex follows the Norwegian feminist black metal band Witch Club Satan through their earliest days of touring leading up to the recording and promotion of their debut album. Shot over three years by cinematographer and first-time director Maja Holand, Hex tells a story of female empowerment within a heavily male-dominated space.
Witch Club Satan was founded by Johanna Holt Kleive, Nikoline Spkelkavik, and Victoria Røising in 2022. The three friends – who started the band before learning to play instruments – made a three-year pact to become a black metal band. Drawing on a long history of the occult in Norway, the trio incorporates theatricality, elaborate costumes, blood, and nudity into attention-grabbing live shows. As they quickly rise the ranks within the European metal scene, their presence as an outspokenly political female three-piece makes them a lightning-rod for misogyny and controversy within the metal community.
Holand films each of the members in their homes and with their parents and partners, backstage at clubs and giant festivals, recording music videos, demos, and in the studio. Additionally, candid interviews let each band member discuss what the band, the occult, and performing mean to them. At different points in the film, Holand has each member dress up as their “inner witch” and even conducts a third-person interview about what “being a witch” means for each of the members.
While never heard or seen in the film, Holand puts her own theatricality on full display. Notably, the framing device for the film is a modern-day witch trial, in which band supporters and detractors are called as witnesses. This lengthy sequence – spread out over the course of the film – allows Holand to include interviews with music critics, promoters, and other musicians that may not naturally occur elsewhere in the band’s journey. It also ties Witch Club Satan into a historical context, specifically leaning on medieval laws against sorcery under Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway.
Tellingly, however, Holand struggles to place Witch Club Satan into music-historical context. Early on, Nikoline mentions that “black metal was the only genre that made sense for the art we’re trying to make,” but her statement goes unexplored. The history of Norwegian black metal is dark, including an entire string of church burnings, and several instances of heinous violence, alongside the rise of countercultural music. The nuances of that history are out of scope for a story about a newcomer band in the 2020s, but it’s worth looking at what it takes to stand out in a scene marked by extreme politics from the start.
At numerous points, shockingly misogynistic social media posts are read out, telling the band to “go back to the kitchen,” “metal is no place for women,” and more. Social media can be an ugly place, but luckily the online vitriol doesn’t seem to translate to real-life ugliness at Witch Club Satan’s shows or appearances.
But Holand often uses hate leveled at the band to build towards big confrontations that don’t come to pass. Early on, the band uses their show at Tons of Rock 2023 to publicly condemn Phil Anselmo, the current lead singer for Pantera who in 2016 was recorded giving a Nazi salute. In the leadup, the band is nervous about backlash from Pantera fans, but when the lead vocalist delivers her speech, shots of the crowd show a few scattered supportive reactions, and mostly people stone-faced, waiting for the show to start. When their show is over, Hex moves on from Pantera altogether.
At the core of Hex is a compelling narrative about three friends making radical art within an unconventional space. While the film struggles to make the case that the world is against them doing so, the central message of three women making personal and professional sacrifices for underground music remains intact.
Hex was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival.
