Silents at the Senate – Nosferatu (1922) 100th Anniversary Screening 

Sat. October 22 

Doors – 7:00 PM 

Film – 8:00 PM 

Tickets - $12 

1hr 21min | Not Rated | Horror | Germany 

Our Silents at the Senate silent film series continues with Nosferatu, a perennial spooky season favorite celebrating its centennial season, presented in partnership with Cinema Lamont. This classic of the silent era will be accompanied with a live organ score on our Mighty Wurlitzer theater organ by organist Stephen Warner, who is sure to enliven the film with an appropriately creepy score, evocative of the film’s vintage horror atmosphere. 

Directed by German Expressionist master, F.W. Murnau, the film tells the tale of an ancient vampire named Count Orlock. Its gothic photography combines with the spindly figure and gaunt visage of its central monster to create a visual experience you won’t soon forget. The plot, involving an aristocratic immortal preying upon a woman in his newly adopted hometown, will be familiar to most as it bears a striking resemblance to Bram Stoker’s novel about a Transylvanian blood-sucker, Dracula. But no depiction of that most famous vampire has ever been quite as nightmarish as that of Max Schreck, whose performance here is so authentically disturbing that one could be forgiven for wondering if he really was, in fact, a vampire. 

Which is why, despite being unfairly accused of being a low-budget German knock-off, this film has endured for a hundred years. And, as long as people still want to gather in a darkened theater listening to the distinctive tones of a period appropriate theater organ as a story in flickering images is projected before their eyes, this is one that is sure to be playing at the Senate for decades to come. 

We can’t wait to see you there. 

Silents at the Senate is supported by the Knight Arts Challenge 

The Senate Theater and The Detroit Theater Organ Society is supported by The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and The National Endowment for the Arts.