Only Kinokulture would bring to Oswestry a co-founder of Siouxsie and The Banshees to perform a live score for one of cinemas classic films, Vampyr. And thank goodness for that! :)
The event took place upstairs at The Ironworks. Tables, laid out, cabaret style, with small flickering candles.
After a short introduction by Ruth from Kinokulture, the lights were dimmed, in came Steven Severin to take his place on the left-hand side of the screen, laptop aglow and the film seamlessly began.
I hadn't seen the film before, but had seen very old clips of vampire movies and expected this to be of that "look". I couldn't have been more wrong. There were no cliched dracula-types, only a selection of fantastic character actors (some of whom had never acted before - not that you'd notice), a surreal and spooky screenplay and plenty of visual and cinemagraphic effects which were astonishing given that it was made in 1928.
In a nutshell, a young man turns up to a hotel armed with his fishing rods for a short fishing holiday. Right from the off, strange occurrences abound. People walk uninvited into rooms, shadows suddenly leave their bodies and have a life of their own and return, someone gets shot, a girl appears to have been turned into a vampire via the old teeth-in-the-neck trick (though you never actually see it happening) and a chap (the old doctor) dies trapped in a flour mill.
All very odd. Steven's soundtrack was brilliant, evocative, atmospheric but never shouting, "Hello, I'm the soundtrack - look at me!" A perfect setting for the film.
Well, a complete one-off, never to be seen again - which is what Kinokulture is becoming renowned for. If you get the opportunity, don't miss their screenings. Always chosen with care, these are movies that matter.
Big thank you to Steven Severin, The Ironworks and Kinokulture for a great evening.
