Long before Twilight turned sex-crazed teenage vampires into a national fad, and even 25 years before Bram Stoker penned Dracula, there was Carmilla — a 1872 tale of a prototypical lesbian vampire that became the basis for Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1932 film Vampyr. Tonight at the Roxie Theater in the Mission, former Siouxsie and the Banshees founding member Steven Severin presents his lastest score to accompany Dreyer's silent film.
While the sapphic undertones got lost in the book's translation to the silver screen (it was the 30's, after all), Severin's modern score promises to create a haunting and atmospheric mood that his post-Siouxsie soundtrack work has come to be known for.
There are two screenings tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. and "acclaimed piano femme fatale" Jill Tracy opens with a solo set called "both seductive and terrifying" by horror master Clive Barker himself.
Below: a clip from Dreyer's film, which still spooks even without Severin's synths behind it:
