Nosferatu - with live score by The Invincible Czars

The Invincible Czars bring their live score for Nosferatu to The Texas Theatre on Friday, October 30, at 8 PM. The film is F.W. Murnau's 1922 German silent classic, 94 minutes of expressionist horror, and the band will be playing along with it in real time. It falls on Devil's Night, so the timing is pretty on the nose.

The Czars are an Austin band that's been playing since 2003, starting in the city's clubs and eventually earning the nickname "The Masters of Silent Horror" for their work scoring silent films. They play as a hybrid chamber ensemble and rock band, mixing strings, woodwinds, and orchestral instruments with drums, bass, and guitar. For this particular score, they leaned on the classical repertoire, selecting Béla Bartók's "Romanian Folk Dances" as a nod to the fictional Count Orlock's home turf—Bartók composed the piece around the same time the film was made.

This isn't a one-off. The Nosferatu Centennial Tour performance has been staged over 200 times across North America, and audiences have called it "actually scary." If you've never seen Nosferatu, it's one of the foundations of horror cinema, and seeing it with a live band rather than a recorded track changes the whole experience. The music follows the action on screen, so the tension builds and breaks right along with the film.

It's a Friday night show at The Texas Theatre, 231 W Jefferson Blvd, starting at 8 PM. The film runs 94 minutes, so you'll be out well before midnight.