Fright Night: Silent Movie Screening With Live Score

Silent Screen Scotland is back in Edinburgh on Friday 30 October with a candlelit screening of Nosferatu, the 1922 German horror classic. It's running at the Institut français d'Écosse in the Old Town, and the whole thing is accompanied by a live pianist playing the original score by Hans Erdmann. If you've seen the film on a telly or a laptop, this is a different way to experience it: the live piano gives the silent images a proper voice, and the candlelight adds a bit of the wrong sort of atmosphere to the room.

There's a fair bit of history behind the film itself. Nosferatu was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, and it's famous for how it dodged the copyright. The filmmakers renamed Count Dracula to Count Orlok, a change that didn't fool Stoker's heirs; they sued, and at one point every copy of the film was ordered destroyed. A few prints survived, and it went on to become one of the most influential masterpieces in cinema. This is an abridged version, running about 60 minutes on a 13-foot screen, so it's a manageable length for a Friday night.

The venue is the Institut français d'Écosse, a cultural centre that's been promoting French language and culture in Scotland since 1946. It's part of the wider Institut Français network and is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, so the screening sits within a wider season of things happening there. It's a good spot in the Old Town, and the candlelit setting fits the subject matter well.

Tickets are £10 each via Eventbrite, with a booking fee on top. The screening is suitable for ages 10 and over, and there's no food or drink allowed in the auditorium, so it's just you and the screen. If you're after a proper Halloween-season outing that's more about the cinema than the party, this is a solid shout.