Silents Synced: Radiohead x Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Silents Synced is pairing F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu with Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac at Gloucester Guildhall on Thursday 29 October. It's part of their wider project, which puts classic silent films on the big screen with epic rock music to give them a different kind of life.

At the centre is Nosferatu, Murnau's 1922 unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's the quintessential silent vampire film, and its Graf Orlok, played by Max Schreck, is a nightmarish, spidery creature with a bulbous head and taloned claws — often described as one of the most genuinely disturbing incarnations of vampirism ever put on film. That's the image that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

That particular kind of dread gets a new soundtrack here. The night is scored with Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), the two records Radiohead released back-to-back as they moved away from guitar-led rock and into the electronic, textural territory they've stayed in ever since. Hearing those two albums run through the Guildhall's sound system while Orlok creeps across the screen is a far cry from watching the film in silence.

There's a bit of a full-circle moment to the venue, too. Gloucester Guildhall is the county's premier arts space, housed in a building that opened in 1892 on the site of Sir Thomas Rich's Blue Coat School and refurbished between 1985 and 1988. It's earned a reputation as 'The County's Liveliest Venue' and has hosted national acts including Radiohead themselves, along with Muse, Primal Scream and Lily Allen, and comedians like Frankie Boyle and Jeremy Hardy. This time, Radiohead's music returns to the Guildhall, just not in the way you'd expect.

It starts at 19:00 on Thursday 29 October. Tickets are £9.00 for adults and £6.60 for concessions.