DENNIS JAMES HOSTS HALLOWEEN
Put on your mask and prepare for the scare

Join world-renowned pipe organist Dennis James this Halloween season as he puts his own spooky musical twist on Nosferatu, a seminal horror movie from the silent-film era.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, a 1922 German Expressionist film directed by F.W. Murnau and based closely on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, stars Max Schreck as an unforgettably creepy Transylvanian vampire named Count Orlok.

Nosferatu has outlasted many other films of the silent era, despite the fact that only one copy of the film survived the 1920s. (Other copies were destroyed after Stoker’s widow accused the film’s producers of copyright infringement.)

The singularly spooky classic thus earns the distinction of being the earliest surviving screen adaptation of Stoker’s 1897 novel, albeit an unauthorized one. It’s a black-and-white masterpiece of terror, a silent film many experts still consider to be the most eerie and effective portrayal of theDracula legend.

And James makesNosferatu even more chilling. Expertly matching the action on screen, he coaxes lushly sonorous tones from the famed Roosevelt IU Auditorium organ, one of the largest pipe organs in the United States.

An IU student in the 1960s, James has dedicated his career to the theatrical tradition of pipe organ performance. He’s played virtually everywhere theater pipe organs can be found, from restored movie palaces throughout North America to concert halls and theaters in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

And he’s a perennial holiday favorite here at his alma mater. So don your vampire cape and join James as he returns to his old haunt.