Halloween is just a week away, and the Suttons Bay Community Theatre is helping people get into the spirit by screening a classic scary movie.
They’re showing “Nosferatu,” a 1922 silent movie adapting Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” at 7 p.m. Saturday, with doors opening an hour earlier.
Before sound was incorporated into the films themselves, silent movies were often accompanied by live music and this screening will not be any different. But whereas old movie theaters often only had an organist, “Nosferatu” at the Bay Theatre will feature a full band with drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, glockenspiel, and two horn players, making it as much a concert as a film showing.
The band providing the live soundtrack is called Gramps the Vamp, and it’s led by Maxx McGathey, a Chicago-based composer and arranger. McGathey said he and the band wrote their own soundtrack for “Nosferatu” for a live music series in Chicago back in 2017. They’ve performed it at independent movie theaters across the Midwest every Halloween season since then.
Describing their score, McGathey said it contains “dreamy themes” and “hardhitting heavy sections.” According to the group’s bandcamp. com page, they are “focusing on exploring the dark side of groove-based music.”
McGathey said Gramps the Vamp started as a funk band composed of students at Loyola University in Chicago. However, their first live show happened to be at a house party around Halloween. Taking inspiration from the spooky season, the band decided to put a dark twist on their groovy sound, and it was well received by the partygoers.
“This first show worked really well, so we kept going down that path,” McGathey said.
Many groups have tried their own dark and twisted take on dance music over the years, but there’s not one universallyagreed- upon name for the genre. McGathey and Gramps the Vamp describe themselves as a “doom funk” band. They’re recorded several albums and soundtracked a total of eight movies so far.
“Nosferatu” was released over a hundred years ago and is a formally innovative film, according to a Bay Theatre press release. The film stars Max Schreck, who was transformed for his role as a vampire through highly distinct makeup and prosthetics. Viewers may recognize several frames in the film, as they are often imitated and referenced in other media.
At its premiere in 1922, moviegoers were encouraged to attend in costume. A press release by the Bay Theatre similarly invites its guests to wear Halloween costumes to the Saturday showing as well. Tickets can be purchased at thebaytheatre. com or at the theater’s entrance on the night of the event.
