TAMIU Hosts Live Organ Accompaniment of Silent Classic ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ Oct. 27

One of the standard-bearers of silent horror films, the 1920 German classic, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” will be shown accompanied by live organ on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m.  in Texas A&M International University’s (TAMIU) Center for the Fine and Performing Arts’ Recital Hall.

Admission is free of charge and open to all and offers an intriguing way to celebrate the Halloween season. 

University organist Dr. Colin Campbell will perform his live improvisation on the Sharkey Corrigan Organ to accompany the silent horror film. 

Considered a quintessential work of German Expressionist Cinema, the film was directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer.   

It focuses on an insane hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to commit murders. The film has a striking visual style, featuring sharp-pointed forms and structures and landscapes that seem to lean and twist at odd angles. 

The writers, Janowitz and Mayer, were pacifists who had grown leery of authority after their experiences with the military during World War I.

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” has long been praised as  a film revolutionary for its time and might be considered  the first true horror film, cinema’s first cult film and the grandfather of what we now know as arthouse films. 

The late critic Roger Ebert claimed it “arguably the first true horror film.”  It has drawn attention to the merit of German cinema and helped influence American films, especially those in the horror or film noir genres. 

The offering is the latest in a series called “Silent Movie Saturdays”  that Dr. Campbell initiated shortly after joining TAMIU’s faculty in 2013.  Other films that he has shared  with live improvised accompaniment have included:  “Que Viva México,” (1932); “Othello” (1922); “The Haunted Castle” (1922); “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Faust,” (1926), “Nosferatu” (1929) and “Birth of a Nation” (1915).

Campbell is a native of South Africa and holds his Ph.D. in Church Music from North-West University of Potchefstroom, South Africa. His Master of Music in Performing Arts-Organ was earned cum laude at the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) in South Africa. He received the Post Graduate Award for the Most Outstanding Dissertation in any discipline. 

His Bachelor of Music was also received cum laude at UPE. He also holds the Performer’s Licentiate in Organ UPLM (Unisa) with distinction from the University of South Africa.

For additional information, contact TAMIU’s Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 956.326.2180, email prmis@tamiu.edu, click on tamiu.edu or visit social media sites on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.