AS part of Illuminating York, the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, will screen Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1932 horror film Vampyr tomorrow night with live musical accompaniment as a special pre-Hallowe’en event at 7.30pm.

Pianist Jonathan Best, founder of the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, will add to the scary atmosphere by performing a soundtrack that draws together story-telling skills developed in a career in theatre and opera. To alleviate the tension, the evening promises a glass of wine provided by the Geoff Walker Wine Shop and a cheese platter from Love Cheese.

Vampyr remains one of the greatest horror films of all time 84 years after its first screening in Berlin. Its story revolves around a traveller and explorer of the supernatural who arrives at an old inn in a village in thrall to vampiric activity. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer achieves an escalating sense of dread in an atmosphere akin to a waking dream where nothing is as it seems. The limited and subtitled dialogue is secondary to the extraordinarily advanced technical effects.

The NCEM’s burgeoning film programme will continue on November 13 at 2pm with a free screening of The Battle Of The Somme, shot and screened in 1916 as the battle raged in France. It will be shown as a special Remembrance Day tribute to the men who perished in the battle, particularly those from the Walmgate community who are commemorated on the war memorial in St Margaret’s Church, now the NCEM.

Tickets for Vampyr cost £14. Bookings for both screenings can be made on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk