Elgin’s oldest church goes Gothic for Halloween with ‘Nosferatu’ screening by acclaimed organist

On Friday, Oct. 23, First Congregational Church of Elgin will reprise its popular, spooky film event with a showing of the classic 1922 silent film, “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.” Acclaimed organist and silent film historian Ben Model also returns to accompany the film live on the church’s historic pipe organ

The German Expressionist horror film is directed by F.W. Murnau and stars Max Schreck. The film is celebrated for its eerie, shadowy visuals, pioneering outdoor shooting, and unsettling physical performance by Schreck. Set in 1838, real estate agent Thomas Hutter travels to Transylvania to meet Count Orlok, who wants to buy a house in the fictional German town of Wisborg. Orlok turns out to be a vampire, traps Hutter, and sets sail for Wisborg, bringing a plague with him. Hutter’s wife, Ellen, ultimately sacrifices herself to destroy the monster in the sunlight.

The film is an unofficial, unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula.” Producers changed names and settings (turning Dracula into Orlok and London into Wisborg) to try to avoid copyright issues.

The movie will be shown at 7 p.m. in the historic church sanctuary, 256 E. Chicago St. in downtown Elgin. There will be a free-will offering.

Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists and performs on both piano and theater organ. He works full-time presenting and accompanying silent films in a wide variety of venues and festivals around the U.S. and internationally, carrying on a tradition he learned from the late silent film organist Lee Erwin. His home video label Undercrank Productions has released more than three dozen Blu-rays and DVDs of the unheralded gems of the silent film era. Working with film archives as well as with collectors, Model has brought many new undiscovered classics from film cans to film fans.

First Congregational Church is Elgin’s first church and was founded in 1836 in the log cabin home of James T. Gifford. Its historic Romanesque building with Akron-style sanctuary was built in 1889, and the three-manual, 53-rank pipe organ was first erected in 1893 by the Lancashire-Marshall Organ Company of Moline, Ill., and rebuilt in 1997 by Berghaus Pipe Organ Builders of Bellwood, Ill.

Learn more at fcc-elgin.org/event/nosferatu-a-symphony-of-horror/.