San Francisco International Film Festival continues its tradition of uniting contemporary musicians to classic films. This year, Carl Theodore Dryer’s atmospheric 1932 horror classic Vampyr, will be combined with live music by Mercury Rev, Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins), Jesse Chandler (Midlake) and Michael Jerome Moore (Better than Ezra). This mesmerizing labyrinth of a film, along with far-out compositions from this indie rock dream team, will be sure to cross into new dimensions—and maybe raise the dead.

Vampyr is a German–French horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. In all it’s black and white, horror classic glory, the film follows a drifter, obsessed with the supernatural. He stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire…and that’s all we’re going to say. Creeping shadows, brooding fogs, strange reflections and are all there—adding to the dream-like mood of haunted dread and vintage horror fun.

Mercury Rev has been a notable name in alternative rock since the band formed in Buffalo, New York, in the 1980s. Their 1998 strings-drenched release Deserter’s Songs was named “Best Album of the Year” by NME Magazine and was recently voted in the Top 200 albums of all time by Uncut Magazine.

For this special performance at the equally classic Castro Theater, the alt-rock duo Jonathan Donahue (vocals, guitars) and Sean Mackowiak aka “Grasshopper” (guitars, clarinet) who are Mercury Rev, are teaming up with Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins (who is also the head of their label Bella Union), Jesse Chandler (Midlake) and Michael Jerome Moore (Better than Ezra) have teamed up to create a five-piece band.

+++ Tickets to this event are $20 for SFFS members, $25 for the general public. The film fest continues through May 5, find additional programming at sffs.org.

Sponsored by SF Station, co-presented by Noise Pop and with support from Mod Lang Records.

• Tag: film, film fest, Movie, sfiff