FILMusic: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Explore the duality of man this Halloween with a double bill of silent horror classics, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Fall of the House of Usher, with live soundtracks from Leeds City Organist Darius Battiwalla.  

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella, the film follows Dr. Jekyll, a kind but curious doctor, who is goaded by his fiancé’s father into researching a way to separate the good and evil inherent in man. The result – a potion which transforms him into the cruel and hideous Mr. Hyde, enabling the good doctor to lead a second life of indulgence and sin. But the more time Jekyll spends as Hyde, the harder it is to keep the two lives apart from each other… 

Critics described Hyde’s make up as the most ghastly ever seen before in film, though the truth is much of the ghastliness was down to John Barrymore’s terrifying performance. 

Preceding it will be The Fall of the House of Usher, an experimental short film that creates an otherworldly sense of unease using superimpositions, prisms, and other early special effects.