Big Top plays a live score to silent horror classic The Unknown at the Shadbolt Centre, November 1

Director Tod Browning’s 1927 film starring Lon Chaney is characterized by sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, and disfigurement

SPONSORED POST BY Shadbolt Centre for the Arts

Big Top

 
 

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts presents The Unknown, a silent horror classic presented with an original live score by Big Top, on November 1 at 7:30 pm.

The Unknown is the most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between director Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney. It features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife-thrower Alonzo, whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant drives him to unspeakable extremes. With sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax, Browning wrings every last frisson from the 1927 film’s lurid premise.

Vancouver-based Big Top creates and performs an instrumental soundtrack to the film. The band’s music is a tip of the hat to Ennio Morricone’s soundscapes with a bit of circus style thrown in for good measure—cinematic, atmospheric guitar-based instrumentals.

Tickets to The Unknown are available through the Shadbolt Centre.


Post sponsored by Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.

 
 
 

Related Articles

Featured
VIFF Live announces 2026 program of film screenings, immersive concerts, and “reworlding”
VIFF Live announces 2026 program of film screenings, immersive concerts, and “reworlding”

The series includes appearances by Canadian and international artists, including throat-singing duo Silla, composer Kelly Moran, and experimental rock act Xiu Xiu

Austin Powers swings, Andrea Superstein sings at VIFF Centre on July 25
Austin Powers swings, Andrea Superstein sings at VIFF Centre on July 25

As part of VIFF Live, Juno-nominated artist will perform a set of classic Burt Bacharach material before a screening of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Unlock serious savings at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival with VIFF+ memberships
Unlock serious savings at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival with VIFF+ memberships

Save up to 30 percent on festival packs and passes—and get exclusive access to festival tickets 24 hours before they go on sale to the general public

Local theatre artists’ project King Arthur’s Night culminates in a buoyant new film that blurs documentary and fantasy
Local theatre artists’ project King Arthur’s Night culminates in a buoyant new film that blurs documentary and fantasy

Screening at VIFF Centre starting July 10, John Bolton–helmed movie stars Niall McNeil, Marcus Youssef, Veda Hille, Nathan Kay, and more, in a mix of artists with and without Down syndrome

Canada Day Animation Jamboree celebrates National Film Board classics, at the Rio Theatre July 1
Canada Day Animation Jamboree celebrates National Film Board classics, at the Rio Theatre July 1

Oscar-winning Vancouver animator David Fine curates some of his favourite shorts, plus his own Animal Behaviour and Bob’s Birthday

Screenings at The Cinematheque and VIFF Centre bring past and future into focus on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21
Screenings at The Cinematheque and VIFF Centre bring past and future into focus on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21

Ranging from 1970s-era experiments in animation to an urgently current documentary, the offerings delve into the meaning of community and the power of place names

Women outwit Iran’s ban on watching World Cup in Offside, at Deckchair Cinema, June 25
Women outwit Iran’s ban on watching World Cup in Offside, at Deckchair Cinema, June 25

Screened outdoors at Cates Deck, outside The Polygon Gallery, Jafar Panahi’s guerrilla-style 2006 comedy captures the mood of World Cup fever

Deckchair Cinema returns to The Polygon Gallery's waterfront Cates Deck this summer, starting June 25
Deckchair Cinema returns to The Polygon Gallery's waterfront Cates Deck this summer, starting June 25

This year’s series features al fresco screenings of top-tier sports films, from Shaolin Soccer to A League of Their Own

B.C. filmmakers create grassroots vision of liberation and risk with phantasmagoric feature Lucid
B.C. filmmakers create grassroots vision of liberation and risk with phantasmagoric feature Lucid

Amid small miracles, and also tragedies, Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall conjured analogue, ’90s-era strangeness by adopting the spirit of a community art project

Hear the Orpheum’s original Wurlitzer accompanying The Lodger on May 25
Hear the Orpheum’s original Wurlitzer accompanying The Lodger on May 25

The theatre’s organ was installed in 1927—the same year Alfred Hitchcock released his first thriller, about a Jack the Ripper–esque killer

The Cinematheque hosts Love, Sex, Religion, Death: The Complete Films of Terence Davies, May 21 to June 28
The Cinematheque hosts Love, Sex, Religion, Death: The Complete Films of Terence Davies, May 21 to June 28

Retrospective unites the late British filmmaker’s feature-length works, including A Quiet Passion and Distant Voices, Still Lives

HAUI’s “Aunt Harriet” draws together fragments of history at rEvolver Festival, May 24
HAUI’s “Aunt Harriet” draws together fragments of history at rEvolver Festival, May 24

Short film poetically remembers a Black woman from an old photograph

Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset peers into hidden daily lives of Tibetan-Canadian community
Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset peers into hidden daily lives of Tibetan-Canadian community

With influences including Hideaki Anno and Alfred Hitchcock, debut feature by Surrey-raised director builds uncanny atmosphere as a quiet young woman points her camera into neighbours’ windows

Saigon Story, Namesake təm kʷaθ nan among winners at DOXA 2026 awards
Saigon Story, Namesake təm kʷaθ nan among winners at DOXA 2026 awards

Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific wins Nigel Moore Award; And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads و الأسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا named best feature

The Last One for the Road follows two barflies through the back side of Veneto, at VIFF Centre, to May 14
The Last One for the Road follows two barflies through the back side of Veneto, at VIFF Centre, to May 14

Down-and-out buddies follow the randomness of life in evocatively shot Italian film by Francesco Sossai

Acclaimed director Sophy Romvari creates emotion-charged family portrait in Blue Heron
Acclaimed director Sophy Romvari creates emotion-charged family portrait in Blue Heron

At the VIFF Centre, debut feature by fast-rising filmmaker splices past and present in a powerful story that is part time-travel fiction, part nostalgic vision of ’90s Vancouver Island

Vancouver director Teresa Alfeld’s documentary Hearse Chasing debuts at VIFF Centre, May 10
Vancouver director Teresa Alfeld’s documentary Hearse Chasing debuts at VIFF Centre, May 10

The poignant film focuses on Vancouver singer-songwriter Cassidy Waring as she delves into an unresolved family tragedy

Stories of Self-Determination: Three Films from Central Asia lands at The Cinematheque, May 16 & 24
Stories of Self-Determination: Three Films from Central Asia lands at The Cinematheque, May 16 & 24

Without Fear, Early Cranes, and The Touch offer perspectives on preserving cultural identity amid hardship

Music review: Beautiful Violence captures Joan of Arc’s existential horrors
Music review: Beautiful Violence captures Joan of Arc’s existential horrors

Local duo’s live score to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 historical drama employed drones and dissonance to evocative effect

Vancouver Civic Theatres caps this season’s Silent Movie Mondays series with The Lodger, May 25
Vancouver Civic Theatres caps this season’s Silent Movie Mondays series with The Lodger, May 25

Koos van Nieuwkoop plays the historic Wurlitzer organ live to Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 thriller

Bayaan and Saints and Warriors among this year's Sundar Prize Film Festival winners
Bayaan and Saints and Warriors among this year's Sundar Prize Film Festival winners

Recipients were unveiled during a ceremony at Landmark Cinemas Guildford

SCREEN, MUSICStir VancouverPartner Content, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Shadbolt Centre