The Phantom of the Byre

A silent monster gets a new voice

St Andrews has no shortage of spooky sights: medieval castles, darkened closes, centuries-old ruins, and, every week, students wandering home from the Union looking faintly undead. Yet even in a town so steeped in the gothic, the arrival of a genuine cinematic monster is cause for attention. On 16 October, in honour of Halloween, the 1925 silent film The Phantom of the Opera will haunt the Byre Theatre, emerging from the shadows once more with a newly composed live score by Scottish composers Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman.

Released 79 years before the questionable film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sensational Phantom musical, the 1925 version has long been famous for its extravagant costumes, elaborate sets, and bloodcurdling performance from its leading man, Lon Chaney. Adapted from the 1910 novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, the film follows the intense relationship between a young singer at the Paris Opera House, Christine Daae (Mary Philbin), and her mysterious, masked music tutor known as the Phantom (Chaney). Their involvement soon descends into an opulent nightmare of seduction, bloodshed, and intrigue, as romance and horror become increasingly difficult to disentangle. 

For a story so intimately bound to musical performance, the film’s return to the screen alongside a live score feels particularly fitting. Silent cinema was, after all, never truly silent: movies were accompanied by musicians whose performances were meant to reflect the mood, emotion, and rhythm of each scene. When Phantom was released, audiences in St Andrews likely would have experienced it with orchestral accompaniment at the university-affiliated Cinema House on North Street, which was known for its large live band. While the Cinema House closed in 1979, the Byre Theatre's 2026 collaboration with Wasylyk and Perman revives that type of movie-going experience, transforming it for the modern era.

According to the Byre's website, the film’s new score, called House With A Curse, will feature a contemporary musical vocabulary of “opera, neo-classical, acoustic and electronic instruments with elements of sound design.” This combination of old and new befits Phantom, because the film itself is famous for existing at the intersection of spectacle and sound. The score therefore draws attention to the crucial role that sound, or its absence, plays in creating the Phantom’s sense of menace. Much of what makes Chaney’s character so terrifying is derived from what is not seen or heard, like his voice from the depths of the Opera House to guide Christine or her scream when he removes his mask to reveal his disfigured face. Ultimately, it is the film’s images, rather than its silences, that have lingered most vividly in the cultural memory.

The ‘reveal’ of the Phantom’s face is the film’s most enduring scene, and perhaps its most effective reminder that, despite the score’s modernisation of the film for new audiences, some things need no updating. Chaney’s visage remains as grotesque and unsettling nearly a century later as it was upon the film’s release — Chaney himself created the look through greasepaint, gluing his ears against his head, and threading metal wires into his nose to pull his nostrils upwards. Whether Chaney’s makeup really sent audiences screaming and fainting (as legend claims) is impossible to know, but nevertheless, the Phantom’s appearance remains enduringly terrifying, and worth revisiting. In a town already crowded with gothic legends, the Byre’s new production promises to treat the Phantom less like a relic of silent cinema and more like a visitor from another world — one that St Andrews is more than prepared to welcome.

Image from Wikimedia Commons