Sounds of witchcraft at the pavilion

The film is a documentary of witchcraft and a study of how human superstition, coupled with a lack of understanding of the causes of things such as mental illness and disease, may have led to the witchcraft hysteria of the early modern period.

Made by in 1922, the Scandinavian piece attempts to examine the historical superstitions and paranoia of the time.

The film also contains iconic imagery which is still associated with the horror genre.

The rarely seen work is now being shown with Geoff's groundbreaking score on the hammered dulcimer.

Geoff is recognised as a virtuoso on the unusual instrument and has pioneered new performance techniques.

The instrument, of his own design, allows him to play tones which would otherwise be impossible.

Geoff said: "It gives me a much broader palette to work from. Haxan has these different emotions and the instrument gives me more options to try to capture that."

He also thinks people should be drawn to Haxan as a piece of rarely seen, unique film making and not be put off by the subject matter.

He said: "It's not the scary thing everyone assumes it is, although that's not to say it isn't scary in places."

"It has a lot of different themes running through it. It is darkly funny in places. It has its funny moments and can be quite sad too.

"There's one part of the film where, and I don't want to give too much away, a lady is falsely accused of witchcraft and to avoid torture she makes up a story and that's what we see. It's actually very sad and is illustrating the persecution that went on.

"You do feel a massive responsibility doing something like this. For most people this will be the only chance they get to see it - probably the only chance with my score anyway. And you want to do justice to what the film maker has done. You would like people to go away remembering it and I think that's the best thing for a composer if you help people to do that.

"As an artist, I respond to what is happening on screen but I also have to capture the mood and work out what the film maker was thinking at the time. It's a challenge."

Although Geoff points out he most definitely doesn't have any leanings towards the occult, the subject matter helped to stimulate him as an artist.

He added: "I'm not in to witchcraft or anything like that. The film appealed to me because it is multi-layered. It has these levels of darkness, but also humour and sadness. Because it is broad, it is suited to what I do.

"We have a question and answer session afterwards too and they are always pretty good value. I'm pretty open and people can ask me things about the performance.

"I did one not so long ago and there were actually some witches in the audience - they were nice enough!"

The film is certificate 15. Tickets cost 8 and the performance is at 8pm.