Film screening: The Order
PhilaMoca
531 N 12th St.
Philadelphia
Oct. 27, 2026
New York, London, Detroit, Los Angeles; punk rock’s history is — in part — a story of cities. Above anything, these places have shaped the perspectives of their residents, which has in turn influenced the music, art and culture that they produce. Philadelphia, often underrated as a hotspot for punk rock, has still managed to maintain a vital underground scene for decades. Without question, one of the most important bands to emerge from the city’s punk lineage were horror-influenced hardcore legends Ink & Dagger. Formed in the mid ‘90s by guitarist Don Devore and singer Sean Patrick McCabe, the band combined furious instrumentation with lyrics that were equally horrific and profound. In 1999, the band broke up and within the year McCabe would die suddenly at the age of 27. For most bands, the story would end there, but in 2010 Ink & Dagger briefly reformed with vocalist Ricky Geoff taking over for McCabe. Today, a new film seeks to write the closing chapter that this daring and influential band deserves. Nathaniel C. Shannon’s experimental documentary The Order offers a look into the fucked up, macabre world of Philadelphia’s greatest and strangest hardcore band. As attendees settled into their seats at PhilaMOCA, a compilation of clips were projected onto the screen. Excerpts from retro creature features and odd scenes from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Ren & Stimpy played alongside random local ads and foreboding ambient music. At the start of the screening, the lights dropped out and the screen sat blank while the sound of ghostly, distorted voices played in the house sound system. We sat there in darkness for close to two minutes before a single quote appeared on screen that read:
“Philadelphia is a city older than America.”
From there, one of the film’s many narrators describes Philadelphia as “an ancient and evil city,” the former home of Poe and Bram Stoker, built on a foundation of blood and the theft of indigenous land. While The Order is packed with history, it does not chronologically recount Ink & Dagger’s story. Instead, the interviews, performance footage and philosophical ruminations on vampirism paint a picture of a band who created something unique and powerful out of a violent and chaotic environment. Shot entirely in black and white, the film employs clever visual techniques, like glitchy edits of the show footage and several stop-motion vignettes that give the film a trippy, otherworldly atmosphere. Images of the Move bombing and news clips of the Frankford Slasher add context to the dangerous character of the city that the band was born out of. Immediately following the screening, Devore performed a live musical set of gorgeous and noisy sounds, providing a perfect bookend to the film. Author Erik Bader then read a powerful excerpt from The Philadelphia Society of Future Vampires, a book included with the recently released Ink & Dagger boxed. Bader then joined Devore, Keith Montgomery, Nathaniel Shannon and Robby Redcheeks for a panel discussion about the band’s history and the film. The hardcore kids who became vampires were like nothing this world has ever seen. As a culture made for and by misfits, punk rock and bands like Ink & Dagger will always have a home in Philadelphia.
