A decade after The Story of Film: An Odyssey, an expansive inquiry into the state of moviemaking in the 20th century, filmmaker Mark Cousins returns with an epic, hopeful tale of cinematic innovation from around the globe. The Story of Film: A New Generation, turns its meticulously gaze on world cinema from 2010-2021, using a surprising range of works—including JOKER, FROZEN and CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR—as launchpads to explore recurring themes and emerging motifs. Touching on everything from PARASITE and THE FAREWELL to BLACK PANTHER, Cousins seeks out films, filmmakers & communities under-represented in traditional film histories, with an emphasis on Asian & Middle Eastern works, boundary-pushing documentaries, and films that see gender in new ways. And as the recent pandemic recedes, Cousins ponders what comes next in the streaming age: how have we changed as cinephiles, and how moviegoing will continue to transform in the digital century, to our collective joy and wonder.

“This is an unashamed celebration of cinema as an art-form: Cousins is an aesthete.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“And for those who appreciate the director’s wide-eyed and open-hearted way of looking at cinema, the documentary is brimming with clips sure to expand their horizons.” Peter Debuge, Variety

“What sets it soaring is the discerning guide at its helm, one whose curatorial exultation and rigor are also calming, reassuring—a welcome voice in cacophonous times.” Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

Shot down after fleeing a coup and extracting a drug lord from Guinea-Bissau, the legendary mercenaries known as the Bangui Hyenas -- Chaka, Rafa and Midnight -- must stash their stolen gold bounty, lay low long enough to repair and refuel their plane and escape back to Dakar, Senegal. When they take refuge at a holiday camp in the coastal region of Sine-Saloum, they do their best to blend in with their fellow guests; including a mute named Awa, with secrets of her own, and a policeman who may be on their tail, but it's Chaka who happens to be hiding the darkest secret of them all. Unbeknownst to the other Hyenas, he's brought them there for a reason and once his past catches up to him, his decisions have devastating consequences, threatening to unleash hell on them all.

“By turns horrific and hilarious, touching and repulsive, it showcases West Africa as an emerging force in contemporary cinema.” Alex Saveliev, Film Threat

“Revenge is a dish served with considerable style and imagination in Saloum, a fast and furious crime-horror-thriller that twists and turns its way around the mangroves, islets and inlets of Senegal’s Sine-Saloum coastal region.” Richard Kuipers, Variety

“Spirituality, morality, mythology, and mysticism get thrown into a gritty crime thriller blender, culminating in a refreshingly unique type of genre-bender.” Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

“This is one of the most satisfying films, genre or otherwise, of the year.” Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

The Anti-Banality Union is an anonymous collective who re-cut Hollywood blockbusters into new feature-length films. Their work has been screened at Spectacle Theater, the Museum of Art and Design, Maysles Documentary Center, and several undisclosed squats & communes.

When Earth turns out to be a sinking ship, humanity must quickly find a replacement—or so the private space industry and its investors would have us believe. But the planet hasn't given up the fight just yet, and when the world's governments declare war on Earth, they are signing up for a battle unlike anything civilization has ever witnessed. As Earth prepares for its last stand, it finds some unlikely allies from within the ranks of its greatest foe: humans. With a star-studded cast and astronomical production values—painstakingly purloined from some of the biggest blockbusters of the past three decades—Earth II is the most expensive climate disaster epic to be produced for no money.

A member of the Anti-Banality Union will be in attendance.

“Drawing from nearly twenty years of recurring cinematic tropes—prophetic scientists, stone-faced world leaders, and lone saviors—Earth II offers a refreshing meta-narrative built on equal parts panic and hilarity.” Caroline Golum, Screen Slate

The filmmakers behind the groundbreaking art-sci-fi masterpiece VANISHING WAVES (2012) return with VESPER. After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the possibility of a future.

“Their world-building is astounding. Through a mixture of VFX and practical effects, they have crafted a world that feels as ancient as it does futuristic.” Marya E. Gates, The Playlist

“A sci-fi film fascinated by earthly survival, not sleek, state-of-the-art spectacle — though it often dazzles just the same.” Guy Lodge, Variety

“A markedly imaginative dystopian fairytale – an eco-futurist film, if you will – one of those few science-fiction fantasies that comes with an entire world built in believably.” Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily

“Dazzling. Reflects sci-fi strands both East and West, echoing cerebral fare from the Soviet bloc as much as grimy Hollywood spectacles, filmmakers Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper have woven those older threads into something wholly unique — at once modern and timeless, nostalgic for a genre only just created.” Ben Croll, The Wrap

The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic—also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee—is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil. -Criterion Collection

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“An enduring masterpiece—dark, deep, beautiful, aglow.” Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“It’s unlike anything else before and since. And that is why this strident psychological horror stands up now as one of the great pieces of American genre cinema.” Wendy Ide, Times (UK)

One of the most shocking films of all time, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho changed the thriller genre forever. After its original release in 1960, the film was censored for decades... until now. This version restores the film to is original version, as seen in theaters in 1960 and exactly as intended by Alfred Hitchcock. Join the Master of Suspense on a chilling journey as an unsuspecting victim (Janet Leigh) visits the Bates Motel and falls prey to one of cinema's most notorious psychopaths - Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Newly restored in stunning 4k with a 5.1 audio mix.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon “Videodrome,” a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

In June 2021, Seattle lost one of its most dedicated cinephiles, William Kennedy. One of Bill’s final wishes was that people gather to watch VIDEODROME in his memory and that’s what we’re gonna do! A portion of the proceeds from this screening will be donated to Evergreen Playhouse in Centralia, where Bill performed in several productions prior to moving to Seattle.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

4K restoration by MOMA! After altering the landscape of trash-horror history with BASKET CASE and FRANKENHOOKER, the brilliant Frank Henenlotter unleashed BRAIN DAMAGE, his ultimate Grimm’s Fairy Tale for perverted adults. This is a slimy, grimy, gore-soaked slice-of-NYC-life that follows a poor schmo who is addicted to a drug called Aylmer. But unlike heroin or cocaine, Aylmer is a mutant penis monster who needs to eat human brains in order survive. Hooray! BRAIN DAMAGE is hilarious, unsettling, and jam-packed with bad taste gags that would probably cause John Waters to reassess his life’s work. Do not miss.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“Belongs to a tradition of ‘80s-era NYC-centric horror that suggests the cinematic equivalent of graffiti, and has a foot rooted in the outrage voiced by British punk.” Chuck Bowen, Slant

40th anniversary! U.S. Outpost #31, Antarctica, 1982—Twelve men are commissioned to gather physical and natural science data. It is the dead of winter. With six months of darkness ahead of them, they uncover the find of the century. Of a thousand centuries. If only they could put it back…

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

A dizzying horror-action hybrid from director Ryûhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train, Godzilla: Final Wars) that served as one of the landmark entries in the extreme Asian cinema boom of the early 2000’s, Versus tells the story of a bloody, centuries-long conflict between the forces of good and evil, as an escaped convict (Tak Sakaguchi) stranded in the aptly named “Forest of Resurrection” finds himself having to protect a mysterious young woman (Chieko Misaka) from not only the Yakuza, a pair of unhinged cops, and a mysterious, powerful figure known only as “The Man” (Hideo Sakaki)… but the living dead as well! Screening in its definitive “Ultimate” version, featuring technical and narrative improvements overseen by Kitamura himself, as well as nearly 10 extra minutes of action, Versus is a tightly-choreographed, gore-soaked spectacle!

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“The fight choreography and editing are outstanding, and propel the action scenes into a kinetic frenzy of blood and guts.” Michelle Kisner, The Movie Sleuth

“A major splatter fest.” Janice Page, Boston Globe

“Take Yuen Woo-Ping, John Woo, and Takashi Miike and put them in a blender and you’ll get something akin to Versus… Mind-melting to the extreme.” Kaijuman, Letterboxd

35th Anniversary Screening! Author Ander Monson ("Other Electricities", "Vanishing Point") visits the Grand Illusion for this one night only screening of PREDATOR. His new memoir, "Predator", is a scene-by-scene exploration of the film and offers questions and critiques of masculinity, fandom, and their interrelation with acts of mass violence. After the film he will discuss the book and the film with local author and UW professor David Shields (who has never seen PREDATOR!).

“Written in loose-jointed yet elegant prose that guiltily savors PREDATOR's pleasures, Monson’s subtle, twisty appreciations and critiques… transform the movie into a penetrating commentary on the contradictions of manhood. Movie buffs will want to snap this up.” Publishers Weekly

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

30th Anniversary! 4k Restoration! One of the most faithful adaptations of the source, Francis Ford Coppola punctuates his pitch-dark love story about the vampire who travels from Eastern Europe to England in search of human love with baroque flourishes. With Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins, and Tom Waits.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“Indeed, it is a uniquely dreamlike, lushly romantic, highly erotic and prototypically Coppolaesque version of the story – a movie that does for the vampire genre what The Godfather did for the gangster saga, and what Apocalypse Now did for the war movie: raises it to the level of grand opera.” William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Coppola has eschewed state-of-the-art special effects in favor of a panoply of archaic film-school tricks—reversing the film, multiple exposures, playing with the shutter speed—that give his Dracula a stylized, almost hyper-real clarity and a wonderfully singular weirdness.” Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU remains to many viewers the most unsettling vampire film ever made, and its bald, spidery vampire, personified by the diabolical Max Schreck, continues to spawn imitations in the realm of contemporary cinema. Remastered from the acclaimed 35mm restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“It doesn’t scare us, but it haunts us. It shows not that vampires can jump out of shadows, but that evil can grow there, nourished on death.” Roger Ebert

“It’s not just a great horror movie. It’s a poem of horror, a symphony of dread, a film so rapt, mysterious and weirdly lovely it haunts the mind long after it’s over.” The Los Angeles Times

“A masterpiece of the German silent cinema…” Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Watching Nosferatu is like standing in the same room as death itself.” Slant Magazine

SECRET STUDENT SLASHER THRILLRIDE!

A psycho janitor becomes increasingly demented and cynical towards the wealthy students that he has to clean up after. To get some sort of revenge, he laces a random carton of chocolate ice cream in the college store with rat poison and demands one million dollars from the dean in exchange for the location of where he's hidden it. His plan isn't very well thought out though, because before he can get the money, sexy college freshman Denise buys the ice cream and almost dies in the shower later that night. John then becomes obsessed with her, spying on her constantly, and spends the rest of the film playing deranged cat and mouse games trying to finish her off himself.

“This fits in perfectly with slashers we know and love… Great chase scenes with the final girl! She fights back as much as she is realistically terrified.”

“The extended chase scenes are really a thing of beauty, stark and nonstop horror. The metal theme song over the end credits totally rules.”

“It has some awful characters, bad acting, and one scene with a plant that I just… I just have no idea what was going on.”

NEVER RELEASED ON DVD! ONLY $3! ONLY ON VHS!

Newly restored from the original 35mm camera negative! Joel grew up in the church but has recently started questioning his beliefs. After sensing a supernatural presence from his deceased father, Joel becomes compelled to visit his cousin in New York. But shortly after arriving, they become embroiled in a series of mysterious homicides of local men, all of whom were last seen in the company of a mysterious and beautiful woman. Beautifully photographed by Ernest Dickerson (DO THE RIGHT THING) and starring Kadeem Hardison (I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA) and Samuel L. Jackson (PULP FICTION), this sole directorial effort from child actor James Bond III is a macabre, neon-tinged portrait of late 1980s Brooklyn. The movie blends supernatural horror and religious mysticism, punctuated by an electrifying hip hop and R&B soundtrack.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“Contributes to a Black filmmaking tradition that does not wish to replicate the sensibilities or aesthetic leanings… of Hollywood.” Robin R. Means Coleman, author of Horror Noire

A special 90th anniversary double feature with two of the most infamously shocking pre-Code horror films of all. Both movies – seething with body horror, deviant sexuality, gruesome violence and revenge – remain disturbing and controversial to this day. Plus spooky shorts and cartoons. All on 16mm film!

Few films have the scandalous pedigree of FREAKS (1932). With a cast including 20 actual sideshow performers, many with severe deformities, its unflinching yet sympathetic portrayal first invites and then subverts exploitational voyeurism, while plunging us into a pitch-black tale of betrayal, murder, and horrific revenge. Pulled from release and banned for decades, the film destroyed the career of veteran director Tod Browning. Flawed, marred further still by censorship, beset with its loathsome reputation, FREAKS nonetheless surmounts its baggage to stand as a thought provoking and truly unforgettable singularity.

PLUS: A SECRET SECOND PRE-CODE SHOCKER (also 1932) – too horrifying to reveal! Similarly reviled upon release for its sadistic brutality and perverse sexuality, future remakes have failed to capture the dark magic of amoral ferocity at its heart. Decried as “repulsive,” “unnatural” and “putrid,” it was banned outright in 14 states, numerous countries, and no less than three times in Britain! But with masterful expressionistic cinematography, standout performances and grimly enduring themes, it has evolved from feral orphan to an acknowledged classic.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“Full of iconic moments of pure cinema, pulp horror, carny noir, perverse melodrama – FREAKS is still unclassifiable after many decades. Still sick, twisted, perverse and profoundly human. Pickled in a jar of bile, it contains Browning’s view of the world at its purest.” Guillermo Del Toro, Sight and Sound

“No excuse for making a production of this kind.” Outraged exhibitor, 1932

Not even COVID can stop Satan! Presented by Bat City Cinema and the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), with additional support from the Sprocket Society.

AGFA's Head Archivist (and former GI programmer) brings his Bat City Cinema show to the Grand Illusion for an explosion of evil on 16mm like no other! Two ultra-rare slices of Satanic Panic-era madness, plus trailers, cartoons and shorts that we're 99.9% sure you've never seen before. Be there or be forever square!

SATAN WAR (1979) – Invisible groping hands, hard-to-clean evil goo, and a crucifix that just won’t stay upright await you in this stoned mix of THE ENTITY and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. One of only two prints in existence!

SPECTRE (1977) – One of the weirdest TV movies ever made! This Gene Roddenberry penned mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Strange will leave you bewildered with its mystifying G-rated Satanic orgies and rubber-suit monsters!

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

4K Restoration with a 5.1 audio mix! In Italy, it was considered the 'unofficial sequel' to DAWN OF THE DEAD. In England, it was known as ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS and banned as obscene. In America, it was called ZOMBIE and advertised with the depraved tag line "WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU!" Tisa Farrow (THE GRIM REAPER), Ian McCulloch (CONTAMINATION), Al Cliver (CANNIBALS), and Richard Johnson (THE HAUNTING) star in this worldwide splatter sensation directed by 'Maestro Of Gore' Lucio Fulci (THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, THE NEW YORK RIPPER) that remains one of the most eye-skewering, skin-ripping, gore-gushingly graphic horror hits of all time!

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“Beneath the video nasty hysteria lies a horror of substantial craft and skill. Its iconic synth theme is on a par with the work of Goblin, whilst its rich cinematography makes the very most of the film’s luscious locales.” Daniel Green, Cinevue

4K Restoration with a 5.1 audio mix! The seven dreaded gateways to hell are concealed in seven cursed places... And on the day the gates of hell are opened, the dead will walk the earth! From legendary Italian horror master Lucio Fulci comes the ultimate classic of supernatural terror. A cursed hotel, built over one of the seven gateways to hell, becomes a malevolent abyss that begins devouring both the bodies and the souls of all who enter in a graphic frenzy of gory crucifixions, brutal chain-whippings, eyeball impalements, sulphuric acid meltdowns, flesh-eating tarantulas, throat-shredding demon dogs and ravenous bloodthirsty zombies. THE BEYOND: THE COMPOSER’S CUT features Fabio Frizzi’s expanded score for THE BEYOND in a brand-new 4K presentation scanned from the original camera negatives.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

“Lucio Fulci’s masterpiece. The screen’s scariest zombie movie ever!” Tony Timpone, Fangoria

Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton (Fear Itself, Beyond Clueless) brings his one-of-a-kind reflection on the ephemeral nature of celluloid to the Grand Illusion. The Afterlight itself exists as a single 35mm film print. Further eroding every time it screens, the film is a living document of its life in circulation. Eventually it will disappear entirely. Fragments of hundreds of films from around the world bring together an ensemble cast of actors with one thing in common: each is no longer alive. Together, they contend with a fragile existence lived solely through these traces of their work.

“The viewing experience is akin to watching an Apichatpong Weerasethakul film – that meditative, trance-like state of reverie.” Marina Ashioti, Little White Lies