Special Events and Series
We’re Moving!
We recently learned that our lease will not be renewed when it expires in February 2025. Our plan has always been to relocate the cinema. Help us build an even grander Grand Illusion!
All Monsters Attack! 2024
Our annual horror series. Vampires! Demons! Puppets! Cannibals! Slashers! Zombies! And so much more!
Now Playing
Coming Soon
Blade II in 35mm
- Thursday, Oct 17, 2024, 7:00pm
- Tuesday, Oct 22, 2024, 7:15pm
- Wednesday, Oct 23, 2024, 7:15pm
BLADE II takes everything that you loved about the action-horror fun machine known as BLADE -- Wesley Snipes wearing sunglasses, Wesley Snipes driving cool cars, and Wesley Snipes destroying vampires -- and multiplies it by a thousand while adding beautiful visuals courtesy of director Guillermo del Toro who filters Blade's pulp origins through a gothic haze of Mario Bava-esque neon, setting the stage for one of the greatest pop-horror action adventure movies to date. Co-presented by Kung Fu Clubhouse!
After searching for an old friend, Blade must align himself with a high-powered team of vampires to take on a greater evil than either has ever faced—a new kind of super-vampire that is itself on a vicious hunt to eradicate both races.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“A B-picture in love with the zest of its comic-book origins, it embodies that medium’s pulse-pounding spiritedness and silliness.” Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
“Blade II is a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons. There are shots here of the insides of vampires that make your average autopsy look like a slow afternoon at Supercuts.” Roger Ebert
Prepare for BLADE II by catching the first BLADE beforehand with our friends at Central Cinema.
The Masque of the Red Death
- Friday, Oct 18, 2024, 7:00pm
- Saturday, Oct 19, 2024, 6:00pm
- Sunday, Oct 20, 2024, 3:45pm
60th anniversary in memory of Roger Corman! In this classic Corman adaptation of one of Edgar Allan Poe's seminal stories, the evil Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), a medieval Italian prince, devoted to the pursuit of evil and the worship of Satan, enjoys the high life in his eerie country castle as the Red Plague destroys the peasant population around him. Featuring stunning cinematography by Nicolas Roeg.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“High camp meets high art in this cheeky Roger Corman flesh-fest that aspires to lofty ideals. A marvel.” Kevin Maher, The Times (UK)
“An expressionist horror-ballet… The Masque of the Red Death moves with a sinuous, unselfconscious elegance.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Charon (aka The Jar) – New Restoration (with director Bruce Toscano)
- Friday, Oct 18, 2024, 9:15pm
After getting into an auto accident with an old man, Paul brings the man back to his apartment to heal him. When the old man mysteriously vanishes, Paul finds himself alone with a curious possession the man had left behind: a jar containing some sort of embryonic creature; a creature that consumes Paul's mind, leading to an onslaught of inexplicable hallucinations that plague Paul at every turn.
CHARON, aka THE JAR, was released by Magnum Entertainment in 1984 and was omnipresent in video rental stores. While the film was shot in scope, the distributor released it in a butchered cropped presentation, cutting out about half of the intended frame in a murky VHS transfer. Now, 40 years later, this new restoration from Terror Vision finally offers director Bruce Toscano’s unique vision in all its beautiful, color-drenched glory, as it was always meant to be seen.
Director Bruce Toscano will be present for a live Q&A along with writer George Bradley joining virtually! Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“Though foolishly in the past tossed aside as a ‘poor man’s Eraserhead’ or other such silliness, The Jar is an astonishingly singular work of harrowing personal expression that will in equal parts confound, enrage, enrapture, endear, and eventually swallow you whole if you let yourself plug into its otherworldly wavelength.” William Morris, Oscarbate Film Collective
“Imagine if Jodorowsky, Lynch and Argento shot a film together while tripping mushrooms in early 1980s Denver! Shot on 35mm, transfered to video, released/mangled on VHS, lost for almost 40 years. This psychotronic mind-bending nightmare has to be seen to be believed!” Theresa Mercado, Vinegar Syndrome / Scream Screen
Coffin Joe double feature: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul and This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse
- Saturday, Oct 19, 2024, 8:15pm
Driven by an overwhelming desire to have a son, the wicked undertaker Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) embarks on a search to find the perfect woman to bear his child. Nothing and no one will get in the way of his blood-splattered quest to propagate his bloodline and secure his only chance at immortality! Defying both military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil's first horror film, writer/director/star José Mojica Marins' AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL is an unforgettable gothic horror classic that introduced the world to the legendary Coffin Joe.
Then, in the even more outrageous sequel, THIS NIGHT I'LL POSSES YOUR CORPSE, Marins' unholy undertaker embarks on an even more brutal campaign of terror. Aided and abetted by his hunchbacked assistant Bruno, will Coffin Joe finally be successful in his quest to find the perfect woman to bear his child?
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“The birth of Brazilian horror as a direct act of blasphemy.” Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Nurse Unseen (with Q&As)
- Sunday, Oct 20, 2024, 12:30pm
- Monday, Oct 21, 2024, 7:00pm
NURSE UNSEEN explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses who risked their lives on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic while facing a resurgence of anti-Asian hate in the streets.
Sunday’s Q&A is sponsored by the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) and will feature the following guest speakers / participants: Arlyn de la Peña, Co-Producer of NURSE UNSEEN, registered nurse and US Army veteran; Nancy Colobong Smith, National President 2024-2025 of American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA); Ligaya Domingo, PhD., National President of Asian Pacific American Labor Association (APALA) and Racial Justice & Education Director at SEIU Healthcare 1199NW; moderated by Emily P. Lawsin, FANHS National President Emerita.
Guests for Monday night’s show TBA.
“A heartfelt and illuminating documentary.” Cleveland International Film Festival
“Nurse Unseen is a love letter honoring the history and humanity of Filipino nurses who have been the backbone of the American caretaking system.” CAAMFest
Lake Michigan Monster
- Sunday, Oct 20, 2024, 6:00pm
From the mind of Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, co-writer and star of HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER is a visually inventive, absurdist cryptozoology tale that combines the spirits of Lovecraft, Raimi, and MST3K and is guaranteed to appeal to the big kid in all of us. Shot on a shoestring budget in black and white, this irreverent ode to classic monster movies of yesteryear finds Captain Seafield (writer/director Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) wishing to slay the hellish sea monster prowling the murky depths. As Seafield’s vengeful obsession with the creature that killed his father consumes him, can his colorful crew hold the show together? Winner of the Audience Award for Best International Feature at the 2019 Fantasia Festival!
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“If the creator of Spongebob Squarepants took all the drugs and created a Halloween episode, it’d look a lot like Lake Michigan Monster.” Joshua Speiser, Film Threat
“It’s a woozy, briny daydream. a gleefully idiotic antidote to everything. Lake Michigan Monster literally makes no sense, and that’s why you need to just hold your breath and dive in.” Richard Whittaker, The Austin Chronicle
Hundreds of Beavers
- Saturday, May 4, 2024, 8:00pm
- Saturday, Jun 1, 2024, 8:30pm
- Saturday, Jul 13, 2024, 8:30pm
- Saturday, Aug 10, 2024, 8:30pm
- Saturday, Sep 7, 2024, 6:15pm
- Sunday, Oct 20, 2024, 8:00pm
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK IN THE FOREST - 6th encore screening added!
In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
Created by Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, the duo behind the modern cult hit LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER (2018).
“Starts strange, gets stranger, and yet remains resolutely adorable… embraces the defiant glee of art cinema and distills it into something so thoroughly pure and sincere that it is surely hard not to fall in love with it.” Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
“It’s sure to develop a significant cult following with its unique mix of silent-era slapstick, animation elements, theme-park-style critter costumes, and general air of inspired absurdity.” Dennis Harvey, Variety
“Steroidally swollen with gags and smarts.” Guy Maddin
Young Frankenstein
- Thursday, Oct 24, 2024, 7:00pm
- Friday, Oct 25, 2024, 7:00pm
- Saturday, Oct 26, 2024, 2:30pm
50th anniversary! A parody that’s become as much of a classic as the movie that inspired it, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN isn’t just one of the best horror-comedies of all time, it’s one of the best comedies, period. Gene Wilder gives a full-tilt performance as the mad doctor’s even madder grandson, alongside Marty Feldman as the doctor’s wacky assistant Igor (pronounced Eye-gor) and Peter Boyle as their tap-dancing creation. Add in Cloris Leachman and Teri Garr in delightfully silly supporting roles, and you’ve got a highly quotable screwball classic.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“This black-and-white parody of the Karloff classic is the most cinematically assured, coherent and (relatively speaking) tasteful of Brooks’s films.” Paul D. Zimmerman, Newsweek
Satan’s Slave (aka Pengabdi Setan)
- Thursday, Oct 24, 2024, 9:30pm
- Saturday, Oct 26, 2024, 5:00pm
The singular chiller that rocked the religious nation of Indonesia, restored from the original camera negative! In 1980, exploitation studio Rapi Films and writer/director Sisworo Gautama Putra (PRIMITIVES, THE WARRIOR) transformed the country’s genre film industry with one of the most groundbreaking shockers in Asian horror history. While mourning the death of his mother, a troubled teen discovers a nightmare world of restless spirits, supernatural vengeance and occult terror.
In Indonesian with English subtitles.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“Hugely influential to a generation of filmmakers.” Fantasia Film Festival
It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This
- Friday, Oct 25, 2024, 9:30pm
A found-footage horror movie 20 years in the making. Never to be released online. Can only be seen in theaters.
When two scary movie fanatics buy an abandoned duplex to shoot their next indie horror film in, they are delighted to find the dilapidated property is even creepier than it appears. Putting their years of horror filmmaking and amateur ghost hunting to use, they team up with an old friend to document the cult of random strangers who gather outside the building in a zombie-like trance. As the three friends gleefully chase their obsession with the supernatural, their investigation becomes an increasingly ecstatic quest to see just how scary their real-life horror movie can get.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“An increasingly uncomfortable descent into the weird, guaranteed to have you leaving the theater chilled.” Matt Konopka, Dread Central
“From its first unflinching moments to the unanswered questions of its conclusion, [this] is the kind of horror that leaves you feeling immersed, unsafe, and afraid to be left in the dark.” Grace Detwiler, Rue Morgue
Silent Madness in 3-D
- Saturday, Oct 26, 2024, 7:00pm
40th anniversary screening in anaglyph 3D! Glasses provided upon admission.
One of the few slashers produced during the early 1980s revival of 3D movies, SILENT MADNESS knows exactly what audiences want. And it delivers. A glitch in the computer system at an asylum for the criminally insane results in the release of the wrong patient - a homicidal maniac named Howard Johns. It’s up to Joan Gilmore (Belinda Montgomery, DYNASTY), one of the institute’s top doctors, to track him down as the killings begin. Utilizing dreamy gelled lighting, excellent 3-D photography from Gerald Feil (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III), and over-the-top kills, SILENT MADNESS is a blast from beginning to end.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“Synths are ravishing. Grit is ingrained. Photography complements the 3-D novelty, resulting in kill scenes that are much more creative than the ones in Friday the 13th 3-D.” Joseph A. Ziemba, Bleeding Skull!
VHS Uber Alles Oct 2024
- Saturday, Oct 26, 2024, 9:30pm
Natalie, a vampire killed by Buffy (yes, that Buffy), calls to her sister Lorelei from beyond the undead grave and demands revenge. However, Lorelei has been trapped in a coffin for five years--how can she possibly get back at Buffy and all her sorority sisters? Luckily, lured by the promise of an abandoned porno stash, a bunch of kids pry open the coffin to release weakened vampire Lorelei...who is no longer strong enough to bite necks, so she must bite her victims in the posterior!
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“This movie feels less like a narrative movie and more like someone made a Dark Brothers or Rinse Dream adult movie mainstream, giving it constant blasts of words and images and a ghost man in a closet and vampires who can move through the timestream and random music video sequences where people are encouraged to ‘Bite Her In the Butt!'” BandSAboutMovies.com
Never released on DVD! Only on VHS! Only $3!
Once Upon a Halloween… Triple Feature Pizza Party
- Sunday, Oct 27, 2024, 4:00pm
Come cozy up with us and settle in for some Halloween stories while scarfing down some pizza.
For this year's triple feature pizza party, we've got three terrifying tales revolving around All Hallows' Eve, featuring creepy castles, vengeful spirits, and spooky cemeteries. The titles are a secret though, so you won't find out what sinister stories will unfold before you until right before the lights go down.
Our regular concessions will be available for purchase at the beginning of the party and throughout the night. The main course will arrive following the first feature. And in addition to satiating the more carnivorous appetites, we'll have options for our vegetarian and vegan friends too.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
Please note: This event is exempt from our masked matinee policy. Though still encouraged, masks are not required for this event.
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight in 35mm
- Monday, Oct 28, 2024, 7:00pm
- Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024, 9:15pm
- Thursday, Oct 31, 2024, 7:00pm
Hello, kiddies! The Crypt-Keeper made his jump to the big SCREAM with this ghoulish tale featuring an all-SCAR cast of character HACKtors in one of the most underrated horror films of the '90s, directed by Ernest R. Dickerson.
Ex-soldier Frank Brayker (William Sadler) is the guardian of an ancient key that can unlock tremendous evil; the sinister Collector (Billy Zane) is a demon who wants the key so he can initiate the apocalypse. On the run from wicked mercenaries for almost 90 years, Brayker finally stops in at a boarding house in New Mexico where — with the help of its residents — he plans to face off against the Collector and his band of ghouls, preventing them from ever seizing the key. Don't miss one of these rare 35mm screenings!
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“Between scenes of splattering gore in which severed heads literally roll across the floor, the movie has a good time spoofing itself and a gallery of mostly sleazy characters who confront a crew of blood-thirsty demons.” Stephen Holden, The New York Times
Hellraiser in 35mm
- Monday, Oct 28, 2024, 9:15pm
- Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024, 7:00pm
- Thursday, Oct 31, 2024, 9:15pm
Ultra rare 35mm screenings of Clive Barker's classic tale of terror!
In the singular first feature directed by the one-of-a-kind horror/fantasy author Clive Barker, Frank (Sean Chapman) inadvertently opens a portal to hell when he tinkers with a box he bought while abroad. The act unleashes gruesome beings called Cenobites, who tear Frank's body apart. When his brother’s family moves into their ancestral home, they find themselves at the mercy of Frank’s reanimated corpse, demanding blood to create fresh flesh on his bones before he’s found by the Cenobites, including Doug Bradley’s infamous Pinhead. Brimming with perverse sexual tension and exquisitely gross practical effects, HELLRAISER creates a wholly unique world that viscerally lives and breathes, slowly oozing new life into the darkest corners of existence in every frame.
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“Horror is at its best when it’s relentless. Clive Barker knows this, and his debut feature as director is so gleefully vicious, so relentlessly grim that it’s going to be very hard for fans of the genre not to like it.” William Thomas, Empire Magazine
The Sprocket Society’s Secret Vault of Terror
- Tuesday, Oct 29, 2024, 7:00pm
A secret triple bill of twisted pre-Code horror classics plus period shorts — all on 16mm and in less than four hours!
From the infernal depths of their secret film vault, The Sprocket Society has exhumed three of the most infamous horror movies of their time. Journey into a depraved nightmare of brutality, murder and perversion, early 1930s Hollywood style.
These short and sick tales of transgression were once censored in Seattle and, even after 90 years, still shock today. Witness the unspeakable cruelty of dangerous lunatics! A slum-dwelling mad scientist! An incestuous necrophiliac Satanist! A sadistic power-crazed genius and his sex-crazed offspring! Spooky shorts and cartoons from the same era will precede each feature.
You will be scarred forever, for there is no escape from…the Secret Vault of Terror!
Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!
“A truly horrible and nauseating bit of extreme sadism.” Variety
“One of the most shocking instances of violence in early sound cinema.” Stephen Prince, Classical Film Violence
“Unbridled, salacious, subversive, and just plain bizarre.” Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood
Film Safari Ghana: The Chronicles of Ninja (with director Andrew Leavold)
- Friday, Nov 1, 2024, 9:15pm
Join gonzo Aussie filmmaker Andrew Leavold (THE SEARCH FOR WENG WENG) on his wildest adventure yet. FILM SAFARI GHANA explores Leavold’s obsession with the work of Ghanaian action movie sensation, Samuel “Ninja” Nkansah. Journeying to Kumasi to meet his hero, Andrew soon finds himself in the starring role of Ninja's slavery-themed action movie, WHITE DEVIL.
FILM SAFARI GHANA mixes film clips, interviews, and cinema-verite footage to create a vivid, vibrant and violent postcard from one of cinema’s final frontiers. It chronicles the history of Ninja and Ghana’s crazed DIY digital film scene, and the birth of a partnership between two of the world’s most outlandish and unconventional directors as they hatch a plan to reteam in Ghana to shoot Leavold’s dream project, a four-foot kung-fu remake of THE HARDER THEY COME.
Director Andrew Leavold will be in attendance for an intro and Q&A.
I’m from Hollywood (with director Lynne Margulies)
- Saturday, Nov 2, 2024, 8:30pm
I'M FROM HOLLYWOOD is the unbelievable true story of comedy legend Andy Kaufman's career in professional wrestling. A lifelong fan of the sport, Kaufman spent most of 1982 feuding with Memphis legend Jerry "The King" Lawler. The film features hard-to-find footage of Kaufman in the ring, as well as interviews from his "Taxi" co-stars, Memphis announcer Lance Russell, and friend Robin Williams. A truly stranger-than-fiction story that needs to be seen to be believed.
This rare screening will feature a Q&A with the film’s director and Andy Kaufman’s partner, Lynne Margulies Osgood! The evening will be hosted by Jon Langmead, author of the new book Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling.
Be sure to arrive early as, before the feature, we will be showing recently restored Super 8 footage shot in the PNW during the late ‘70s showcasing many of the legends from Don Owen’s Portland Wrestling. This recently discovered footage features Northwest wrestling luminaries such as Roddy Piper, “Playboy” Buddy Rose, Dutch Savage, Jimmy Snuka and countless others set to a synthesized soundtrack composed by Greg Meleney.
Limited copies of this footage will be available for purchase on VHS. Copies of Jon Langmead’s book will also be for sale.
Something Better Change (with punk legend Joe Keithley)
- Tuesday, Nov 19, 2024, 7:00pm
These days, there’s a lot of talk about outsiders in politics, but very few people can claim outsider status like Joe Keithley, punk legend turned a dedicated environmentalist and city councilor. SOMETHING BETTER CHANGE follows Keithley’s absolutely fascinating life and career, showing us both his time as the front man of the formative hardcore punk band D.O.A., as well as his campaigns for city council as a Green Party candidate in his hometown of Burnaby, British Columbia. Featuring interviews with other punk luminaries like Jello Biafra and Ian MacKaye, as well as an appearance from Beto O’Rourke, whether you’re a hardcore punk fan or just a civically engaged citizen, Creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine director Scott Crawford’s latest film has a little something for everyone. – Daniel Abelow
Featuring an in-person Q&A with Joe Keithley, filmmaker Scott Crawford, and producer Duff McKagen!
Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)
- Wednesday, Nov 20, 2024, 7:00pm
10th anniversary director's cut! Q&A with filmmaker Scott Crawford.
SALAD DAYS examines the early DIY punk scene in the Nation's Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, Fugazi, and others released their own records and booked their own shows - without major record label constraints or mainstream media scrutiny. Contextually, it was a cultural watershed that predated the alternative music explosion of the 1990s (and the industry's subsequent implosion). Thirty years later, DC's original DIY punk spirit serves as a reminder of the hopefulness of youth, the power of community and the strength of conviction.
This director’s cut will only be available in cinemas and not available on physical media or streaming (at least anytime soon).
Pulp Fiction – New 35mm print!
- Thursday, Nov 21, 2024, 7:00pm
- Friday, Nov 22, 2024, 7:00pm
- Sunday, Nov 24, 2024, 4:00pm
- Monday, Nov 25, 2024, 7:00pm
- Tuesday, Nov 26, 2024, 7:00pm
- Wednesday, Nov 27, 2024, 7:00pm
30th anniversary! New 35mm print of Quentin Tarantino's groundbreaking crime classic!
Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are hitmen with a penchant for philosophical discussions, whose story is interwoven with those of their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), his wife Mia (Uma Thurman), struggling boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), and a nervous pair of armed robbers, "Pumpkin" (Tim Roth) and "Honey Bunny" (Amanda Plummer).
Part of our 20th Anniversary Celebration Series!
“A spectacularly entertaining piece of pop culture.” Todd McCarthy, Variety
“It’s a film that still satisfies like a ‘quarter-pounder with cheese’ – then hits like a bullet to the gut.” Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent
Placebo: This Search For Meaning
- Saturday, Nov 23, 2024, 7:15pm
THIS SEARCH FOR MEANING charts Placebo’s ongoing impact and legacy through a visual meditation on contemporary themes such as surveillance culture & scrutiny, sexuality & gender identity, addiction & trauma, as well as the climate crisis. These significant and weighty themes are explored in both an informal and personally authored manner through brand new interviews with band members Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal.
The film’s overall narrative is structured around incredible and completely new performances of Placebo’s latest songs, captured at Britain’s legendary Twickenham Film Studios. The documentary also features rare archive interviews with David Bowie, along with exclusive interviews with Yungblud, Shirley Manson, Joe Talbot of Idles, Robbie Williams and others.