Part 2: The Return @ Beacon Cinema

10/1 – 10/31

The Beacon Cinema invites you to “worship at the gore-soaked altar of slash, trash, thrash, and FUN” this month with their new series, Part 2: The Return. The theater’s programmers theorize there’s something truly special about a horror franchise’s second entry, coming after they’ve built a following based on a successful initial outing but before spinning out into insanity, illogic, and oft-accidental, oft-ironic excellence.

Though spread out over the entire month and mixed in with their regularly scheduled programming, the biggest event comes at the climax of the series with a six-hour mystery marathon on October 29, complete with free pizza from Blotto.

What are some sequels to look out for? Sam Raimi’s 1987 primary genre document Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, of course, Tobe Hooper’s fiendishly funny The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 from 1986, and infamous “best worst movie” cable mainstay Troll 2 (1990).

Digging in a little deeper into the series with two films from 1985, there’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, in which Freddy Krueger’s whole “gonna murder you in your dreams” schtick takes a backseat to a blatantly homoerotic possession story. The filmmakers came clean after years of denying any gay subtext; you can learn more in the 2019 documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Steet, an examination of the film’s content and aftermath through the experiences of out lead actor Mark Patton.

Then there’s the gleeful trash of The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf, which is (A) in a whole other tonal world than the Joe Dante-helmed original film, and (B) what happens when Christopher Lee, ’80s B-movie icon Sybil Danning (Battle Beyond the Stars, Malibu Express), and an American-British studio rampage all over communist-era Czechoslovakia for some bugnuts lycanthropy time.

💌 Be Our Pen Pal! Find out what’s happening in Seattle by subscribing to our newsletter.