Twin Cities Horror Fest, Saturn Video Grand Opening, Inside Out Block Party: This Week’s Best Events

EventsTwin Cities Horror Fest, Saturn Video Grand Opening, Inside Out Block Party: This Week’s Best EventsPlus Twin Cities Film Fest, Saint Paul Art Crawl, and so much more.By Racket Staff11:54 AM CDT on October 12, 2026Add Racket to GoogleDangerous Productions at TC Horror Fest in 2024 |Dan Norman Welcome to Event Horizon, your weekly roundup of the best events in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and beyond. Stay in touchSign up for the Event Horizon newsletterEmailSign UpMONDAY 10.12Christopher VondracekMagers & QuinnEven if you’re not familiar with Terry Redlin’s name, you’ve probably seen one of his paintings. Depending on your sensibility, you may have either winced at the Minnesota painter’s kitsch Americana or felt that his cheery landscape depictions brightened a room. In Redlin or Rodin: Essays on Midwestern Scenery, Christopher Vondracek takes Redlin’s appeal seriously, acknowledging the actual physical sources for the landscape the painter idealizes and examining the roots of the nostalgia he fosters. Vondracek, a Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Star Tribune, draws upon his childhood in southern Minnesota during the ’80s farm crisis for a short but wide-ranging book that’s part memoir, part cultural history, and part aesthetic appraisal. Tonight he’ll be in conversation with his colleague Reid Forgrave. Free. 7 p.m. 3038 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; find more info here.—Keith HarrisBen Schwartz & FriendsPromoTHURSDAY 10.15Ben Schwartz & Friends Orpheum TheatreI’m not sure how cancelled or uncancelled Thomas Middleditch is these days, but I can say with confidence that attending Middleditch & Schwartz, his two-man longform improv team that performed at the State Theatre in 2019, is perhaps the loudest I’ve ever laughed in public. Watching Mr. Schwartz (Parks and Rec, Comedy Bang Bang, Sonic) do improv is like watching a magic show, and I’m equally confident the “and friends” promised for this evening will produce must-see stuff. (This fall those live pals have included Comedy Bang! Bang! favorites such as Jessica McKenna, who’s in town Sunday with her fabulous Off Book show at the Fitz, Gil Ozeri, and Brandon Scott Jones.) Outside of improv, Schwartz has kept busy with roles in all those Sonic movies, the Nic Cage vampire flick Renfield, and the Roku show Die Hart. $63.60. 8 p.m. 910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; find more info here.—Jay BollerTwin Cities Film FestMarcus West End/Edina Mann TheatreThis is the biggest film festival of a season that’s chock full of them, with 150 or so flicks screening at two venues as well as online. Categories include the basics, like horror and comedy, but there are also more niche tags, such as the environmentally focused “code red” and the “TCFF Changemaker Series,” which this year will showcase films exploring refugee experiences around the world. Big movies of 2026 include the Andrew Scott showcase Elsinore, Wild Horse Nine from writer/director/awards-magnet Martin McDonagh, and Out of the Woods, starring Frances Fisher, who’ll be present for a live conversation. Actors Jeremy Swift and Natalie Gold will also be in town for Welcome to the Fishbowl, and Moonlight will be screening in a 4K restored release for its 10th anniversary. 1625 West End Blvd., St. Louis Park; 3911 W. 50th St., Edina; find showtimes, prices, and more info here. Through October 24—Jessica ArmbrusterRakim with Room3 DakotaSometimes the tired old conventional wisdom is right: When it comes to MCs, there’s before Rakim and then there’s everything after. He unleashed a proliferation of rhyme styles that immediately made rappers a year his senior sound hopelessly old school. He’s old school himself now, if not prehistoric to today’s hip-hop fans, but when I caught the god in 2018 at the Varsity, he continued to dominate. I saw the local jazz combo Room3 backing Slum Village in this same club, and they’ll provide Ra with the music he deserves. $69.76. 7 & 9:30 p.m. 1010 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; find more info here.—Keith HarrisSaint Paul Art CrawlVisit St. PaulFRIDAY 10.16Saint Paul Art CrawlVarious LocationsWhat have artists in Lowertown, downtown, and West Seventh in St. Paul been up to lately? Find out at this three-day self-guided tour featuring opening receptions, special sales, pop-up studios, and parties. While the Spring Crawl is a multi-weekend event with designated neighborhoods each week, this Fall Crawl is a simultaneous, citywide party. Hot spots where you’re sure to find a lot to see and do include Union Depot, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Tilsner Artist Lofts, and the Schmidt Artists Lofts. Free. 6–10 p.m. Fri.; noon to 8 p.m. Sat.; 1–5 p.m. Sun. Find a list of locations and happenings here. Through Sunday—Jessica ArmbrusterTwin Cities Horror Festival XVThe Crane TheaterNow in its 15th year, this horror festival continues to freak audiences out. The 2026 lineup features 14 different productions at the Crane Theater over 16 days. We’ve got location-based horror, including an ice shanty nail biter (Bicentennial Auger), a mysterious bloodbath (SHED), and a work set in Disney’s Haunted Mansion (There’s Room for One Thousand). There’s body and philosophical horror (Augmentation), sapphic vampire horror (Carmilla), and puppetry (Tales of Terror… from the Tomb). All shows come with a handy age rating system, as well as ratings for language and blood. 2303 NE Kennedy St., Minneapolis; find more info here. Through October 31—Jessica ArmbrusterHeavens to Betsy Fine LineThe most exciting reunion tour of 2026 might just be slipping past a lot of people who should care. Maybe you scanned the listings and thought, “They can’t possibly mean that Heavens to Betsy.” But yes they do: Corin Tucker and drummer Tracy Sawyer have reunited. Listening back now to the duo’s 1994 riot grrrl landmark Calculated, you might hear the inchoate ingredients that would cohere into the world-beating sound of Sleater-Kinney, but this is from Tucker juvenilia. First off, it’s meaner