Last fall my wife, Amantha, and I attended the first ever Camp Frida. Camp Frida is an overnight 12-hour horror movie marathon hosted by The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, CA. That event included the theater being decorated as a woodsy summer camp. The night’s event included screenings of Sleepaway Camp, The Burning, Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and more.  Camp Counselor Aly, who sadly did not “survive” the night, was on hand as our guide. Now The Frida has followed up that outstanding event with another similar event this time focusing on Sci-Fi films.

First, if you’re not familiar with The Frida Cinema, it is Orange County’s premiere art house cinema. In addition to showing a wide variety of independent, foreign, and revival fare, The Frida Cinema is also a friend of HorrorBuzz. The last Monday of every month you join us at  The Frida for Horror Movie Night. This month, on Monday May 28th at 8pm, we will be showing the Brian DePalma/Stephen King classic Carrie complete with our own prom.

Us ready to go

So Friday May 4th, The Frida hosted it’s followup to Camp Frida: Starship Frida! We arrived at the theater ready for the night with sleeping bags, pillows, and snacks. We got in line near the front and very quickly the line behind us began to grow. The staff came out to make sure everyone in line was excited and to check IDs/hand out wristbands to anyone over 21 that planned to get drinks during the event.

Amantha on Planet X

Planet X’s resident robot

Upon entering the theater we were initially directed to Planet X (auditorium 2) while we waited for Starship Frida (auditorium 1) to ready for lift off. Planet X’s main feature was a photo op with props, glowing aliens, and (later on) a robot (courtesy of the Bombs Away Show podcast.)

The lobby

The view out of the window

At the snack bar with the red and blue cocktails on the right

Out in the lobby, the decorations were very well done. Stars and planets could be seen out the window.  A table was set up with sci-fi related coloring pages. Multiple screens showed the starship’s readout as planetoids hung overhead. Star Wars vehicles and characters appeared on the snack bar. Speaking of the snack bar, along with the regular lineup of movie snacks, blue and red specialty cocktails. Amantha tried and liked both, although she liked the red just a bit more. She said the red one had a strong cherry flavor to it with vodka, while the blue tasted a bit like a blue raspberry Otter Pop with coconut rum.

Coloring pages and a tribble (they began appearing everywhere and by the ending of the night they were begging us to take some home)

When the doors to the starship opened, we made our way inside and passed through the shiny silvery curtain to find our seats. As regulars at the Frida we have specific seats that we really like sitting in. We flipped up the arm rests and spread out our sleeping bags across the seats. We got ourselves settled in ready for the marathon to begin. Our host for the evening was Commander Aly, a clone of Camp Counselor Aly (one of many we were later told after Commander Aly accidentally blew herself up mid-way through the night.) She was joined by her crew of characters from the world of sci-fi and Top Gun(?) (Maverick and Iceman, no sign of Goose)

Commander Aly and crew

Going in we knew the first film of the event would be Serenity, the big screen followup/conclusion to the gone-too-soon series Firefly. In the case of both Camp Frida and Starship Frida, the opening and closing films were announced in advance with the reaming titles to be revealed just before they were shown. Throughout the night raffle tickets were being sold for various prizes, including a hand knitted Jayne Hat as seen in the Firefly series.

The “Jayne Hat” and it’s knitter. (i”m sorry I forgot to get her name.)

For the second film of the night we were given a choice of staying onboard the Starship Frida and watching Spaceballs or we could get off and go over to Planet X to watch The Last Starfighter. Even though we agreed we would rather watch The Last Starfighter, we already had all of of our stuff spread out on our favorite seats. We decided we didn’t want to move back and forth so we stayed put. The third slot brought another choice the starship showed the original Planet of the Apes while Planet X had Starship Troopers. This time we were happy to not change theaters as neither of us are fans of Starship Troopers.

Each film had special made logo

The highlight of the night for many came with the fourth slot with Star Wars. Not A New Hope, but Star Wars, the original theatrical version. It was a lot of fun to see it on the big screen. Shockingly, no one seemed to miss the special edition enhancements. In the fifth slot of the night was our final choice between two films. On the Starship we were to watch Galaxy Quest and on Planet X, Dark City. As much as I love Dark City, it again came down to not want to move all of our things. The final film of the event, which had also been previously announced, was Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. I’ve always been a fan of this film but had not seen it in quite a while.

Our seats on the Starship Frida

Just like the previous event, it’s so much fun to watch these movies up on a big screen with a crowd of fellow fans and, especially, those that have never seen some of these before. During the event an official announcement was made that Camp Frida will return this fall, so keep your eyes open for tickets to go on sale.  In the meantime, come out to join us from HorrorBuzz on Monday May 28th for A Very “Carrie” Prom. For tickets visit here.