Riding the J-horror wave spawned by Ringu and Audition, Ju-On: The Grudge is one of the key 2000s films from Japan that redefined horror’s cultural landscape.

A social worker visits an elderly woman at her house. The woman appears deeply disturbed, but that’s nothing compared to the shapeless black void — also known as “Kayako” — that lurks in an upstairs hallway.

Quiet, creepy, and with bursts of unexpected intensity, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE combines liminal spaces and creepypasta chills to rattle your skeleton. There’s nothing scarier than not knowing what’s scaring you.

Werner Herzog’s only horror film, Nosferatu The Vampyre, is finally coming to The Frida Cinema!

It is 1850 in the beautiful, perfectly-kept town of Wismar. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is leaving on a long journey over the Carpathian Mountains to finalize real estate arrangements with a wealthy nobleman. His wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) begs him not to go and is troubled by a strong premonition of danger. Despite her warnings, Jonathan arrives four weeks later at a large, gloomy castle. Out of the mist appears a pale, wraith-like figure with deep-sunken eyes who identifies himself as Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski). The events that transpire slowly convince Harker that he is in the presence of a vampire. Even still, he doesn’t realize the magnitude of danger he, his wife and his town are about to experience.

A dreamlike homage to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic, Nosferatu The Vampyre conjures a world where dread seeps into every frame—an atmosphere of fevered melancholy now revived in a new 4K restoration thanks to our friends at American Genre Film Archive!

They’re here. It’s Spooky Season, so you know what that means…it’s time to summon Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg’s 1982 masterpiece Poltergeist!

Nothing is as it seems in sunny suburbia, where cookie-cutter homes and smiling families mask a gateway to the beyond. When the Freeling family’s youngest daughter mysteriously vanishes into the television set, their idyllic life unravels into a parade of sinister spirits, creepy clowns, ravenous trees, and otherworldly terrors. Can they rescue her before she’s lost to the other side forever?

A cornerstone of 1980s supernatural cinema, Poltergeist blends the very best elements of horror and blends them into a suburban nightmare. 

Just added: The Mimosa Girls will be joining us to perform a number from their Hocus Pocus drag show before the film!

Grab your favorite broom and caldron and head to The Frida Cinema as we team up with our friends at OC Pride for our annual screening of the 1993 classic Hocus Pocus! 

After 300 years of slumber, three sister witches are accidentally resurrected in Salem on Halloween night, and it is up to three kids and their newfound feline friend to put an end to the witches’ reign of terror once and for all.

Although Hocus Pocus did not achieve major box office success upon its release, it has since become a cult classic. Its mix of humor, magic, and Halloween-themed adventure has cemented its place as a seasonal favorite. The film’s playful take on witchcraft, combined with its memorable characters and enchanting soundtrack, continues to captivate audiences of all ages.

This program is a venue rental engagement. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff.

The curtain falls on our Dario Argento restrospective with a scream. For the final act, we present Opera—a film that distills all of the maestro’s obsessions into one glorious, nightmarish aria.

A young opera singer, thrust into the spotlight during a cursed production of Macbeth, finds herself stalked by a sadistic killer who forces her to watch as her friends die in increasingly elaborate set pieces. What follows is Argento’s most technically virtuosic and perversely beautiful film, where horror and high art bleed into one another—sometimes literally.

Featuring infamous sequences involving needles taped beneath the eyes, flocks of vengeful ravens, and a thunderous metal-infused score, Opera is both a love letter to cinema and a howl of rage from a filmmaker pushing the Giallo form to its breaking point. As the camera swoops, the bodies fall, and the aria rises, Opera reminds us: no one stages death like Dario Argento.

New year, new The Room! Bust out those plastic spoons! Tommy Wiseau’s enduring 2003 cult classic is back at The Frida for its monthly screening!

Wiseau’s peerless magnum opus finds the auteur who shaped a generation taking on the arts of acting, writing, casting, directing, editing and more. What’s even more remarkable: he’s mastered them all. The multi-talented director stars as Johnny, a big-time banker working in gorgeously shot San Francisco. His fiancée Lisa, seemingly a happy part of a successful relationship, has wandering eyes…for Tommy’s best friend Mark. Cinema has never witnessed such betrayal!

An intense, sensual thriller–at least as it was intended by Wiseau–The Room is an intricately knit web of sweet secrets and bitter lies that interrogates the very form of drama itself, as well as a truly unforgettable piece of cinema.