Spring hasn’t sprung quite yet, but February ushers in the season of love! Whether you’re going steady, happily single, or a member of the Lonely Hearts Club, this unique Frida After Dark lineup will have you seeing red in the best way possible! With “sensual” roses, painted lips, and buckets of blood abound, we’re wasting no opportunity to jam-pack all twenty-nine days!
The Room (2003)
February 8th
Yep, you read the title right: this month, Tommy Wiseau’s magnum opus makes its way to the front of Frida After Dark, a whole week before Rocky Horror! As if the stars themselves have aligned, the second Friday and second Saturday of this month are in two different weeks! It’s an opportunity to truly revel in the The Room as the antithesis of sensuality, eroticism, and drama.
Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) works as a successful banker in stock-footage San Francisco with his fiancee Lisa (not Tommy Wiseau). Despite their engagement, Lisa is unhappy in her relationship and seduces Johnny’s best friend, Mark. Despite the simple premise, there’s several-dozen unrelated subplots that make things far more entertaining.
What could be more romantic than sitting through the most off-putting, recycled, and prolonged sex scenes in film history with a room full of rowdy moviegoers? Perhaps getting busy on a metal staircase or breaking into a strangers’ house to eat chocolates with your significant other? Thanks to the genius of writer, director, actor, and general jack of all trades Tommy Wiseau, there’s no need to compromise!
Think you know how bad it is? You don’t: it’s much worse, and live screenings are all the better for it! There’s truly nothing like being in a theater full of strangers bonded together by the same bizarre dialogue and pelting each other with plastic spoons and rose petals. As The Man himself always says: “If a lot of people love each other, the world would be a better place to live”.’
So, mark your calendars for a night out with a date, your fiancé, or even your best, least-likely-to-homewreck friend on Saturday the 8th!
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
February 14th
This month’s interactive presentation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is reveling in even more thrills, chills, and fulfillment with an irreverent Valentine’s Day-themed show! If your world needs a little rose-tinting on what would be an otherwise uneventful night, our award-winning K.A.O.S. shadow troupe will entertain and seduce you from your worries ‘til the break of dawn. Whether you believe in true love or pure lust, you’ll be delighted by the titillating, hedonistic absurdity from the film you know and love, amped all the way up to eleven!
The original interactive midnight movie, Rocky Horror is a mish-mash of campy science-fiction, brilliant songs, cheesy wordplay, and unapologetic sexuality that just might awaken something in you. Along with being fun and wild, Rocky Horror screenings are about community, where you’re free to be yourself and love who you please! Costumes are always encouraged, so go all-out and put on the best Transylvanian gear you’ve got for this night of seduction.
Also, don’t forget to bring cash to buy your prop bags before the show! For just a few bucks, you can have plenty of ammo to throw, while also supporting K.A.O.S. by improving their own costumes and stage equipment. If you’re a Rocky virgin, check out this classic guide for what to expect when going all the way with us on Friday the 14th!
If for whatever reason you’ve been holding off on a dip into this cult classic or interactive screenings, take this as an opportunity to give yourself over to absolute pleasure in the name of Saint Valentine himself! Bring your spouse, friend with bennies, or even the whole squad over to the Frankenstein place.
And remember: half the fun is in the pre-show, so don’t skip the foreplay!
The Shining – Presented by HorrorBuzz Horror Movie Night (1980)
February 15th
Frida After Dark and HorrorBuzz’s Horror Movie Night meet once again with a special 40th Anniversary presentation of The Shining!
While a romantic getaway to the Colorado Rockies with the wife and kid would be a relaxing reprieve for most, we all know that’s not how it works out for the Torrance family. With some of the most iconic scenes and performances in horror history, you likely had an image or two seared into your mind upon the first watch, whether on a small screen or its first run. Though more inspired than adapted from Stephen King’s novel and plagued by some real-life horrors going on during production, cinema as we know it owes much to this twisted film.
Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, a struggling writer who signs on as winter caretaker for the isolated Overlook Hotel with his wife Wendy (Cannes and Peabody award winner Shelley Duval) and young psychic son, Danny. Though the family hopes to wait out the snow in peace, the underlying tension from Jack’s history of alcoholism and abuse becomes the least of their worries as Danny’s visions become more frightening and the hotel’s residing spirits torture the family and drive Jack into a frenzy of violent madness. With a thrilling soundtrack and cinematography people still go crazy over, seeing it on the big screen is a must to truly feel the ominous ambience within The Overlook.
As with all Movie Nights presentations, the film will be preceded by a hilarious Video Pre-Show, Pumpkin Pack giveaway competition, and special short film. Come play with us when doors opening at 9:45pm!
Eat, Brains, Love (2019)
February 21-23
I’m sure I speak for a lot of people when I say that high school stoner comedies are pretty cliche at this point, so why not spice the genre up with some STDs? The STD, of course, being werewolf-like zombieism, causing those infected with the virus to feel an uncontrollable hunger for human flesh! Though hyper-specific requests like this usually just draw raised eyebrows, director Rodman Flender saw great comedic potential in this premise when adapting 2019’s Eat, Brains, Love to the screen.
When pothead Jake Stephens and cheerleader Amanda Blake find themselves covered in blood and half their class slaughtered, the couple find they’re the latest victims of a zombie virus that caused them to consume their peers. Combining road-trip movie conventions with elements of the undead, the teens go on a quest to find a cure and stop the STZ (Sexually Transmitted Zombification). While evading a telepath intent on hunting and killing the infected, Jake and Amanda are faced with the question of how to satiate their need for human flesh. The humane answer? Chow down on rapists and pedophiles of course! Lucky for our protagonists, the sex offender registry functions as a convenient menu.
If you and your boo want a night of laughs and gore before the month is through, don’t miss out on this delicious, feel-good zombie flick!
Tales from the Hood (1995)
February 28th
With February being Black History Month, there’s far more than just romantic anniversaries to celebrate! Our lineup this month celebrates yet another landmark anniversary of game-changing horror: 25 years of Rusty Cundieff’s Tales From the Hood.
Though pop culture currently has the pleasure of seeing African-American horror films flourish like never before, this horror anthology is especially significant when one looks back at it through a political lens. While the War on Drugs continued to devastate poor communities of color, Hollywood shifted from its “color-blind” White Savior dramas to tokenism or complete omission of people of color altogether. With the involvement of Spike Lee as a producer, Tales From the Hood used vintage horror methods (drawn from sources like Tales From the Crypt) to present real issues that haunt black neighborhoods.
A trio of drug dealers in South Central LA show up at a local funeral home to claim drugs found by the eccentric owner, Mr. Simms (Clarence WIlliams III). As Mr. Simms leads them to the mortuary to collect, he tells the boys stories about his most recent “customers”. The titles of each short impart its subject: “Rogue Cop Revelation”, “Boys Do Get Bruised”, “KKK Comeuppance”, and finally, “Hard-Core Convert”. Just as enjoyable in its eccentricity as it is in its social consciousness, Tales From the Hood makes a visit in town for one night only!
Space Jam – Presented by Bombs Away! (1996)
February 29th
Speaking of horror movies and atrocities of the 90s, Space Jam encapsulates everything that made the era the ultimate consumerist wet dream. While the 80s saw brands like Hasbro transform advertising into cheap television “entertainment”, the following decade gave ads high budgets and theatrical releases, resulting in billions of dollars in sales and an enduring mark of pop-culture shame.
Whether you’re team Monstars or Tune Squad, our MVPs (Most Valuable Podcasters) over at Bombs Away will coach us through a screening of the cinematic crossover between the Looney Tunes and the NBA. Now recognized more for its meme quality and complete lack of dignity rather than its star power, Space Jam is proof that some bombs can be box-office slam-dunks– which is right up the B-movie podcast’s alley!
After a bit of slamming and a whole lot of jamming, we’ll enjoy a post-movie cooldown in the form of a Bombs Away live episode discussion! Seeing as everyone has certainly at least heard the title or perhaps one of the film’s chart-topping original tracks, it’s likely even those born after its blast into pop culture have something to say about a movie where Bugs Bunny tries to escape eternal slavery by playing basketball with Michael Jordan.
How could such a plot come into existence, you may ask? Well, with Michael Jordan being a global superstar and cultural phenomenon for well over a decade, his Air Jordan line of sneakers and other promotional tie-ins became cultural staples as well: by 1992, the Nike basketball shoes were due for their seventh generation of designs. For whatever reason, some impossibly ingenious ad executive got the idea to combine Jordan with Warner Brothers’ flagship property.
After a great deal of resistance and uncertainty, WB ultimately revamped Bugs Bunny into being hip with the times and, unfortunately, a lot less funny. Landing a commercial during the year’s Superbowl, the “Hare Jordans” campaign became a smash-hit, spawning more commercials and other merchandise. Milking the cash-cow for all it was worth, Nike and Warner Bros. felt they had to go big or go home.
With commercials that give you a whiplash-induced headache in under 60 seconds, extending that to an hour and forty minutes is a wild ride that you’ll want friends along for. After all, there’s no better way to spend the extra Leap Day than hopping down the rabbit hole!
Fun fact: did you know the official Space Jam website is still up online? It’s a heinous, eye-straining relic of the internet and poor graphic design, but it’s definitely worth a click out of respect or for trying your hand at some trivia (until it breaks halfway through).
As a wise pig once said: that’s all, folks! Watch the blog for next month’s FAD picks, and thanks for stopping by!
