After a painful breakup, small-town Gemma moves to Los Angeles with the hopes of making it big. To get on her feet, she takes a job working the overnight shift at Somnium–a mysterious, experimental sleep clinic where dreams are made real.
Meanwhile, Gemma throws herself into the cutthroat world of Hollywood auditions. But as the pressure to succeed mounts, she begins to experience strange and unsettling phenomena, and soon finds herself trapped in a nightmarish spiral as she discovers a darkness lurking within the clinic walls.
With its gripping storyline and striking cinematography, Somnium drags audiences through the horrifying consequences of tampering with the fabric of reality.
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You asked. You manifested it. Only you are to blame. Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales is coming back for a one-night-only descent into madness, messiah complexes, and post-apocalyptic SoCal chaos as part of our In Defense Of…series courtesy of our founder and Executive Director Logan Crow! And as a fun bonus, we are screening the rarely-seen Cannes Cut of the film!
A delirious, genre-melting fever dream from the director of Donnie Darko, this sci-fi satire is part dystopian epic, part musical, part political prophecy—and 100% unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Set in a fractured near-future America (or was it 2008?), the film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a paranoid action star with amnesia, Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn star turned media mogul, and Seann William Scott as…twins?
Infamously booed at Cannes and boasting a cool 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, Southland Tales has since earned a devoted cult following for its audacity, ambition, and total refusal to color inside the lines. Love it, hate it, or leave the theater slightly altered—this is a film that demands to be experienced loud, big, and with other humans asking, “Wait, was that Justin Timberlake lip-syncing The Killers?”
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Join our partners in crime at Cinematic Void for a high-octane night of neo-noir cool with a special screening of The Driver, Walter Hill’s ice-cold crime thriller that helped define the modern getaway film.
The Driver stars Ryan O’Neal as a nameless wheelman—no small talk, no attachments, just precision driving. On his tail is a relentless detective (Bruce Dern) willing to bend every rule to catch him, and in the middle is Isabelle Adjani’s enigmatic “Player,” who may or may not be tipping the game in someone’s favor.
With its minimalist dialogue, brutalist LA cityscapes, and pulse-pounding car chases shot without a hint of CGI, The Driver is all tension, style, and attitude—part existential noir, part stripped-down action poetry. If you’re a fan of Thief, Drive, or To Live and Die in L.A., this is the film that lit the fuse.
Make sure to show up at 7:30PM for the world famous CV Preshow—packed with vintage trailers, lost media, and other grimy goodies from the Celluloid Void. Tickets to this one-off event are $15.
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Greenwhich Entertainment’s newest release, Went Up The Hill, is coming to The Frida Cinema!
In this chilling ghost story, a recently deceased woman haunts her estranged son Jack (Dacre Montgomery of Stranger Things) and her grieving widow Jill (Vicky Krieps of Phantom Thread and Corsage). When the woman’s spirit inhabits the survivors, the living must grapple with the destruction she left behind while fighting for their own survival.
Went Up The Hill debuted earlier this year at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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Join us for a night of chilling camp, psychological suspense, and Old Hollywood fireworks as our Classic Movie Nights series delves into the deranged world of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford—two screen legends whose off-screen rivalry was just as infamous as their on-screen performances (but we’ll let Bekah really fill you on the details here)—square off in this deliciously macabre tale of faded fame. Davis is unforgettable (and unhinged) as Baby Jane Hudson, a former child star rotting in her own delusions, while Crawford brings heartbreaking restraint as Blanche, her wheelchair-bound sister, trapped with a woman teetering between guilt and madness.
A cult classic of high-wire hysteria from director Robert Aldrich, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? paved the way for “psycho-biddy” cinema and gave aging actresses roles they could sink their teeth into—sometimes literally.
Make sure to get to the screening early, as our Marketing Director Bekah will be doing a very informative and entertaining presentation on the film before it starts!
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Good Boy, the buzzy new horror film told from the perspective of a dog, finally scampers its way to The Frida!
A loyal dog (played by dog actor Indy, the director’s real life pet) moves to a rural family home with his owner Todd, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.
Premiering at this year’s South By Southwest, the film’s trailer gathered one million views in just its first four days, with its global interest only further piqued by its current 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating! Catch it on the big screen at The Frida!
The Frida will be donating a portion of ticket proceeds from our Thursday, October 2nd screening of Good Boy to OC Animal Allies! OC Animal Allies is a nonprofit organization founded with the mission to save animal lives and strengthen the human-animal bond in Orange County by providing emergency financial support, education, referral services, and therapy programs.
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Our December edition of Hallucinations is the Christmas classic Dial Code Santa Claus aka Deadly Games aka 3615 code Père Noël aka Hide and Freak.
Before Home Alone… there was Dial Code Santa Claus, a French holiday thriller where a tech-savvy kid must defend his mansion from a psychotic man in a Santa suit. What starts as whimsical turns tense, then brutal, then full-on survival horror—all under twinkling lights and fake snow. It’s a fairy tale slasher mixed with a hyperactive 80s toy commercial from hell.
’Tis the season for tinsel, trauma, and booby traps.
Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.
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Step into the gritty, electric world of 1970s Harlem as Flickrhappy presents Black Caesar, with a very special Q&A after the film with the legendary Fred Williamson!
Directed by exploitation auteur Larry Cohen, this hard-hitting gangster epic follows Tommy Gibbs, a shoeshine boy turned ruthless crime boss, in a tale packed with ambition, betrayal, and a legendary funk score by James Brown. Don’t miss this rare big-screen presentation featuring Fred “The Hammer” Williamson live in-person for a post-screening Q&A! Hear behind-the-scenes stories and firsthand reflections from the icon himself, in a conversation moderated by Josiah Howard, author of Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide.
Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering this cult classic for the first time, Black Caesar delivers a cinematic punch you won’t forget.
This program is a venue rental engagement. Member discounts and Frida Cinema comp passes not valid. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Frida Cinema or its staff.
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Join us for the Orange County premiere of the new indie thriller Plight, and stick around afterwards for a special Q&A with the film’s director, M.J. Alhabeeb Jr. and lead actor Matthew J. Plumb!
When a tragic hit-and-run leaves a young couple shattered, a grieving father and a resilient caregiver forge an unlikely alliance. Plight follows Valentina, a Ukrainian woman searching for peace, and Joe, a working-class man losing faith in justice, as they uncover secrets buried in a forgotten Pennsylvania steel town. Bound by loss, their pursuit of truth reveals just how far people will go when justice slips away.
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The bold, genre-defying horror-Mermaid-musical mashup The Lure is August’s Frida Cinema Members Only screening!
In this playful and confident debut of Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska — a pair of carnivorous mermaid sisters are drawn ashore in an alternate ’80s Poland to explore the wonders and temptations of life on land. Their tantalizing siren songs and otherworldly aura make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers in the half-glam, half-decrepit fantasy world of Smoczynska’s imagining. In a visceral twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s original Little Mermaid tale, one sister falls for a human, and as the bonds of sisterhood are tested, the lines between love and survival get blurred. A savage coming-of-age fairytale with a catchy new-wave soundtrack, lavishly grimy sets, and outrageous musical numbers, The Lure explores its themes of sexuality, exploitation, and the compromises of adulthood with energy and originality.
Not a member yet? Sign up here: https://thefridacinema.org/memberships/
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