One year after the tragic death of Head Camp Counselor Aly, campers gathered once again at the abandoned Camp Frida. So many more campers than last year survived the night that it was difficult to fit them all in to the morning photo.

Around the Camp

A sold out crowd packed The Frida Cinema on Saturday night for the second annual edition of Camp Frida. This year’s edition, subtitled Undead, featured 10 films about vampires, ghosts, zombies, and a resurrected-hockey-masked-machete-wielding killer.

Campers were led in through the forest, past the caution taped doors, and the cobweb adorned lobby to the Graveyard for their complimentary photo.

Following the photo, campers made their wayintoo the Main Lodge to find their camp sites. After selecting their preferred campsites, many headed back out to the lobby where they found gourmet cupcakes (for a small donation). The cupcakes were offered in two flavors, Camp Frida S’mores and Deep Red Velvet BRAAAINS.

Also available, for $7, were special Blood Bag Cocktails. The beverage were a mixture of cranberry juice, triple sec, and vodka. You know you’re in a special place when you look around and see several ordinary looking people sucking on blood bags.

Another, less edible item, that was available for purchase was a hand made pin, The pin featured a glow in the dark skull that featured Camp Frida Undead carved into its forehead.

And of course no visit to the lobby would be complete without a visit to the Camp Counselor Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame featured our own beloved late Head Camp Counselor Aly.

Aly’s make shift memorial (pictured at the top of this page) was located only steps away.

The Main Lodge

In the Main Lodge, campers gather round to her some ghost stories from a group of campers sitting around a campfire.

One of them brought along a book to read from that appeared to bound in human skin and written in blood. One passage in particular, had some unnerving effects.

It appeared the young campers had inadvertently raised Head Camp Counselor Aly from the dead.

All but one of the campers ran away in terror. Aly assured everyone they were perfectly safe as she was a vegan zombie. The remaining camper cowered in fear. As well he should as he would return later in the evening having been killed by Aly (who apparently considered the term vegan to have a loose interpretation) and turned into a zombie himself.

Later in the event Aly told everyone it was getting to be around that time of the night that Jason Voorhees usually kills hers so if anyone wanted a photo with her it was their last chance. Sadly, she was in fact killed again and we were all visited by her strangely more masculine sounding ghost.

The Movies

Of course the main reason we all gather at Camp Frida is the movies. Only the first of which had been previously revealed. The opening and closing films were shown in the Main Lodge. In between, campers were offered a choice of films. One screened in the Main Lodge while a second option was shown in the Graveyard. Just like last year, before each film was announced a preview image was put on the screen for audience members to guess.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1995)

Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, From Dusk Till Dawn is half crime movie and half vampire movie. This was a fantastic way to kick off this year’s edition of Camp Frida. As it established right off the bat that the term undead doesn’t just mean zombies. The crowded theater cheered wildly throughout the film.

PET SEMATARY (1989) or

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)

I opted for Pet Sematary as I hadn’t seen for quite a while and with the remake coming out soon, I was interested in seeing it again. Shaun of the Dead is great but I have seen it both a lot more and a lot more recently. There seemed to be a number of people in the Pet Sematary who had not seen it before and clearly found a good deal of the acting and dialogue to be a bit corny.

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) or INSIDIOUS (2010)

Head Camp Counselor Aly told us were going to be watching the superior version of Dawn of the Dead. So, of course, I was a bit disappointed when it was clarified that we would be watching the Zack Snyder version. However, I stayed for similar reasons as above but also because as far as remakes go, this one isn’t bad.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART 3 (1982)

or BEETLEJUICE (1988)

At last year’s Camp Frida, we watched a Friday the 13th movie as well. However last year’s film (1984’s The Final Chapter) was chosen via “the wheel of Jason.” I was looking forward to it’s return, but instead we got one of the series cheesier installments. I probably would have switched theaters this time, but I was pretty comfortable where I was and besides, it was fun watching Jason Voorhees on the big screen in 3-D.

BLADE II (2002) or 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (2007)

Neither of these were films I had seen before. Again I decided to stay put in the Main Lodge and watch Blade II, because I heard it was the best of the trilogy. And, hey, Guillermo del Toro, right? In the end I guess it really didn’t matter because I believe I may have dosed off a time or two…or seven.

POLTERGEIST (1982)

As the sun began to rise it was time for the remaining campers to come back together in the Main Lodge for the night’s final film. The audience got especially excited when the film was introduced as Poltergeist “directed by Steven Spielberg.” I’ve never seen the film on the big screen and as with all movies, they’re always better on the big screen.

Final Thoughts

In many ways this year’s edition of Camp Frida improved on last year’s and I expect that trend to continue next year. And I would say that with the major increase in campers this year, that future years are a certainty. The decor was a step up from last year and I really enjoyed the more scripted storyline at the beginning. It would be great to see that scripted throughout the night. Audience members who survived the night received a camp badge good for one free drink anytime during the next year.

I have to say that I found last year’s lineup of films to be more appealing as this year’s featured too many films of the last two decades. My preference is for horror movies of the ’70s & ’80s. That said, I still had a great time and look forward to check out some of the other horror films playing this month a The Frida. There is a lot of great stuff that can be checked out here on The Frida’s calendar. This, of course, includes our monthly Horrorbuzz.com Horror Movie Night. This month were are doubling up with two movie nights.

On our regular night, Monday Oct 29th, we will present the 30th Anniversary screening of Pumpkinhead. And on Halloween Night, Oct 31st, it will be the 40th Anniversary screening of John Carpenter’s original Halloween.