Camp Fangoria: A bloodthirsty rooftop horror extravaganza
A bloodthirsty rooftop summer camp featuring films with horror-themed drinks and swag bags? Yes, the answer is always, yes. Camp Fangoria forever!
Camp Fangoria was held this past Saturday at the Montalbán Theatre, a beautiful old building with a crazy view of Hollywood. The Montalbán is creepy — not going to lie. It’s a historic building, and you can FEEL the past in the lobby. It was a perfect site for Camp Fangoria, which will hopefully become a new summer ritual for horror fans.
The ten-hour event was hosted by camp counselors: Dr. Rebekah McKendry, Rob Galluzzo, and Elric Kane. It featured immersive theater, live podcasts, DJ sets, horror trivia, a triple feature of classics: The Burning, Sleepaway Camp and Evil Dead 2, a Friday the 13th gaming tournament and some pretty sweet giveaways, sponsored by Arrow Video, Diabolik DVD, Fright-Rags, and Lakeshore Records.
A fun hook of the evening was the horror giveaways for fans who collect merchandise. I’m not too much of a collector, but if I DID collect merch, I’d probably collect the Evil Dead and Argento tribute.
The giveaways were NICE: a Nintendo Switch, Camp Fangoria T-shirts, FANGORIA Magazine Vol. II Issue 2 and a collection of hand-picked posters from the Fangoria vault.
When I showed up everyone was watching Sleepaway Camp or getting horror-themed drinks at the bar. Lots of people were taking pictures at the photo booth, a gory Friday the 13th inspired campsite.
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Though I was more excited about the VIP bags that contained: Fangoria and Friday the 13th: The Game stickers, a Camp Fangoria patch and a gift card for a complimentary screening at Arena Cinelounge.
At midnight after Sleepaway Camp, the horror trivia started. This was one of my favorite moments because of the info dropped by the camp counselors. The Fangoria offices have memorabilia from every horror film made since the inception of the magazine, which means they had a trove of historical merch including never released production stills.
What I wouldn’t give to look through their vaults — I’d probably hit the 80’s Evil Dead files for treasures on Sam Raimi, one of the most creative horror directors of all time.
The theater had multi-channel wireless headsets, which made the viewing experience oddly intimate. Some people prefer to watch films alone in the dark, but there is something special about screening horror films in a community setting.
Most likely every person there had seen Evil Dead 2 or Sleepaway Camp a million times already, and yet, we were there to watch it again.
Why, I wondered? What’s the benefit of watching the same film over and over? Why do I also do this? Because if I like a movie, I’ll watch it until I’m (almost) sick of it and then rewatch it, again.
I can’t count how many times I’ve viewed Manhunter. Every time I watch a good movie, I’ll see something I hadn’t noticed before. And I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching Ash create his chainsaw hand in Evil Dead 2.
The evening didn’t end until almost 4 in the morning and in the uber home, my first thought was: I can’t believe I slept on The Alone Experience, the immersive theater event held in the bowels of the theater. I’ll never know what happened now.
Well, there’s always next year. I suppose that’s the joy of adventure: the expectation is almost as thrilling as the event. ALMOST.
The Montalbán
Horror-Themed Drinks
Swag
Camp Fangoria
Fangoria Merch
Evil Dead 2 Screening
Camp Fangoria was a unique experience for horror fans and the first collaboration between Arena Cinelounge and Fangoria, The World’s Best Horror and Cult Film Magazine Since 1979.
Here’s to many more rooftop shows at the Montalbán Theatre; if this is the first offering, next Summer is going to be totally lovingly bananas.
Next. Heat things up with horror streaming in August. dark
Do you love Fangoria? How many times have you seen Evil Dead 2? If you went to Camp Fangoria, what was your favorite part of the evening? Let us know in the comments!