On Friday night, I went to a pop up drive-in event in Brunswick East hosted by Valhalla Social Cinema, an organisation I’d read about that morning on Broadsheet.

Being a huge fan of old school B-grade horror films, I was extremely excited to learn that Valhalla’s ideals are all about bringing back a culture of collective movie-watching by producing social events around the screening of cult films, particularly those of the horror, sci-fi and fantasy variety.

I think this is a really beautiful idea, given that the consumption of cinema today is largely privatised due to mobile technologies and the digitalisation of film. There are a few organisations in Melbourne who stage similar events, such as Underground Cinema and Cinema Nova’s frequent screenings of the widely proclaimed ‘worst-film-ever-made’ The Room (unmissable).

Being drive-in rookies, my partner and I ended up with a flat car battery. Whilst trying to give it a jump start we missed the amazingly gory end of Christine and the beginning of Fright Night, much to Jose’s (the man behind Valhalla) dismay. It was wonderful to see people making room for us in their cars because THE MOST important thing about that night was simply watching and enjoying the films together.

If you’re interested, Valhalla is putting on a 14-hour horror/fantasy marathon on Sept 7th. See the website for deets.