It's Friday 13th again this week (haven't we had about two this year already??) which means I might finally get around to having a Friday The 13th movie marathon. Movie marathons - or, at least, watching-stuff marathons - are a huge part of my geek heritage, and themed party food is another part. I blame my mother; when I was little, I had an Egyptian-themed birthday party that featured such foods as "scarabs in amber" (plastic bugs set in orange jelly). So although, yes, you could have a movie marathon where you just order pizza halfway through, that wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun as coming up with your own geeky-themed snacks...

The key to creating the perfect spread for a geeky night in is imagination: the food doesn't have to be terribly complicated, if only you can come up with an interesting name for it. My mother made cornflake-and-chocolate fridge cakes for the Egyptian party and called them, charmingly, "camel droppings"; I made them for a Star Wars-themed Hallowe'en party and called 'em "bantha droppings", and I've also made them for another Hallowe'en party and dropped jelly sweet spiders and snakes into them, or used marshmallows and chocolate fingers to create "alien nests."

Another example of stunning ingenuity on my part (cough, cough) was that, after some frantic searching of all nearby supermarkets, I managed to find jelly dinosaurs for a dish I'd set my heart on, though no-one else was impressed: dinosaurs sinking into a bowl of Angel Delight "mud."

(Yes, I realise I'm starting to sound like a primary school teacher.)

Essentially, the food just needs labels. You need to cover the basic food groups of party snacks (sweet, salty, and sausage rolls) but present them in a way relevant to the movies you're watching. So, for example, in the aforementioned Star Wars party, we had teddy bear-shaped biscuits decorated with icing "fur" and Smartie "eyes" and called them Ewoks, and used black and blue food colouring in fairy cakes to make them Jedi cakes. (Not recommended, by the way, since black cakes just look burnt.)

As far as drinks are concerned, food colouring is definitely your friend, unless you just want to buy lots of different coloured spirits. For one Hallowe'en party, we made "Cabin Fever punch" - vodka, lemonade, crushed pineapple, and a dash of Diet Coke to get the colouring right, with a slightly scorched Action Man from Hypervalue floating in it, for added authenticity. (If you've not seen Cabin Fever, please ignore my insanity and just assume it makes sense.) Speaking of Diet Coke, caffeinated beverages are non-negotiable. You'll need them. Nachos, also, are an essential item: everyone loves nachos.

Of course, if you time your party right, you'll be able to cheat: around Hallowe'en there'll be plenty of horror-themed snacks available, or if it's around the time of a major film release that'll probably help, too. And Spider-Man cakes are always in season at Tesco. Some friends from South Africa recently brought crisps called Ghost Pops to a movie night -- though you could substitute Monster Munch.

Ordering pizza when everyone's starting to flag (around the fifth movie or so?) is still a good idea, though. Now, if only I could think of a way to slot the World's Best Brownies into a geeky theme...