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FALL 2007
Vampira Verite!
By The Phantom
VIDEOSCOPE Online
Vampira: The Movie (2006) D: Kevin Sean Michaels. Maila (Vampira) Nurmi, Forrest J. Ackerman, John Zacherle, Debbie Rochon, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Kevin Eastman, Julie Strain, Cassandra Peterson, Jerry Only, Johnny Coffin. 120 min. (Alpha Video, $14.98) 8/07
According to director Michaels, though Maila (Vampira) Nurmi had been interviewed on camera about other subjects, she was at first extremely reluctant to divulge the skinny re: her own fascinating life and times. After months of cajoling, the actress/artist/pioneering TV horror hostess finally relented, resulting in this consistently engaging portrait.
Well into her 80s when the taping took place, Maila proves to be a keen observer of life in and out of the industry trenches, focusing primarliy on three areas – her high-profile (if low-paying) 1954 stint as the self-invented horror hostess Vampira (a character remixed from Terry and the Pirates' Dragon Lady and Charles Addams' Morticia); her friendships with iconic movie idols Marlon Brando and James Dean; and her ultimately immortal one-day shoot for Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space. Michaels intersperses Maila's articulate talking-head segments with testimonies from scar-biz admirers both old (Forry Ackerman, once and future Cool Ghoul Zacherley [sharp as every here]) and new (post-modern horror hosts Count Smokula and Penny Dreadful).
Vampira: The Movie's greatest coup, though, has to be Cassandra Peterson's candid account of the ill-fated $10-million lawsuit Maila filed against her, claiming Cassandra's Elvira creation ripped off her own Vampira persona. Michaels also includes rare footage from the original Vampira TV show, clips from Plan 9, Maila's odd turn (as a hag!) in Bert I. Gordon's 1962 Medieval epic The Magic Sword and other choice material. He also resists any fan-boy padding; if anything, the doc could have run longer to cover Maila's other screen appearances (e.g., The Beat Generation, Sex Kittens Go To College), her alleged blacklisting in the 1950s and other pertinent topics.
Extras include a Michaels audio commentary, appearances by the director and his editor/partner Alexia Anastasio at a Fangoria convention, a California film festival and a German premiere, a brief Q&A with filmmaker/distributor Ted V. Mikels, a session with Friday the 13th actor-turned-composer Ari (Jason Vorhees) Lehman, quality time with Eva Von Slut, a Count Smokula music video, trailer and more. (And dig that stop-motion Robot Monster logo!) Withal, Vampira: the Movie is guaranteed to thrill and enthrall not only hardcore “monster kids” but anyone interested in the bizarre vagaries of show biz and celebrity.
