2007 Press
Rytmi Magazine (Finland), December 2007
The Original Goth Queen
by Ari Väntänen
(Excerpts, translation from Finnish courtesy of Ari Väntänen)
Maila Nurmi never became a big star, but for a while she held Hollywood on her palm.
Nurmi was born as Maila Syrjäniemi in 1921 in Petsamo, Finland. Two years later the Nurmi family moved to America and settled in Ashtabula, Ohio in the largest Finn-American community of the state.
When Maila was seventeen she moved in New York to become an actress, much to her father's resentment. After doing odd model jobs she finally got a supporting role in the play Catherine Was Great. The cast of the play also had a horror show Spook Scandals, in which Maila was cast as a vampire. Spook Scandals was shown on Broadway only once, but one review said that Maila Nurmi was exactly what Hollywood was looking for.
Maila moved to Hollywood to find out if it was true.
In Hollywood Nurmi worked as a model for example for Alberto Vargas and Man Ray. In the mid-1940's she was featured in Bernard of Hollywood's pin-up movie Beauty on the Beach, in which also Marilyn Monroe and Mamie van Doren coqueted.
In 1953 Maila Nurmi dressed as a vampire for choreographer Lester Horton's masquerade. There TV producer Hunt Stromberg Jr. loved her macabre beauty and later asked Maila to host horror movies in KABC channel.
Maila molded the character she had copied from cartoons into something more original and sexy. Her husband Dean Franklin Reisner, who later wrote the screenplay for Dirty Harry, came up with a name.
Vampira was born.
. . .
In making Vampira: The Movie, Kevin Sean Michaels's starting point was Andy Warhol's famous idea about everyone being famous for 15 minutes.
"A lot of show business careers really are like that. Very few actors succeed. But if you look at someone like Bettie Page or Maila Nurmi, there is cult success decades later after their career. Once Plan 9 from Outer Space was dubbed by critics in the 1970s as 'the worst film ever made,' people rushed to seek it out. Now fans all over the world recognize Vampira."
Crawdaddy!, Nov. 7, 2007
Swell Music: Dick Dale vs. Mustang Lightning
by Jennn Fusion
(Excerpts)
Read full articleIn 1994, Quentin Tarantino brought “surf music” back to the masses. Few people can resist the Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill soundtracks, whether they’re 15 or 50 years of age. Unfortunately, independent band Mustang Lightning and their Dick Dale/Link Wray-inspired album came out four years prior, receiving little attention.
Regardless of missing the catapult to instant fame, the band pressed on. Incorporating 1950s rebel rock, eerie voodoo psychobilly riffs, and Texan country twang, Mustang Lightning garnered an underground following by touring the Midwest relentlessly.
Mustang Lightning is on over 100 college radio playlists and, most recently, their song "Haunted House" appears on Vampira: The Movie. Their interest in horror flicks, comic books, and various psychobilly-themes translates into film rather well, much in the same way Dick Dale found himself in a 1987 surf movie.
AMC's MonsterFest blog, Nov. 2, 2007
The Horror Department: Interview with the First Jason
by Todd
See full blog entry
Newsday, Oct. 31, 2007
HELL-OWEEN: Madness at the movies
by Gene Seymour
If the trick-or-treat thing seems either too old or too young for you, Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre has a full night of "Halloween Madness" that will fulfill your horror needs.
The whole shebang begins at 7:30 tonight with a screening of Ed Wood's timelessly tacky "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1958), the so-awful-it's-wonderful pastiche notable for featuring the last screen performance by Bela Lugosi. He plays a ghoul resurrected by aliens to deploy against scientists destroying the world with nuclear weapons.
Conrad Brooks, an Ed Wood repertory player who portrayed "Officer Jamie" in "Plan 9," will appear at the screening to meet fans and sign autographs.
After The Costume Contest of the Damned and The Ghastly Trivia Horror Show in 3-D (for which many prizes will be offered), the extravaganza continues with "Vampira: The Movie," a 2006 documentary about the legendary "glamour ghoul" of big- and small-screen fame. (Did you know she was a friend of such 1950s icons as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Anthony Perkins?) Ari Lehman, who wrote the score for "Vampira" and played the original Jason in "Friday the 13th," will be on hand, as will the documentary's director, Kevin Sean Michaels, and editor, Alexia Anastasio.
Cost for the night is $9 for members and $12 for nonmembers (come in full costume and get $3 off). Candy corn? You'll have to ask about that. Call 631-423-7611 or contact cinemaartscentre.org.
USA Today, Oct. 29, 2007
Halloween horror hosts rise again on radio, TV, film
by David Colton
(Excerpt)
A ghost of Halloween past will be back on the airwaves Wednesday night, ready to add his vulture stew to the season of the witch.
John Zacherle, who as Zacherley the Cool Ghoul helped kick off the monster-movie craze on late-night television 50 years ago, will host two hours of nostalgia on New York City's oldies station, WCBS-FM.
"I'll be playing some old Boris Karloff quotations and crazy old songs —The Monster Mash, Dinner With Drac," Zacherle, still active at 89, says before letting out his deep, signature laugh and adding, "If they let me get away with it!"
The American horror host, a city-by-city phenomenon that encouraged local TV personalities to introduce B-movies with winks and laughter, appears to be ready for its sequel:
• Cassandra Peterson, better known as the curvaceous and bloodlusty Elvira, crowns a new scream queen Halloween night on the climax of The Search for the Next Elvira, a Fox Reality Channel miniseries (8 p.m. ET/5 PT).
• A new documentary on DVD, Vampira the Movie, offers a candid look at Maila Nurmi, the Los Angeles horror host from the 1950s best known for her role in the all-time Z-movie, Plan 9 From Outer Space.
"The image of Vampira has stuck with me for 20 years," says the documentary's director, Kevin Sean Michaels. "When I met her, it was like meeting a Goth grandmother. She's very proud that people are still talking about her today."
Nurmi is 85 and quite aware of her impact on a generation of femmes fatales. She says Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard was among her influences.
Movie City News, Oct. 28, 2007
Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka
(Excerpts)
Isn't it about time someone designated October as Zombie Awareness Month, or, if that's a tad too perverse, Vampire History Month, or, at the very least, encourage Take Your Werewolf to Work days? Horror fans could pin black ribbons to their lapels, reminding friends and office mates to donate freely of their blood.
Anyway, it's a thought.
As someone who's required to pay attention to cinematic trends, I think it's reasonable to assume that studios and other purveyors of film and video products now anticipate the weeks leading up to Halloween with same drooling relish they once reserved for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each year, it seems, the number of spinetinglers that reach my cobweb-encrusted mailbox rises exponentially.
Although there's never been a drought in the supply of fresh horror flicks, the quantity, quality and diversity of niche titles has never been greater.
. . .Vampira: The Movie is a documentary about the life and career of Maila Nurmi, the iconic host of late-night horror shows on Los Angeles television in the '50s. The transplanted Finn -- whose uncle was the great long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi -- led a fascinating life on and off the screen. Among other things, she played Bela Lugosi's partner in Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Plan 9 From Outer Space. This one arrived just as Elvira began the search for her successor on Fox's Reality Channel.
SF Weekly's The Snitch, Oct. 26, 2007
Glamour Ghoul: Vampira film Friday at Oddball Film+Video
by Mary Spicuzza
Vampira was a woman ahead of her time. Back in the 1950s, when many a gal was still kitchen-bound (not that there's anything wrong with that!), the TV horror hostess and B-movie legend had already discovered the joys of vamping it up. She sauntered through smoky hallways, sipped bubbling cocktails, and belted out one of the most legendary screams of all time.
Thank goodness the scream queen has finally found a man who can truly appreciate her. That would be New York filmmaker Kevin Sean Michaels, whose film Vampira: The Movie screens tonight at Oddball Film+Video.
His documentary offers a rare and intimate view into the life of Maila Nurmi, tracing her rise to fame to the sudden (and totally sketchy) decision to cancel her show, to her performance in Ed Wood's cult classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Vampira: The Movie screens with a feature fragment by another cult legend, J.X. Williams and others at 8:30 p.m. on Friday (tonight) at Oddball Film+Video, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco. Admission is $10.00, and it's RSVP Only (try info@oddballfilm.com or phone 415.558.8117.)
7x7 San Francisco's Hot List Blog, Oct. 25, 2007
Trick or Treat: Hot List Style
by A+E Editors Melissa Goldstein and Hayley E. Kaufman
(Excerpt)
Vampira: The Movie: Friday, October 26 at 8:30 p.m.
Oddball Films 275 Capp St., 415-558-8117
This gritty documentary about B-movie film star Maila "Vampira" Nurmi chronicles the rise and fall of the former pin up, actress and cult icon. False fangs optional.
Videoscope Magazine, Fall 2007
Vampira Verite!
by The Phantom
(Excerpts)
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 primarily 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 scare-biz admirers both old (Forry Ackerman, once and future Cool Ghoul Zacherley [sharp as ever here]) and new (post-modern horror hosts Count Smokula and Penny Dreadful. . . . 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.
Ultra Violent Magazine, Issue 9
Independent Roll Call 2007
by Art Ettinger
(Excerpt)
Vampira: The Movie (www.vampirathemovie.com) is a highly professional documentary about Maila Nurmi, the eccentric actress who played the iconic early horror host Vampira. As a general rule, "talking head" documentaries are only as good as their directors and editors. Luckily, the folks behind Vampira: The Movie are extremely talented, producing a tight documentary. It's no shocker that this exciting project recently received an expanded official DVD release with bonus features. Director Kevin Sean Michaels also proves he can produce interesting fictional work in The Last Days of Rik Mortis, an engaging 20-minute short about a goth rocker who faces the consequences of a murder.
Newsday, Oct. 24, 2007
DVD Review: 'The Paul Lynde Halloween Special'
By Diane Werts
(Excerpt)
Vampira: The Movie (Alpha Video, $15) - The 1950s horror movie hostess gets a feature-length bio-tribute from fans, friends and eerie experts. Maila "Vampira" Nurmi is seen in old kinescopes with her black outfits and white skin, and today with white hair and "normal" clothing. It's a tale of early TV, evangelism, pin-up poses and, of course, "Plan 9 From Outer Space."
The Providence Journal, Oct. 18, 2007
Scare up some time for horror film fest
(Excerpt)
Read full article.Run for your life! The Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival is coming!
There will be vampires and voodoo, ghosts and ghouls, a chicken that’s not a chicken, and one very, very bad bunny.
Oh, what’s the point? You can’t hide. Face your fears. You’ll find them in 43 installments at five locations today through Sunday.
The festival, now in its eighth year, kicks off at 5 p.m. today at the Providence Public Library, 50 Empire St. Two documentaries will have their New England premieres: Kreating Karloff, which is a tribute to Boris Karloff, and Vampira the Movie, which is about horror hostess Maila "Vampira" Nurmi.
The Valley Breeze & Observer, Oct. 17, 2007
R.I. International Horror Film Festival opens Oct. 18
(Excerpts)
PROVIDENCE - Ghouls, goblins, zombies, and ghosts will all make an appearance on the big screen as the Rhode Island International Film Festival unwraps its eighth annual Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival, October 18-21 at 7 p.m.
. . .The festival kicks off with the New England premieres of two documentaries on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 5 p.m. at the Providence Public Library, 50 Empire St.
In "Kreating Karloff," Connecticut director Connor Timmis brings back to life two of Universal's screen monsters, "The Mummy" and "Frankenstein" for a screen test and tribute to Boris Karloff. Also screening is Kevin Sean Michaels' "Vampira The Movie," about legendary horror hostess Vampira. The film features new, exclusive interviews with Maila "Vampira" Nurmi, Forrest J. Ackerman, Sid Haig, Lloyd Kaufman, and many others from the world of horror.
Cultcuts Magazine, Oct. 16, 2007
Cultcuts Shortcuts
(Excerpt)
Not to be mistaken for some sort of biopic on the life and times of Vampira, this is a documentary/interview with the reclusive woman herself. Three years in the making, director Kevin Michaels spent time becoming her friend, creating confidence and finally taping hours and hours of Maila Nurmi talking about her life. Now condensed to a mere 70 minutes, one wishes for more, but what we are left with is pretty good stuff. She's mellowed over the years and talks frankly about her own vanity and mistakes over her career, not to mention sleeping with Marlon Brando and being friends with James Dean. Michaels manages to make her seem so comfortable, it's hard to believe she is a recluse and the reported "snob" nasty lady that was rumored to be. Along with her, we get other people's insights into her career and influences from the likes of Forest J. Ackerman, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Lloyd Kaufman, Debbie Rochon and even Cassandra Peterson (!). This is a great documentary that I highly recommend to fans of Vampira and even Ed Wood. – Mark Engle
Screem Magazine #15
You'll recall that Issue #14 featured a three-page cover story on Vampira: The Movie (scroll down for excerpts). Screem reports that this is their biggest-selling issue to date! If you want a back issue, buy it now, as very few copies are left.
Issue #15 includes a letter referring to that cover story.
Screemail
(Excerpts)
Dear Screem,
I have been reading your fine publication since number 6, and your magazine continues to get bigger and better with each issue. . . . Growing up in California, I can remember watching Vampira as a kid. I have very fond memories of Maila Nurmi. Do you know when this documentary will be in stores?
Sincerely,
Glen Sager,
Pasadena, CAThank you for the kind words Glen. We're glad to help you relive those wonderful memories. Vampira: The Movie will be available from Alpha Video.
Thanks, Glen and Screem! Click here to order Vampira: The Movie.
The Providence Journal, Oct. 12, 2007
Horror Film Festival will be frightful
(Excerpt)
Next week, ghouls, ghosts and zombies will haunt screening rooms from the Providence Public Library to the Narragansett Cinema and even the Brooklyn Coffee & Tea House (which is not in Brooklyn at all, but at 209 Douglas Ave. in Providence), when the Rhode Island International Film Festival stages its annual Horror Film Festival.
Films from as far away as New Zealand and Sweden will unleash their terrors, beginning with a documentary from not so far away — Connecticut filmmaker Connor Timmis’s Kreating Karloff, about the actor’s two most legendary roles, the Mummy and Frankenstein’s Monster. Also on screen will be Vampira The Movie, a documentary by Kevin Sean Michaels about the TV horror hostess.
Note: As of Oct. 14, this article was projo.com's second "most e-mailed in the last 24 hours"!
DVD Talk, Oct. 12, 2007
Vampira the Movie
Review by Stuart Galbraith IV
(Excerpts)
Maila Nurmi's fame, such as it is, rests entirely on two arcane achievements: As "Vampira," she may have been television's first horror movie host and, again in her Vampira persona, she appeared in Ed Wood's notoriously bad sci-fi thriller Plan 9 from Outer Space (1958). Though Nurmi's TV gig barely lasted one season (or less) and her brief appearance in Wood's movie amounted to one day's work, she undeniably has made a lasting impression on popular culture - a documentary about her isn't by any means a bad idea. Though Vampira herself was rooted in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons and other sources (including the Dragon Lady in "Terry and the Pirates"), virtually all female horror hosts, most famously Elvira - Mistress of the Dark, have adopted a similar look and campy approach, and Plan 9 is certainly much more popular today than when it was new. Tim Burton's affectionate tribute to Ed Wood (1994), based on Rudolph Grey's superb book Nightmare of Ecstasy, featuring Lisa Marie as Vampira, acknowledged Wood and the film's enduring popularity.
. . . In her mid-eighties she's still a bundle of energy, elaborately gesturing throughout, like a snake on a hotplate - she seems incapable of sitting still - with theatrical, Vampira-like mannerisms. She comes off as, well, more than a little eccentric: after filming her scenes for Plan 9, Nurmi says, "I went home on the bus again...but my boyfriend wouldn't have sex with me and I tried to rape a doorknob." Uh...how's that again?
Deseret Morning News, Sept. 24, 2007
'Streets' leads off releases of TV series
Documentaries, sitcoms and reality shows also on tap
By Chris Hicks
(Excerpt)
"Vampira: The Movie" (Alpha, 2007, b/w and color, $14.98). The 1950s Los Angeles horror hostess, and the actress who played her, Maila Nurmi (also a co-star in what is thought to be the worst movie of all time, "Plan 9 From Outer Space"), is profiled with clips and interviews. Campy fun.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary, featurettes, vintage clips, music video
USA Today, Sept. 20, 2007
New on DVD
by Mike Clark
(Excerpt)
A sometimes James Dean squeeze and schlock-horror movie host in L.A., Maila Nurmi (now 85) was a shapely grandma of the goth look by way of cartoonist Charles Addams. . . . Highlight: remembrances of Ed Wood, who (kind of) directed Nurmi's Vampira self in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Home Media Retailing, July 27, 2007
DVD Release Report
Alpha Video
(Excerpt)
For the month of August, Alpha Video has a new wrinkle, the Aug. 28 DVD debut of documentary filmmaker Kevin Sean Michaels' labor-of-love homage to cult legend Maila "Vampira" Nurmi, Vampira: The Movie.
With the help and support of some of the biggest names associated with horror films in the industry, Michaels has assembled a feature documentary that follows the career of the late night horror hostess, and co-star of director Ed Wood's 1959 "masterpiece," Plan 9 From Outer Space. Those contributing to the celebration of her incredible career include Sid Haig, Lloyd Kaufman, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, and screen queens Debbie Rochon, Julie Strain and Penny Dreadful . . . to name just a few.
ISeeDead.com, May 12, 2007
An Interview with Kevin Sean Michaels
by MovieDemon
(Excerpts)
Read full interview.MovieDemon: Hello, Mr. Michaels. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us. Now, before we delve into "Vampira: The Movie," "Poultrygeist" and your future project on Hammer Films' "Queen of Horror" Ingrid Pitt, let me ask you; How did you get into filmmaking? What films have molded you into the filmmaker you are today?
KSM: I think Robert Altman said that you should never be satified as a filmmaker, that you should always be reaching. I'm sure I will always be learning. I started out with a Super 8 camera making silent movies with my friends when I was ten. Much later I became a visual and commercial artist, looking to be the next Andy Warhol. I would work on stuff like Bird's Eye frozen Green Peas packages. If someone asked about my work, I would tell them to look in their freezer (laughs). I also helped alot of folks out with their films just to be around the medium. I found a lot of Warhol spirit at Troma Studios. The door was always open and filmmakers would flock to Lloyd Kaufman. I was very lucky to be immersed into an "anything goes" low-budget ethic of filmmaking where every penny counts.
MovieDemon: Now, you have worked with Troma for years, but what can you tell us about your involvement on Lloyd Kaufman's "Poultrygeist: Night of the Dead Chicken"?
KSM: That's "Chicken Dead." I was the art director at Troma for years waiting for them to make a movie. The egg of an idea hatched. Suddenly, I was thrown into a second job; working fulltime creating six DVD titles a month and creating props for Poultrygeist. I would drive up to Buffalo, NY from New York City and back again during production. It's a miracle I didn't get pulled over because I had greasepaint all over my face from being an extra chicken zombie. Dead at the wheel, I guess.
Virus Magazine April/May 2007
Rotten Reports
Vampira: The Movie (In German. Excerpts from two-page interview.)
Das Interview führte Marcus MenoldMaila Nurmi alias Vampira ist eine ikone des Horrorfilms, Kultfigur und Mutter aller Scream-Queens. Der amerikanische Regisseur Kevin Sean Michaels hat Maila in Hollywood besucht und mit ihr und vielen anderen Horror-Größen eine Dokumentation geschaffen, die sich dem Leben von Maila widmet.
. . .
Virus: Gab es Fragen an Maila, die dir unter den Nägeln gebrannt haben?
KSM: Ich wollte wirklich wissen, was sie von Ed Wood hält. Ich hatte den Tim-Burton-Film gesehen, aber leider erfährt man darin nicht viel über sie. Maila war von Woods Stil, Filme zu machen nicht unbedingt beeindruckt. Sie sagte mir: „Ich dachte, dass Ed ein dummer Prolet war. Absolut ohne Talent. Ein alberner Depp, der sich mit einer Taschenlampe bewaffnet hatte und mit einem ,Buuhuuhuu' die Leute erschrecken wollte. Ich hielt ihn einfach nur für einen Trottel. Ich habe nicht dahinter gesehen und tat ihn mit einem Blick ab. Über die Jahre aber wurde ich ruhiger und sensibler. Bald begann ich den Mann hinter diesen Dingen zu sehen. Ich sah, wie unglaublich es war, was er alleine und ohne jegliche Hilfe geschaffen hatte."Virus: Da du Leute aus den ganzen USA interviewt hast, scheint dies ja ein sehr zeitaufwändiges Projekt gewesen zu sein. Wie lang hat die ganze Sache gedauert?
KSM: Drei Jahre. Es gab viele Hindernisse. Ich fühlte mich meist wie Charlie Chaplin. Ich ziehe mit meiner Kamera von Ort zu Ort, esse kalte Spagetti und schlafe in Schränken im Stehen. Nach einer Weile muss man aus den Schränker kommen.. . .
____________________________________
Bonus: This issue also contains a two-page article on the Weekend of Fear Film Festival, which included Vampira: The Movie.
Rotten Reports
Film-Inferno In Erlangen
Weekend of FearAlle Jahre wieder bietet das Weekend of Fear in Erlangen dem geneigten Horror-Freund eine Auswahl skurriler, außergewöhnlicher und einzigartiger Filme abseits des Mainstreams. Von Kennern des Genres als das schönste Film-Festival Deutschlands geschätzt, findet der Event in diesem Jahre zum offiziell elften Male statt. Virus traf Co-Veranstalter Matthias Engelhardt und befragte ihn zur Geschichte, dem diesjährigen Line-up und den Gästen des diesjährigen Festivals.
. . . Nostalgisch wird es bei dem Klassiker „Dracula in Pakistan" aus dem Jahr 1967 und der brand-neuen Dokumentation „Vampira: The Movie" über den unvergessenen Schwarz-Weiß-Filmstar. . . .
____________________________________
Bonus 2: There's also a two-page interview with our friend Debbie Rochon.
Debbie Rochon ist eine der Schauspielerinnen, die oftmals mit der Bezeichnung „Scream Queen" betitelt werden. Dass in Debbie weitaus mehr steckt, als lediglich eine B-Movie-Darstellerin beweist sie in dem Interview, das wir mit ihr geführt haben.
____________________________________
Bonus 3: Plus reviews of special blends from Coffee Shop Of Horrors, including Debbie Rochon's French Vanilla From Beyond, and Conrad Brooks's Blend 9 From Outer Space!
MrSkin.com, May 2007
Deep Inside Vampira: The Movie
Documentarian Kevin Sean Michaels stakes his case.
By Meghan McCarville (Excerpts)
Kevin Sean Michaels is a multitalented New York filmmaker who is currently touring around the country showing his documentary Vampira: The Movie.
The documentary has a very impressive cast of onscreen contributors: horror-movie icons such as Debbie Rochon, Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, Lloyd Kaufman, Ari Lehman, Cassandra Peterson--who is better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark--and most impressively, eighty-four-year-old Vampira herself, the reclusive Maila Nurmi.
In the 1950s, Vampira was a Los Angeles-based TV horror-movie hostess who went on to immortal fame by co-starring in Edward D. Wood Jr.'s beloved Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Offscreen, Vampira had SMALL BREASTS and a seventeen-inch waist, and she hobnobbed with Hollywood luminaries on the legendary order of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean;;, and Marlon Brando. Eventually she faded into obscurity, only returning when, in the 1980s, a hugely buxom vampire vixen named Elvira surfaced, essentially recreating Vampira's whole shtick.
Screem Magazine #14
Excerpt from three-page cover story by Kevin Sean Michaels
Greetings my friends. You are interested in the unknown. The mysterious, the unexplainable, that is why you are reading Screem Magazine. The great Criswell only predicted up to the year 2000, so today we'll have to wing it.
I am the director of Vampira: The Movie. It's hard to say director when you are taking about the documentary form. But I guess my role was to act like a human-sized Yellow Highlighter.
When Maila Nurmi and I became friends, there was no Vampira: The Movie. There was nothing. There was me and her, laughing and talking together. Just two friends from different generations, but from the same planet it seemed. She knew everyone in Hollywood in the1950's-- Brando, Dean, and even Monroe. Do I even have to mention first names? They all met as young creative people, all trying to carve a niche into the celluloid stone. And she talked about them casually-- just her pals at a coffee shop called Googie's, not film icons. James Dean rode up on his motocycle crying, one story began. Another remembrance, Marlon Brando creeped into her bedroom at night by surprise. Listening to her speak, I was as bug-eyed as the giant siders that invaded the cinema of the Eisenhower era.
Maila's words floated in the air like gypsy folktales and I felt as if I had a obligation to record every sentence in my brain exactly, as if the information would be lost forever.
Racks and Razors, April 2007
Director / Producer / Actor Interview:
Kevin Sean Michaels: Musing with the Grand Keeper of Vampira's Throne
By Brian Kirst (Excerpts)
Sometimes ya' just gotta have heroes. Now, I'm not talking about heroes as in those that you slavishly worship, but as in those people that you just think are cool as s**t! I think Kevin Sean Michaels is cool as s**t. Why? Because Michaels has worked on Troma's terrifically titled Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead and his directorial short, The Last Days of Rik Mortis, lauded by The New York Times, concerns a Goth Rocker who delivers a lethal blow job. More importantly, Michaels celebrates all that is Maila Nurmi in the exciting documentary Vampira: The Movie. In Vampira, Michaels finally gives full due to the original horror hostess and helps resolve the long and bitter battle between Nurma and Elvira's portrayer Cassandra Peterson. Kevin is now setting his laser-like, zombie bloodshot eyes onto lauded scream queen, Ingrid Pitt. I can't wait - and who knows? After reading the interview, below, and checking out www.vampirathemovie.com you just might have a new hero, yourself.
Brian: Okay, Kevin - Was filmmaking something that you were always interested in or did you discover that, one day, like a male Alice you just happened to fall down a cinematic rabbit hole?
KSM: A male Alice? What a great idea for a gay porno. - Probably already done. I used to make films on Super 8 when I was a kid. Silent films like the old silent films. That's when I found out that if you said you were making a movie it would bring out all sorts of unusual people that you don't really know but would arrive on set like they were your best friends. But film has always interested me. Getting back to your question, I guess the only holes I've run into in this business are the a-holes. But that's every type of business. I've met a lot of great people, too
Brian: Are the types of films you want to produce wide-ranging or are you interested in a certain style? For example, The Last Days of Rik Mortis seems to have a psychological horror bent.
KSM: Do you guys remember Friday The 13th: The Series? I watched that when I was a teenager. I love cursed objects and twist endings. Rik Mortis was an experiment for me. I am a big George Romero fan. Yes, there are zombies in his movies, but there is also psychology. And death is not always glorious like 300. Sometimes an event can happen and people attempt to cover it up. That's what happens to Rik. I hope to make more movies like this. We just finished up a short called, Helen To Pay. It is about a girl that gets revenge on an old nemesis of hers by possessing her with voodoo. This girl does everything to her, and I mean everything, to humiliate her enemy. Ultimately, the girl suffers the consequence.
FilmHorror.com, Feb. 23, 2007
(In Italian) Review by Alberto Genovese
Sebbene le notizie giungano in Italia con il contagocce, gli appassionati horror attendono frementi un'anteprima del film documentario Vampira: The Movie, dedicato alla vita di Maila Nurmi, pin up di origini finlandesi, approdata al successo nel 1954 presentando la trasmissione notturna Glamour Ghoul con l'inquietante nome di Vampira. I suoi show erano contraddistinti da un umorismo macabro accentuato dal suo set: un bar a forma di tomba pieno di ragnatele, ragni di gomma e teschi e da frasi tipo "Fate brutti sogni, tesori".
Racks and Razors, February 2007
Actor Interview:
The First Jason Voorhees: Talking With Ari Lehman By Owen Keehnen (Excerpts)
99.9 % of all horror fans are very familiar with 'Friday the 13th' & they all know about Jason Voorhees...Almost everyone who considers themselves a fan of the series recalls Jason before the ski mask and even Jason before adulthood. And if that's how they remember him you can be sure they are recalling Ari Lehman. You can see him can't you? Ari played Jason, the drowned boy (looking hideous thanks to makeup guru Tom Savini) who rises from Crystal Lake up to pull Adrienne King out of the canoe at the end of the 1980 scare classic. Well, Ari is all grown up now but the Voorhees notoriety remains. He currently fronts a horror-punk band with the name FIRSTJASON & is a frequent guest on the horror convention circuit...he even makes an occasional horror flicks such as 'ThanXgiving' and 'Tattoo Terror'. Oh yeah, and he does interviews as well. He's here for an exclusive Racks and Razors interview telling us what he's been doing since he leapt from that cold water and also sharing some of his Camp Crystal Lake memories.
. . . . .
Keehnen: Speaking of that, since the filming of the movie you've been mainly involved in music. I am really excited to hear your horror-rock band FIRSTJASON. Tell me a bit about that and I love the fact that 'You'd Better Run' is written from the "Voorhees perspective".
Lehman: Destruction has a new middle name: FIRSTJASON! FIRSTJASON is a progressive Horror-Punk band, fronted by none other than the First Jason Voorhees, Ari Lehman, himself. Please visit FIRSTJASON.com to hear our unique message and sound which has done enough damage to get us featured in BLENDER Magazine, on BBC-Radio and as a frequent guest on ManCow's Morning MadHouse. We now play cover songs by bands like Danzig, The Misfits, and the Dead Kennedys as well as our own original songs forged in Punk and Metal. In fact, there is an event coming up here in Chicago which may interest your Racks and Razors readers: I did the soundtrack for VAMPIRA: THE MOVIE, a documentary about that legendary Horror Vixen, and on Saturday, February 24th, I will be hosting the release party here in Chicago at MEMORIES, on Montrose at Cicero. FIRSTJASON will perform, alongside local Punk Greats Johnny Vomit, and The Massacres. There will also be a costume contest for best dressed Vampirette sponsored by VAMPIRA: THE MOVIE. For more information, see the "Calendar" page at www.FIRSTJASON.com. VAMPIRA: THE MOVIE will be screened that same weekend at FANGORIA'S WEEKEND OF HORRORS. FIRSTJASON will also be touring this Summer alongside FREAK13, as a collaborative effort called "Creatures Of Cystal Lake Tour 2007". Please visit www.MySpace.com/creaturesofcrystallake for more information.