Vampira and Me

Vampira and Me (2012)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The name Maila Nurmi might not jump out at you but that's because she's better known under her character name of Vampira. This touching and wonderfully detailed documentary takes a look at the life of Nurmi who is probably best remembered today due to her silent performance in Edward D. Wood, Jr.'s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE but many fans will always remember her as the horror television host who influenced Elvira.

Clocking in just under two hours, it's hard to imagine that any fan would watch this and leave it feeling disappointed. There really wasn't too much known about Vampira but this documentary certainly makes you feel as if you understand everything about her, her character and her rather sad life. The documentary features an interview that the actress gave before she passed away in 2008 and we get to hear her story from her own words. Stories include how the Vampira character came to be, how the show ended, her years of poverty, working with Ed Wood and her notorious relationship with James Dean, a relationship that would have many blaming her for his death.

This is certainly an extremely well-made documentary that features all sorts of terrific information. It was great getting to hear these stories from the woman herself but we're also given some terrific film and television footage. The documentary covers pretty much every aspect of her life and it doesn't shy away from any of the sadness that she felt. Sadly, the majority of the Vampire television show is lost forever with only two minutes of footage surviving and we do get to see that here as well as two other television appearances.

There's not much surviving footage of Vampira in her prime, so there's only so much they could do here, but the interview with her in her old age was great and she was quite candid and sharp. Overall, a very well made doc about a legend that deserved better in life.

This film explores everything about the life of Maila Nurmi from her childhood, to the height of her fame, her downfall, her death, her relevance on pop culture, relationship with James Dean, and so much more in all less than 2 hours. Very few details of her life go untouched and it feels like the complete life story on someone who is a very important icon. Most of the film is Maila being interviewed herself so you get to know each detail of her life in her own words. This allows you to feel you're experiencing the events along with her. She is the only one who is seen being interviewed on screen. All of the other interviews are only audio so this film feels like the true, authentic story of Maila's life. Her story is an inspirational one because it showed someone who worked so hard to achieve so much. Yet she was still thrown away like trash, taken advantage of, hurt, betrayed, and overcame all of it to still be an icon to horror/cult film fans, Goths, and a Hollywood legend in general. While she talked about her times of misfortune and fall from grace, she never seemed bitter or resentful; but rather she seemed to be someone who felt lucky to have achieved success and embraced it with gratefulness.

This is a great documentary which captures the life of an icon very well, and also lets you have an idea of what the 1950s were really like and how different Maila was compared to what other women of that time period were expected to be. She was a truly special, unique person who was one of a kind, and you could see that from this documentary. The director was a personal friend of hers and you could tell how much he cared about her from his narration and the fact that he produced such a documentary in memory of her at all. I would recommend this to any fans of Plan 9 From Outer Space (although it surprisingly doesn't get mentioned a whole lot, the documentary shows there is so much more to the person Maila was than just an appearance in a cult movie) and anybody else who wants to know about the mysterious character.

First, the bad / sad news: Only about 2 minutes of footage from Maila Nurmi's Vampira show are known to exist. Although, there was a news article some years back, that said that most of the full episodes were still around, held privately by an "anonymous owner".

Now, the good news: VAMPIRA AND ME is a loving, fascinating look at Ms. Nurmi and her alter ego, told -mostly- in her own words, in the flesh! Writer / Director R. H. Greene went to great lengths to present a tribute that isn't just some fawning fanboy fiesta.

Greene allows the triumph, as well as the tragedy and pain in Ms. Nurmi's life to emerge, filling in the blank spaces. From her first donning of the Vampira persona at a masquerade party, to her meteoric rise as the dark star of KABC-TV in Los Angeles, she was larger than life. Still, though she had her time with the likes of James Dean and Elvis Presley, she ultimately fell from grace, living in obscurity and poverty. In spite of this, Maila shows great dignity and poise in her interview.

Obviously, her part in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE is covered, as is her wonderful recitation in THE BEAT GENERATION. Her later meeting with punk band, THE MISFITS is also discussed.

However, for me personally, the most arresting and haunting part of the entire documentary is Maila's singing / reciting the song, "Genocide Utopia" with the band Satan's Cheerleaders. This impromptu performance gives me the shivers, no matter how many times I hear it! The fact that she was 64 when she did it, tells us all we need to know about this incredible woman, and her blazing, undying spirit!

The movie ends with Maila and Satan's Cheerleaders performing, "I'm Damned" over the end credits. What a finale!...

A documentary that shows in great depth the life of Maila Nurmi and what she really was behind the character of Vampira. Mr. Greene did a great job to gather information that seemed to be lost for decades. He created a very good biography of a woman who is called "The Godmother of Goth". For a D.I.Y. documentary I think is a 10/10!