Today (12/11/10) is Vampira’s Birthday; Watch an Exclusive Music Video Premiere

Steve Barton |

Dec 11, 2010

As promised, on this most auspicious date of December 11th, Dread Central has a gloomy birthday treat for fans of the first horror host, the one-and-only Vampira: the exclusive premiere of the first video off the Vampira: The Movie Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD.

Decades before waves of hundreds of “horror hosts,” Vampira ruled the airwaves for one glorious year in 1954. Actress Maila Nurmi would have been 87 years old today. Inspired by Charles Addams’ drawings for New Yorker Magazine, the Vampira character had its beginnings in Los Angeles, CA on April 30, 1954 on KABC-TV. “The Vampira Show” was a surprise hit, but the plug was pulled due to creative differences and Nurmi didn’t work again until November, 1956 for only one day for director Ed Wood Jr. The result was Plan 9 from Outer Space, released in 1959, but found its audience at the end of the 1970s when the movie won a “Golden Turkey” in a book by the Medved Brothers. Readers of the book wanted to see “the worst movie ever made.”

Director Tim Burton made the biopic Ed Wood in 1992, starring Johnny Depp, Sara Jessica Parker and Lisa Marie as Vampira. The real Vampira, Maila Nurmi, died in January, 2008 and was honored during that year’s Academy Awards’ In Memoriam.

Documentarian Kevin Sean Michaels began a collaboration with Nurmi on Vampira: The Movie (Alpha Video) in 2004, which won the 2007 Rondo Award for Best Independent Feature. The documentary featured many interviews, including Forrest J Ackerman, Sid Haig, Lloyd Kaufman and Vampira-phile Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Repo: The Genetic Opera), who attended her funeral.

Shortly after the movie’s completion in 2008, Michaels wrote lyrics and went into the recording studio with new material for the Vampira: The Movie Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. On hand for the music was Ari Lehman, the first Jason Voorhees in the original Friday the 13th. The song’s lyrics are based around the characters of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Moseley recorded vocals and played the theremin (a very cool instrument that you play without touching it, heard in many science fiction movies including the theme of Star Trek).

“Vampira Chant” is a 10-minute music video starring Bill Moseley and Ashlynn Yennie (The Human Centipede). Check it out below!

Vampira Chant – Music Video
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The CD is available now; get your copy from the EvilShop.