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27 of 27 found the following review helpful:
 Nice to hear from Maila again... Oct 22, 2007
By Ethan D. Van Sciver
I just finished watching this documentary, and I've decided to be very, very kind, despite how frustrated I was watching it. I'll give it the full five stars, because as a fan of "The Wood Spooks" this was the single best and most informative Maila Nurmi interview ever. When she is on the screen, she is fascinating, humorous, lovely and incredibly entertaining. Absolutely wonderful.
Much of what she imparts here you may have heard before in prior Ed Wood related documentaries, but since those have always been edited in such a way as to retain focus on Wood, Maila's story was always a bit more vague. Here, although intercut with some of the most useless and irritating sound bytes from poseurs and fans alike, she is for the most part allowed to speak her mind and tell her story, creating her own legend and spinning her own web as she'd like it to be understood. This should have been the entire "documentary". Point a camera at her, ask her a few guiding questions and let this woman speak. Period.
Instead, the director interrupts her with clips of horrible reenactment footage, nonsensical and off topic comments from lowlifes, and fan-made performances in tribute to Vampira. This is his first error: We don't wish to see or hear from these people, and it hurts your film.
The second problem is that towards the end, the movie forgets what it's even about, turning into another round of contrary people tributing the great misunderstood genius Ed Wood. Who cares how Lloyd Kaufman feels about the Golden Turkey Awards in this context? Especially since he's only parroting sentiments made in The Plan 9 Companion by other contrary people. It has nothing to do with Vampira, and if Ed Wood is spoken about at all, as I'm afraid he must be, it needs to be from the honest point of view of Maila Nurmi and NO ONE ELSE'S. It's called "VAMPIRA THE MOVIE" afterall. The director can't seem to stay on topic.
And so, look, what we have here is a beautiful 6 LB Maine Lobster prepared by a horrible chef. I'm grateful for the clips from Vampira's old television show (which I'd assumed were gone forever) and for more of the wit and wisdom of this great lady. I'm upset that I share my interest in her work with the characters that insist on squatting in this documentary. Yet, I'm glad to add it to my library, and hope that by showing my enthusiasm for the subject matter, a more worthy film will be made soon.
20 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 And you thought Plan 9 was bad... Oct 18, 2007
By Daryl Macon
It really is a shame that we earthlings don't have "stupid minds" as those uptight aliens from Plan 9 suggest. Perhaps if we did have lower mentalities we could better enjoy Vampira: The Movie. Leave it to Alpha Video, the company responsible for putting out some of the most pitiful of public domain prints on video to destroy what little dignity Maila "Vampira" Nurmi has left. Within an hour's time Vampira's mysterious, other worldly charm is chipped away until we are left with nothing but an old lady surrounded by a gang of freak show rejects. The film starts out on the right path, but quickly goes astray with a bizarre and useless reenactment of an actress in a cheap blonde wig posing as Maila Nurmi during her days as a pin-up model. We are later treated to some footage of this actress putting on a black wig to illustrate the transformation into Vampira. These silly, contrived bits can be overlooked, but the real problems are still to come. While Vampira is given plenty of screen time to tell her abridged life story, she is shot from only one angle with no special makeup, wardrobe, set or lighting. The setting is very pedestrian and the producer's should have splurged and spent the extra $100 for a backdrop. Vampira's story is interesting and it's a great asset to hear the words from her mouth, but over much of her talk is some ear bleeding synthetic stock music which is distracting at the least. The rest of the picture is made up of unknown horror "stars" who haunt the convention circuits. Most have never even met the woman. This is made embarrassingly clear when they generically chatter about black dresses and fingernails which could be applied to any Vampire character. There are so many ignorant interviewees that one feels that Vampira really has no fan base outside of a carnival sideshow. As if they were not bad enough one at a time, we are then treated to a four star spectacular that flashes them on the screen one right after another with stock music playing in the background. One would think if they planned to fill the movie with unknowns, they would have chose Vampira's actual friends rather than this gaggle of ghouls. The only interesting aspect of this movie is hearing Elvira's side of the Vampira lawsuit (though Vampira herself never mentions it) and seeing clips from Vampira's famed 1950s television show. The movie could have been much better if it were trimmed down to about thirty minutes and completely scrapped the weirdos. The editing is perhaps the worst ever in documentary filmmaking. It seems to have been edited by a child learning how to use the free software included with their new DVD burner. The still photos featured in the movie have been taken from web sites and eBay auctions, which explains the pixilation problems. The editing of these photos is ridiculous in itself. The editor obviously used random zoom filters which zoom into the center of the photos... usually right into someone's chest. Other times, the photos will fade into another before the subject's face is seen! Clearly this is the work of amateurs and Alpha should have left such an intriguing subject to more capable hands. Vampira is an artist, poet, actress, model, dancer even a singer, but this poor excuse for a documentary paints a very vague picture and leaves the uneducated viewer to believe she should only be remembered as a kook who clings to a 50 year old black wig. I give it one star - simply because Amazon does not have zero or negative ratings.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
A chat with Vampira Nov 24, 2007
By Art E. Misia
This video contains a full-length interview with Vampira: the elusive (some might say reclusive) Maila Nurmi. Her thoughts, her memories, her experiences as Vampira and afterward. I don't think this kind of footage exists anywhere else. It also includes segments from Vampira's short-lived but legendary TV show, which I had thought lost to the fog machines of time. These two elements alone make this film worth having for any fan of Vampira, or collector of Vampire lore and legend. Rather than tearing down the director for technical problems, real or perceived, I think he should be congratulated for managing to get Ms. Nurmi to sit still for his camera in such a relaxed and informal way. Some of the critical reviewers make good points, but I'm happy that I have this video so I can watch the parts with Ms. Nurmi over and over again. She is such an interesting person, and the fact that she inhabits such a strong, quirky and artistic persona at the age of 85 is truly inspirational!
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 What a scream! Nov 13, 2007
By Cydweli
This is a fascinating look into the life of a cult character. Maila Nurmi was quite an independent woman for the 1950's, and she speaks very candidly of her past, of her treatment by those in charge of productions, of her personal life, and of what it took to become that haunting figure whose very strangeness was compelling. And that tiny, tiny waist: Vampira had always seemed so unreal to me, that it was a delight to meet her real alter ego!
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Subtly hilarious Oct 22, 2007
By PunkRockLawyer
There are so many great lines in this film, most of them said completely deadpan. It took a while for the hilarity to sink in, but once it did, I really appreciated this movie. Maila "Vampira" Nurmi is very well-spoken in her eccentricity, as are horror luminaries like "Toxic Avenger" director Lloyd Kaufman and actors Sid Haid and Bill Moseley. It's also a treat to see horror hosts both classic (Elvira, Zacherley) and new (who knew there were so many? Each with their own entertaining "schtick"). One of my favorite parts shows Zacherley split-screen, as he is now (still as cool as ever) and as he was in the 1950's. But I think my favorite thing about this documentary is what's not said: Maila "Vampira" Nurmi repeatedly states that her main goal was always to be an evangelist, but she never explains why (although one gets the impression that it may be due to nothing more than a love of doing monologues) -- and really, *could* she explain why? Is there any possible logical reason that the "goth-mother" (as one of the young horror hosts puts it) of horror somehow *just* missed an alternate career path as an evangelist? No, there isn't. Likewise there's no explaining Maila's casual assertion that she was known as "the first woman in California to wear backless shoes," and other dubious claims. I was surprised to see some other reviews that faulted the filmmaker for not doing more to research and verify Maila's various surprising claims. I think anyone who expects this film to be some kind of hard-nosed investigative journalism is kind of missing the point. What it's good for is learning about Maila's personality, her life and career as she understood them, and the influence she's had on horror and popular culture in general. If I were a goth, I'd be thrilled to hear her say that she loves seeing a beautiful goth!
It's clear that this was not a big-budget production -- the footage looks distinctly digital in spots, and there are occasional peculiarities with the editing. Oddly, the editing seems to get better as the film goes on -- was this a learn-as-you-go project? Still, it's also clear that care was taken -- there's none of that annoying herky-jerky camera movement I associate with low-budget documentaries, and overall the lighting and sound are good. The instrumental score by Ari Lehman (Jason from Friday the 13th) is interesting, and makes some of Maila's monologues sound like spoken-word performances. (With Maila's wacky lines and Ari's jazzy noodlings, I bet someone could remix these into a really cool dance hit . . .) There are also a few great indie rock songs (as an independent musician myself, I'm always glad to see filmmakers supporting independent music!).
The extras are uneven, but again funnier than they appear from a cursory look. Like, the one of the director speaking in front of a German audience seemed kind of boring until the subtitles came in, and they had me ROTFL. I don't *think* that was an accurate translation of the German?!?!? I especially liked the one of Ari talking about how he composed the music. I should note that what's described on the box as "music videos" really aren't -- one is the aforementioned Ari "making of"-type clip, and the other is Count Smokula singing his song "Vampira" live -- it's an entertaining song but not a "music video" per se.
So despite its flaws (which are no greater than that of any other low-budget doc, and maybe less so), I recommend this film to anyone interested in Vampira, the world of horror, or just interesting eccentrics in general.
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