ON STANDS APRIL 1st!

THE LAST INTERVIEW WITH VAMPIRA
Just prior to her passing earlier this year, Rue Morgue was fortunate enough to have the final conversation with Maila "Vampira" Nurmi, the world’s first horror host and glamour ghoul. Plus: Her long-time friend Dana Gould paints an intimate portrait of Nurmi from her halcyon years to her golden years, a look at the new Vampira documentary, as well as her last feature film appearance in the Ed Wood-penned I Woke Up Early the Day I Died.
by Dave Alexander, Dana Gould and Paul Corupe

THE REAL GHOST BUSTERS
The skeptics of Ghost Hunters try their damndest to explain the seemingly unexplainable – with sometimes surprising results. Plus: A round-up of the best and worst paranormal TV shows.
by Claire Horsnell and Monica S. Kuebler

THE WITCH HUNTER’S BIBLE
A new translation of the notorious Malleus Maleficarum reveals further truths about the Medieval witch hunts.
by Last Chance Lance

THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
Kris Kuksi criticizes humanity through his intricate, morbid sculptures.
by Monica S. Kuebler

THE BLEAK DIMENSIONS OF DIMMU BORGIR
A conversation with Norway’s popular black metallers.
by Keith Carman

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
Rock community legend Del James jams with Rue Morgue about the personal triumphs and tragedies that inspired his highly sought-after collection of horror stories, The Language of Fear.
by Jovanka Vuckovic

DEPARTMENTS:

NOTE FROM UNDERGROUND
Vampira’s funeral.

DREADLINES
Coscarelli pushes ahead with Ho-Tep prequel and novel adaptation; Lee Demarbre prepares tribute to the Godfather of Gore; New website enables users to develop horror film online.

CINEMACABRE
CineMacabre presents reviews of Nightmare Detective, Rambo, The Eye, They Wait, Automatons, The Attic, Storm Warning, I Am Omega, Alien vs. Hunter, Monster, and more! Reissues features the gialli of Aldo Lado, plus reviews of The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, Barn of the Naked Dead, 42nd Street Forever Vol. 3: Exploitation Explosion, and more!

CINEMARQUEE
The Hands of Orlac (1924).

BOWEN’S BASEMENT
Speck and Speculation.

BLOOD IN FOUR COLOURS
Spotlight: Delphine. Plus reviews of The Demons of Sherwood, Ghosting, Se7en, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

THE NINTH CIRCLE
Spotlight: Varney the Vampire. Plus reviews of NEKROmantik, The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Master of Fear, Film Alchemy: The Independent Cinema of Ted V. Mikels, Inferno, Wayne Barlowe’s God;s Demon, and more!

TRAVELOGUE OF TERROR
Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Los Angeles, California.
by Bill Moseley!

THE GORE-MET
Menu: China’s Cat III films.

AUDIO DROME
Spotlight: The electropop alchemy of Johnny Hollow. Reviews of DriftwoodMad Doctor of Blood Island OST, Judgehydrogen, The Undead, The Forbidden Dimension, Piggy D., Necrodeath, Severe Torture, more! OST,

PLAY DEAD
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Penumbra: Black Plague, The Experiment.

CLASSIC CUT
Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom.

GIVEAWAYS THIS ISSUE: Twenty-five new subscribers will win an autographed copy of The Language of Fear.

From Piggy D

As some of you know we raised enough money (thanks to all of you) to inter our friend Maila at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The service was amazing, and we are very happy she is in a better place. We could not have done it without you. So thank you!

Now we are trying to raise money for a really incredible statue to mark the plot. The memorial fund is still set up to collect funds. This moment is going to be amazing and anything you can give would be so appreciated. There is going to be some really cool press coming out about Maila soon..I’ll let you know when I’m allowed.

You can still paypal your donation to: Vampira@brazenmanagement.com

There is an awesome charity event coming up to raise money. If you are in Los Angeles, this will be a lot of fun....See the bottom of this blog for details.

- PD



Please repost!!!

Please repost!!!

I have posted a few of the images taken at Maila's funeral in the pictures section and will post a more extensive journal entry about it at a later time.

Photographer Angelina Starkey took the photographs and was not only a dear friend of Maila's but a well known photographer known for her work in New Orleans. Angelina has a lot of experience shooting these kind of events and did a stunning job.

The photographs, in true New Orleans style do not cover the chapel service but cover the procession and graveside. It seems a bit odd photographing the event as it was so personal and so private but we wanted to make sure that people could have a view into her last moments....

I know many people couldn't make it for many reasons. We will be having a public service for her in the near future and I will keep you all in the loop as to when that is.

- Gabrielle

Maila's Lifestory online at Hollywood Forever

http://www.forever-studios.com/lifestories/lifestory.cfm?Archive_ID=23712
(cut and paste the link above into your browser)


Maila was buried last Sunday at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

The service was small and simple just the way she would have wanted it.

The donations on behalf of the fans and friends was greatly appreciated.

We will be having public service for her when we unveil her headstone that is currently being worked on by Thomas Kuntz, the very talented sculptor and artist who rendered her for two of her favorite figured.

The dates for that memorial will be forthcoming.

If you would like to go visit her please feel free to go to the flower shop on premises at Hollywood Forever where they will give you a map with specific directions.

Thank you all again so very much.....

- G

The Vista Theater at the corner of Hollywood and Vine will be screening the Ed Wood film Plan 9 form Outer Space at Midnight!

The director of the SBIG filmfest (my pal Kimberly) will be donating a portion of the proceeds from tonight's event to help pay for Vampira's funeral. So far we've raised about 1500.00, but still have a ways to go before we have the needed funds.

So, please show your support and go see a classic midnight movie for a real good cause!

Oh yeah, the cafe' next to the theater has a deal where if you shout "You're, stupid, stupid minds!" you get a free coffee with every order!

That's worth the drive alone!

Thanks gang,
Bry

ps; I had originally stated that all the proceeds would be donated from tonight's fundraiser, but it's a portion as the Vista has overhead that they have to meet, too. The error was mine, not Kimberly's. Just wanted to make that correction so all was above board.

Of Fire and Water....


Many years ago after reading about the "updating" of original Vampira show( re-named Elvira the 80's pale imititation of her pioneering 1954 show to avoid paying her ) I became very interested in the woman behind the Vampira persona...a woman I had seen since childhood in the pages of books and in the pages of "Famous Monsters of filmland".
I had always been interested in pioneers, underdogs and eccentrics....she was all of these things and more.

Maila Nurmi was an extraordinary person...the more time I spent with her the more I realized that she was (among many other things) one of the last links between old hollwood and new, between the jazz age and Rock and roll, between the old american dream and its replacement, the new world order.

Unlike Vampira ,the character she deliberately crafted out of the coldest and most base selfish aspects of human nature , Maila was a very warm and extremely sensitive person with high- minded ideals and a creative spirit that was boundless. On the other hand she understood human nature and its pitfalls well ,always studying people and listening to their life stories.She had strong opinions and that often put her at odds with people that expected her to be a "suck up".
This quality alone is as rare as hen's teeth in hollywood and it endeared her to me from the very start.

Her values and integrity could not be bought at any price..though she often "loaned" her persona for a more than reasonable fee to survive.
The most famous example of which is her mute role in Ed Wood's film "Plan Nine From Outer Space" .This golden turkey award recipient ,in an ironic twist of fate, became the vessel for the preservation of Vampira's Iconic image!
It also exposed her to a whole new generation of young punks and rebels who admired her daring and intimidating looks and attitude.
She often laughed about that.....which brings me to another of her lesser known attributes.

She had a tremendous sense of humor about everything ,especially herself...such a quality from a person of her stature is nearly unheard of.
She was always catching me off guard speaking the queen's English one moment then making a vulger sailor- mouthed joke the next... amusing herself in the process at my shocked response to it all.This is not the kind of talk expected from a woman old enough to be your Grandmother!

As most people have come to know, before Plan Nine she was the world's first (and perhaps most daring) Horror Host emerging at the same time America was waking up to Elvis and rock and roll. In the 50's ,TV was shot live and the Shows (her bits) were logged on Kinescopes.
Over the nearly two decades I knew her, I had hoped someone would come to her with those recovered documents so that she could have them to enable her to do some licensing etc.... sadly no one ever offered them to her despite that fact that she had openly expressed interest in obtaining them.
With documents or without Maila's Spirit is timeless to all who knew her.
Up until the very end she was a bright light, funny, sharp,never politically correct (oh how I miss that quality too!) and much more fun to be around than most young people.
I was always in awe of her ability to pass this energy onto others. It made me feel as though she knew some secrets that most will never grasp, things one can only learn through experiences and practices far removed from the way most people live....she was an artist 24/7.

She took the path that few others dared to take at a time when it was dangerous to do so, she paid the heavy price for being true to herself but managed to laugh along the way....
For her inspiration we all owe her alot.

Thomas Kuntz