THIS MONTH VAMPIRA

IN OUR REGULAR SERIES, WE EXPLORE A SLICE OF CINEMA LORE

TOM ELLEN

AT FIRST, THERE’S nothing — only smoke. Gradually, though, the fog dissipates and we can make out a dingy hallway, full of cobwebs and candelabras. There’s music, too: a fairground organ wheezing dementedly beneath a piano — one key tap-tap-tapping like a leaking pipe. And then, out of the darkness, she appears. Her face is deathly pale, her wasp-waisted body clad in all black, her eyebrows like bats’ wings. As she reaches the end of the corridor she meets our gaze and emits a piercing, bloodcurdling scream — equal parts agony and ecstasy. As the camera jerks forward, seemingly as startled as the viewer, the woman purrs: “Ah! Screaming relaaaaxes me so…” It’s 1954 and America has never seen anything like this. The Vampira Show was bottled lightning — a…

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Empire (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2025

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