Vampira (the TV persona of Swedish actress and model Maila Nurmi) was at one time a celebrity host with her own television show. Unfortunately, due to the transient nature of early television, her best-known surviving work happens to be one of the worst films ever made: the truly dreadful Plan 9 From Outer Space.

But being part of Plan 9 is its own kind of celebrity, I suppose. And when a theatrical showing of said film was offered locally (complete with live Riff Trax), we HAD to go in costume. I went as Vampira, Shinteetah filled the role of Tor Johnson (another Swede, a wrestler-turned-actor who appeared in far better films during his career), and Melchoir, armed with an 8mm film camera and an angora sweater, went as Ed Wood himself. Another friend joined us as one of the invading aliens.

My makeup was designed to replicate the black-and-white film print I own and have seen repeatedly; I didn't know that the theatre would be running a colorized version. (The real Vampira did have red lips and nails, but I went with a washed-out black and blue color scheme.) Our cosplay props included cardboard tombstones (just like in the movie!), an electrode gun (made of junk, just like in the movie!) and a UFO made of paper plates and suspended from a string (just like in the mov-- yeah, you get the point). ^_^

On an unrelated note... it was so liberating not to wear a wig for this, even though my hair is too long and not dark enough to match Vampira's. >.<