FREAKY BLACK FRIDAY SPOOK SPECIAL
CREATURE FEATURES


JILL FORSTER - "VAMPIRA"



At 9:00pm Friday the 13th of November 1970; ATN 7 aired a special

"Freaky Black Friday Spook Special", with Jill Forster as "Vampira".
The movies presented were:
"The Mummy's Shroud"
"Frankenstein Conquers the World" and
"Attack of the Giant Leeches" (aired at 12:15am)
During the show, Vampira conducted a viewers' contest: "Vampira's Pick-a-Freak Contest" which was a spoof on an ATN 7 daytime show "Lucky 7".


In 1972, ATN 7 (Sydney) brought Forster back as "Vampira" to host the horror movie show "Creature Features", which screened old B grade horror movies. The show did not last long, with the exact details of when it was aired, and the episodes shown, is not known at this point.

Jill Forster was born in Great Britain (United Kingdom) and immigrated to Australia in 1964 to pursue a career as a fashion model.

Crawford Productions provided her first acting opportunity in "Hunter" (a television series).

Jill Forster as Chris Charter episodes 6 & 7.

As well as hosting Creature Features as vampira, Jill also appeared in the movies Libido, Great Expectations and Say A Little Prayer. Her many television roles included Hunter, Homicide, Number 96, The Box, The Restless Years, Prisoner, and SeaChange;


Jill Forster as Kerryn Davies in "Prisoner" and Eve Harrison in "Homicide".

Her last screen appearance was in the short "Ladies Without Lipstick" in 2015. Jill is also married to fellow actor John Stanton.

Jill Forster was as Joyce in "Ladies Without Lipstick".


A message from Jill Forster to Graham Garfield Barnard said:
"
I loved Vampira and had great fun with her. Channel 7 got quite a surprise at the show's popularity. We went out LIVE - I don't think there's any shows on television who take that kind of a chance these days are there?"

"I remember that whilst chatting away about the film to the audience and, to save myself should I get lost for comments, I invented a dear little friend who I kept in his coffin on my knees. I talked to him quite a lot because he used to get frightened at some of the awful movies and needed me to tell him it was just an actor with putty all over his face etc. I'd feed him the occasional spider or cockroach and he'd be quite happy!"

Ms Forster also kindly provided the following comments to me in December 2015:

"Re my stint as Vampira. I had no Director. I wrote my own dialogue. Producer - never saw one and to cover any pauses when I couldn't think of anything to say.

I held a little sort of a "coffin" box on my knee and talked to my unseen friend. I did a lot of that. Some of the movies I saw and knew what I was on about, but not all of them.

"This was all along time ago Paul and "live to air" television such as that was just doesn't happen any more. I didn't always like the movies and said so or maybe they scared the shit out of me and I also said that.

Interestingly the people watching always seemed to increase when I got scared. Go Figure."


Unfortunately there are no known clips of Creature Features or of Jill as Vampira.

LINKS


Internet Movie Data Base
"Creature Features"

Internet Movie Data Base
"Jill Forster"

Wikipedia
"Jill Forster"


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Last modified: February 2023