Vivian Black, Actress Of The Genre Of Terror
In her first video, "Slaves of lust”, she embodies an ancient entity, which inhabits in a crypt of a cemetery. The evil spirit decides to leave his home to possess a body, which soul should be pure, free of sins, with the aim of corrupting it until total degradation, and so lead it to death, using lust as diabolical instrument for its purpose.
Frightening plot for a music video clip, right? ... This was Vivian's debut as an actress, in which, according to her own script, she plays all the characters: the vocalist, the demon of lust, the naive student, and the young lady possessed.In those days, when this video clip was broadcasted in Buenos Aires, Marilyn Manson’s "Sweet Dreams" video was all the rage, which made him famous internationally. At the same time, Vivian's video caused a great shock for her sinister, dark and full of evil performance. The clip of the controversial singer drew the attention of Cesar Fuentes Rodriguez (popular host of the Argentine show of metal "Power 30" and director of the rock magazine "Madhouse"), who suggested Vivian to do a remake of it. The direction and artistic production would be the responsibility of Cesar Fuentes. The singer did not hesitate to accept.
The soundtrack was recorded again with a NEW lyric, alluding to the screenplay written by the well-known Cesar Fuentes. The argument changed, in fact, one of its characters; the innocent student into a voluptuous woman, who once possessed by the devil would enslave all men, until they kneel at her feet, as some sort of "bizarre mistress". The original end was a bit out of place in this story, but anyway, it continued to catch the attention of TV viewers, like its predecessor, during the successive emissions.
To maintain the interest of her public, Vivian decided to do her third musical video entirety by herself, as its director, screenwriter, producer and singer; very simple, and easy to edit it.
Based on the second song of the demo tape, back then "Going on my way", was a free adaptation of Goethe's novel, "Faust", giving the video a gothic-movie touch, inspired by the silent film of F. Murnau of 1926 (the video contains some scenes from it). Vivian becomes a kind of "female Mephistopheles", inciting everybody to "sell her their souls ". By mid 1996, people were bewitched by the magical appearance of the charismatic vocalist on the TV screens. The simple shooting of "Going ..." shows Vivian singing in a very diabolic and captivating way, in two different stages, alternated with small extracts of horror movies.
Because of religious matters of the country, her video was censored and the final scene was cut out. In such scene, Vivian appears crucified by only one of her arms, and with the other hand she waves her cape with a defiant and disturbing look, full of threads of her own blood. This video defined Vivian's image as a satanic icon, given that it showed inverted crosses and demonic symbols. Since then, her career as a local pioneer in the genre was turned around completely. All people, including those outside that musical style, began to focus on Karina, to the point of receiving her first invitation to participate in a television program before any deal with a recording company.
Things were more than clear; Vivian Black’s true vocation was to become a horror film actress, which exceeded her interest in composing music. However, she was an excellent interpreter in her live shows, attracting more and more the interest of the metal urban tribes.
Having three videos, and a couple of new songs recently recorded in a much more professional way than the previous ones -with better sound quality-, Karina, in 1997, decided to make her supreme work; "Hellrising Crown", with a very catchy and commercial melody. It was televised, not only in the local channels, but also in MTV Latin America.
That’s how "Hellrising..." begins, barely at the guitars intro... obviously, the rest of the clip would be stronger than its beginning... Vivian becomes the "Queen of the underworld". To achieve this, she has to perform some satanic rituals, in the middle of a lot of allegorical symbols of worship of the devil. Her goal is to pass an examination of admission for her descend to hell. In fact, the last test is the most sublime of all: "a human sacrifice" (as showed in the video, in the best Hollywood style). Having passed, Vivian gets the best diabolical gift: "Being the mother of the son of Satan", and, like Rosemary, towards the end of the video clip, she appears with the baby in her arms, like a sweet mother, with Satan standing behind her.
Like a mini-horror film, in five minutes, Vivian began to make her most precious dream come true, the one she longer for since her childhood (in her own way, of course); being an actress in an horror movie at international level. She achieved to transcend the frontiers of her country thanks to MTV channel, just like her favourite movie and TV actors.
She was able to achieve her objectives, partly thanks to her skills, her wit, her strength, and her great transgressor personality.
After some months, she made her last video, based on another of her songs, called "Devil or Angel", with basically the same performance as her previous one; it did not cause the same impact as "Hellrising...", but her "Witch of metal" image had been established worldwide as an icon of Satanism from Latin America, represented by a charismatic sorceress of darkness.
In less than thirty minutes of video clips, displaying her very professional versatility, Vivian was able to stand out as an actress. She gave her characters "such a life", accomplishing something almost impossible: making the limits between reality and fiction forever inseparable.
In terms of Vivian Black, even today (Which I think that was exactly her idea), nobody knows who she really is; if she is a "Devil or Angel", as it says in one of her songs.
Vivian began to receive letters from all around the world, from Brazil to Bulgaria, and from Argentina, of course; fans, bands, press, media, etc... She answered each one of them personally, sending them her material as well, and without forgetting anyone. The correspondence received by Vivian increased to five letters a week from all around the world without knowing how they know all about her in such little time. The band "ALBERZAK" from Mexico gave her, as a present, a website about her history, including photos.