Elvira: Films (1988-2001)

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

Dir. James Signorelli

Late night TV host Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) quits her crummy job and travels to a sexually-repressed town in Massachusetts that's like a late 1960s sitcom. Whist there the leggy host offends ninety-percent of the locals with her outspoken views and her outstanding cleavage. But while the anti-fun brigade (i.e. the town council) is fuming, the youth of the backwards town are on her side.

It's a cult film with a whopping amount of tame innuendo (mostly tit-jokes) and intentionally bad wisecracks that'll either make sense to your inner teenager or have you scratching yourself while periodically checking your wristwatch (or phone).

It may even struggle to hold the attention of anyone born after the mid 80s, but that isn't me.

The B+W science fiction film featured at the beginning is an AIP release called It Conquered the World (1956), directed by Roger Corman. I remember seeing it as a kid for the first time, at home on a school day. I was off sick, but not too sick that I couldn't watch daytime TV.

Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)

Dir. Sam Irvin

For reasons that aren't explained, Elvira is in the Carpathian Mountains in the year 1851.

Is it a prequel to the previous film? An ancestor?  I don’t know, but what becomes clear early on is that part of the reason the other one worked is because it had the gothic beauty in a modern environment.

She was an outsider that we could look upon and feel some kind of empathy with. Putting her in a HAMMER horror setting means she loses that sense of not-fitting-in, and she stands out less.

The comedy also suffers. I enjoyed the many references to Roger Corman's Poe films because I've been on a Poe binge recently (see HERE), but ultimately it's light on memorable moments.