Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

USA 1988
produced by
Eric Gardner, Mark Pierson, Michael Rachmil (executive) for NBC, New World, Queen B Productions
directed by James Signorelli
starring Cassandra Peterson, William Morgan Sheppard, Daniel Greene, Edie McClurg, Ellen Dunning, Susan Kellermann, Pat Crawford Brown, William Duell, Kris Kamm, Scott Morris, Ira Heiden, Jeff Conaway, Frank Collison, Jack Fletcher, Charles Woolf, Bill Morey, Lynne Marie Stewart, Deryl Carroll, Marie Sullivan, Robert Benedetti, Kurt Fuller, Kate Brown, Hugh Gillin, Eve Smith, Raleigh Bond, Phil Rubenstein, Larry Flash Jenkins, Damita Jo Freeman, Tress MacNeille, Edwina Moore, Mario Celario, Lee McLaughlin, Bill Swearingen, Bill Dance, William Cort, Sharon Hays, Bill Cable, John Paragon, Joey Arias, Tony Burrer, Alan Dewames, Tim Hill, James Hogan, Alex Magno, Sebastian Russell, Read Scot, James Zyzack Sterling, Peter Blanco jr, Gabriel Colbert, Michael A. Jackson, Derek Givens, Deron McBee
written by Sam Egan, John Paragon, Cassandra Peterson, music by James B. Campbell

Elvira

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) is a successful horror host - who just ditches her job when her new boss makes a pass at her. Now she thinks she has a Las Vegas show lined up for herself anyways, until she learns she has to put the money forward to put it on - money she doesn't have. So when she learns that her aunt she didn't even know about has died and has remembered her in her will, she's over the moon - only to then learn all she has inherited is a house in a state of disrepair, a poodle and a cook book. And because her car has just broken down she suddenly finds herself stranded in the small town that was the home of her aunt, a small town that's not very kind to alluring strangers in sexy dresses like she is - at least not the old folks are, let by Chastity Pariah (Edie McClurg), leader of the decency brigade in town. The young folks are rather fond of Elvira though and help her fix up her place, much to the dismay of their sheepish parents.

But there's a far bigger challenge for Elvira in this small town, and that's her uncle Vincent (William Morgan Sheppard), who has been disinherited by Elvira's late aunt and will now stop at nothing to get the cookbook - which Elvira doesn't even understand until she finds out it's actually a book of spells ... and she soon uses it to get back at the townfolks who have treated her like dirt in the name of "decency", by turning their annual picnic into an orgy. A childish prank of course, but Uncle Vincent uses this to accuse her of being a witch and convince the townfolks to have her burnt at a stake. Elvira's of course not out of tricks yet - but neither is Uncle Vincent ...

 

Much like its titular character, this movie is loud, at times crude, not 100% politically correct, sexy and prone to exaggeration - which also makes the film a perfect child of the 1980s, a time when subtlety took a bit of a backseat in popular culture. And that's what one has to keep in mind when watching Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, this was always a piece of mass culture (and thus drew its inspiration from there), never intended to be a piece of art - but if you see it as a document of its time, you're almost sure to enjoy it, thanks to many an intentionally campy performance by the supporting cast, and a very exhilarating turn by Cassandra Peterson herself, who has got her comic timing down, knows how to melt the screen when needed, and even gives a certain class to her somewhat (intentionally) cheap sexiness, and has a cartoon character aura to herself (in the best possible way). So no, it's not the perfect movie by a longshot - but good fun for sure.

 

By the way, despite Elvira's relative popularity as a horror host, this movie flopped at the box office - what with production company New World going out of business before its release and thus lack of marketing - but became a hit on home video and has since reached cult status.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Elvira: Mistress of the Dark here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Elvira: Mistress of the Dark at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!