Elvira, maîtresse des ténèbres

"Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark" is a sort of "Harper Valley P.T.A." with touches of the supernatural. Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) walks off her job as television horror movie hostess after the new station's owner gets fresh with her. She's now relying on a Las Vegas show to carry her through, but learns she needs to come up with more money to get the show started. Things look hopeless to raise that money until she receives notice of her aunt's death, which then takes Elvira to Massachusetts for the reading of the will. A house in need of repairs, a dog, and a cookbook are all that is left to her by her aunt, and again it seems Elvira is having trouble coming up with the money for the Las Vegas show. The adults of the small and narrow minded town make things worse by making things more difficult for Elvira. Only the local hunk (Daniel Greene), and a group of teenagers will befriend her. Elvira's Uncle "Vinnie" (W. Morgan Sheppard), presses to make a deal with Elvira for the cookbook, but Elvira soon learns of her powerful heritage that includes spellcasting, and a couple very effective casseroles. Elvira no longer wants to sell the cookbook to her uncle, but he is determined to get his hands on it knowing of its power. Elvira then faces being burned at the stake on the town's old charge of witchcraft, and the showdown between her and her uncle. The plot is pretty simple, but the humor and well developed characters keep it moving at a nice pace. "Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark" is full of cute, gross, bawdy, and clever humor carried through by the many sight gags, puns, props, songs, and parodies. The film's touches of the occult make this one of the best horror parodies ever made. It is a well made film with terrific acting by all performers; including Edie McClurg, and Jeff Conaway (of "Grease.") There are also nice special effects. Many people (including myself) wondered if the Elvira character could carry a feature film, and the answer is delightfully, YES!

OK, this movie is stupid. I mean that in a good way though.It was stupid on purpose, and was one of the better "stupid" movies I've seen. The jokes and gags are purposefully bad, but delivered in a way that it struck all the right notes with me. The supporting characters were pretty shallow and mediocre. There is a pretty weak plot, but it works just fine.

Elvira's character is the focus here.She is lovable and adorable.Cassandra Petersen has a world of acting talent that just glows in this movie.On top of that acting talent she had physical attributes which were frankly, stunning. Few men could disagree with that. The parts that show off her figure were also some of the funnier scenes in the movie.

I had a smile ear to ear from the first scene to the last.

Highly recommended to fans of comedy, and to fans of beautiful women. I wish they had made a dozen more Elvia movies.

I highly recommend this movie. The movie is funny, entertaining and well, it's something only Elvira can deliver!!! Edie McClurgh (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) is great as Chastity Pariah. The movie is chock-full of hilarious sexual innuendo (56 boob jokes!) and visual slap-stick gags. Elvira's dream is to perform in Las Vegas, but to do that she needs 50,000$. She heads the the Puritanical town of Falwell to pick up her great aunt Morgana Talbot's inheritance....a measley book. But the book holds the secrets of the magic, plunging Elvira into a battle of metaphysical proportions! I cannot recommend this movie enough!!!! It's corny, it's campy, but that's Elvira.

The basic plot: Shlocky horror movie hostess Elvira goes to a small,uptight,puritan town where she encounters an evil uncle, a hunk, some disgruntled teenagers, and some black magic.

The praise:Elvira. She is the smoky, the sexy, campy, the shlocky, the shticky the great one. The entire movie is a send-up of shlock horror, horror, porn,sex,porn,breasts,supernatural movies, show-biz movies, Camp,80's movies, materialism, Vegas, british horror,teen movies,middle-aged horniness, and horror parodies. All with a great soundtrack, a lot of yuks, and the smoky, the best, and better, Elvira. I don't know why I like it all,moreover it being my favorite movie,but who cares!It all ends with a great shlocky, glittering Vegas number! The must-see movie!

Any movie that starts off with the epic closing scene from "It Conquered The World" is going to be a great movie! Essentially a movie of one Elvira routine after another, playing off of an uptight town of puritans, siding with the kids who just want to have a good time and see Elvira ham it up to schlocky old movies at their local theater. If you like Elvira's style of comedy, this is the movie for you. No pun is left unacknowledged, no breast reference unaccompanied by a stare down at "the twins". Low-brow, silly and schlocky, just like the movies she hosts and celebrates. Edie McClurg is here in her perennial role as uptight busybody, she seems typecast as this in every movie she does, but this has become her image and she is marvelous at it. Great Halloween party movie, would go well with a few B Horror Movies from the 1950s. Recommended!