Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is a 1988 comedy horror film directed by James Signorelli. Cassandra Peterson plays the role of horror hostess Elvira in her feature film debut. The screenplay was written by Peterson, John Paragon and Sam Egan.^[2]

Plot

Los Angeles TV horror hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Cassandra Peterson) quits her job after an outburst involving sexual harassment with the station's new owner. At the same time, Elvira has an act opening up in Las Vegas; the problem is, she needs $50,000 to open it up completely.

Later, she discovers she has been included in the will of her late great-aunt Morgana, which entitles her to all of Morgana's worldly possessions: a mansion in Fallwell, Massachusetts, a poodle, named Algonquin, who doesn't really seem to be what it appears, and a book containing what she believes to be cooking recipes. Despite her brazen and seductive exterior, Elvira is determined to start a life in this conservative town and strikes up a close friendship with Bob Redding (Daniel Greene), the local theater operator. Her "assets" and essentially good nature also attract the attention of many of the town's teenagers, much to the chagrin of their closed-minded parents who see her as a bad influence. Bob's infatuation with Elvira also infuriates his love interest Patty (Susan Kellermann), a bowling alley owner who, with the help of several members of the school board and PTA, sabotage Elvira's good name and her attempts to open a late night film fest using Bob's theater, the last straw breaking when, whilst emulating a Flashdance scene, she is covered with a bucket of tar instead of water and feathered by Patty, humiliating her. Even her attempts to sell her house are thwarted by a deal gone bad. All the while, Elvira's seemingly-harmless uncle, Vincent Talbot (W. Morgan Sheppard), who is in fact a warlock, wages an obsessive quest to obtain Morgana's secret "recipe book", which is actually a powerful spell tome, and using them to destroy Elvira and take over the world. It is Talbot who is largely responsible for the suspicion of the town's adults and their hatred toward Elvira.

Elvira tries to console herself and impress Bob by cooking dinner using one of Morgana's recipes and, despite the oddity of the ingredients, she succeeds, only to have herself and Bob attacked by a creature created from the mixture. Elvira discovers that the recipe book is actually a spellbook and plots to use the same creatures at the PTA picnic that weekend. The plan doesn't go accordingly, however, as Elvira admitted she ran out of witchy ingredients and substituted Hamburger Helper for some of the recipe. Instead of being attacked by monsters, the adults lose their inhibitions and are suddenly tearing each other's clothes off in promiscuity at the park, eventually being arrested for indecent exposure. When Patty tries to come between Elvira and Bob, Elvira grabs hold of Patty's top and sucker punches her - tearing her top off in the process and revealing to the public that Patty is actually flat chested and was stuffing her shirts the whole time, leaving her the humiliated one. Vincent shows up at a town meeting and accuses Elvira of witchcraft which he says is still illegal in the state. The townsfolk decide to set an example and arrest her. The fear and hatred escalates and Elvira is to be burned at the stake. The teenagers rally to help her but they end up breaking into an empty cell and lock themselves in.

While she is in jail Bob goes to the mansion to recover the spellbook. He is attacked by Vincent and two thugs who tie him up and steal the spellbook. In the jail cell Elvira's dog transforms into a mouse and escapes to the mansion where he unties Bob. Elvira is brought out to the town square, tied to a stake and a fire started. She remembers her great aunt's ring she is wearing and uses it to cast a spell to make it rain. The rain puts out the fire that's about to burn her and with Bob's help she manages to escape. Vincent learned of Elvira's escape, so he decided to destroy her himself. He even turned town councilwoman Chastity Pariah (Edie McClurg), the school principal (Robert Benedetti) and the town's Realtor (Kurt Fuller) into pigs. Discovering that Vincent is behind this, she tries to face him, but he steals the ring from her. Vincent even choked Bob and threw her dog into the trash compactor. She retreats to her house and Vincent gives chase, but not before Elvira attacked him. When Elvira entered through the back door, she was confronted by one of the two thugs and attacked him using a witchy ingredient. Inside the house Elvira and Vincent battle and their combat lights the house on fire. In the fray, Vincent's hand got cut off and thereby losing Morgana's ring and Elvira uses it on him, expelling him to the underworld. The book was destroyed in the fire. She managed to escape the house before it is completely engulfed in flames.

The next morning, Elvira, whose house was unsalvageable, and all of her aunt's possessions and magical objects destroyed, is ready to leave town. She is approached by the town's people who apologizes for their behavior and a shamed Patty who was embarrassed by Elvira the day before after she embarrassed Elvira, as well as all the teenagers who, with Bob try to convince Elvira to stay. As she has nowhere to stay, she opts to leave town, but not before kissing Bob, hinting at a blooming relationship. In addition, Elvira received the rights to the estate of her now disappeared uncle Vincent and that included going to Las Vegas; thus fulfilling Elvira's dream.

The final scenes follows Elvira's experiences as portrayed in a suave and sexy song and dance number on a Las Vegas stage, now officially labeling her as "Mistress of the Dark".

Cast

• Cassandra Peterson as Elvira / Aunt Morgana Talbot (no cast credit listed for Aunt Morgana Talbot)
• W. Morgan Sheppard as Great-Uncle Vincent Talbot
• Daniel Greene as Bob Redding
• Susan Kellermann as Patty
• Edie McClurg as Chastity Pariah
• Robert Benedetti as Mr. Calvin Cobb
• Kurt Fuller as Mr. Glotter
• Jeff Conaway as Travis
• William Duell as Lesley Meeker
• Pat Crawford Brown as Mrs. Meeker
• Ellen Dunning as Robin Meeker
• Ira Heiden as Bo (the geek)
• Tress MacNeille as Anchor woman and voice of Aunt Morgana Talbot

Reception

The film received a Razzie Award nomination for Cassandra Peterson as Worst Actress in 1989, losing to Liza Minnelli for both Arthur 2: On the Rocks and Rent-a-Cop. Rotten Tomatoes maintains it with a 47% rating, indicating mixed-to-negative reviews.

Soundtrack

The original music score was composed by James B. Campbell and the soundtrack features the single I Put a Spell On You performed by Joanna St. Claire.

Awards and Nominations

Nominations

Fantasporto

• Best film: 1990^[3]

Saturn Awards

• Best Actress: Cassandra Peterson – 1990^[4]

Golden Raspberry

• Worst Actress: Cassandra Peterson – 1988^[5]

Stinkers Bad Movie Awards

• Worst Picture: 1988^[6]

Sequel

In 2001, The Elvira Movie Company and Media Pro Pictures released Elvira's Haunted Hills, the official sequel.^[7]

References

External links

• Elvira, Mistress of the Dark at the Internet Movie Database
• Elvira, Mistress of the Dark at AllMovie
• Elvira, Mistress of the Dark at Box Office Mojo
• Elvira, Mistress of the Dark at Rotten Tomatoes