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A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

I feel like Elvira's sense of humor is kind of a specific one, and may even be kind of an acquired taste. It's very 1980's, with lots of really (and I mean REALLY) corny sexual innuendo.In spite of this, "Mistress of the Dark" goes out of its way to portray Elvira herself as more than just a piece of eye candy -- I believe the word the kids today would use is "sex positive." Elvira knows what she wants and kicks every guy to the curb that would dare take advantage of her. Even though she plays up the role of a bimbo on occasion, she's often smarter and tougher than that.If you can deal with that, then this ends up being a pretty alright movie to watch around Halloween. Granted, it's a little dull; The production value feels very "basic cable" despite this movie's theatrical release. The raunchy humor isn't quite raunchy enough and the pace of the movie is a little too slow. It's a movie that's trying to have bite, but ends up being more of a nibble.The real problem is how the movie beats you over the head with how "cool" Elvira is meant to be. She's here to show these prudish normies what's up, with her hot rod and her heavy metal and her snarky attitude. It ends up being kind of overbearing at times, with Elvira breaking the fourth wall multiple times just to crack a bad joke directly at the audience. Bugs Bunny she is not.But I still get some enjoyment out of it. It's dopey, low budget, and cheesy, which is more than a little fitting for somebody who built a career riffing on dopey, low budget, and cheesy movies.

In desperate need of money "Elvira" (Cassandra Peterson) is elated to discover that she has been named as a beneficiary in her Great Aunt Morgana's will. So she leaves Hollywood and drives to Fallwell, Massachusetts to see what she will get. Upon arriving there she learns that she inherits the house, a dog and a cookbook which Great Aunt Morgana's brother "Vincent Talbott" (William Morgan Sheppard) badly wants. Along with that she also inherits the enmity of the local town elders who consider her to be a bad influence upon the residents of the town. Anyway, rather than detailing the entire plot I will just say that for a cheap and trashy type of film this turned out to be fairly entertaining. I especially liked the performance of Cassandra Peterson who seemed to fit her role to perfection. That said however, I should probably also mention that this film may not suit everybody's taste. For example, although Cassandra Peterson was nominated for a Saturn Award as "Best Actress" she was also nominated for a Razzie Award as "Worst Actress" as well. Likewise, while the movie received a nomination as "Best Film" at the International Fantasy Film Awards it was also nominated for "Worst Picture" at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 11th Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. In short, some people will apparently like it and some people won't. Again, it's deliberately cheap and trashy and those who don't enjoy movies that have off-color jokes and gags of a sexual nature might not want to watch this particular kind of film. All things considered I rate it as slightly above average.

When her Great Aunt dies, horror hostess Elvira heads for the uptight New England town of Falwell to claim her inheritance of a house, a cookbook and a poodle. But once the locals get an eyeful Elvira, all hell breaks loose.....This is one of those cult movies that you either get, and go with, or hate with a vengeance. The film obviously has a set demographic, and underneath all its glamour, it's just another fish out of water comedy, but with a sassy edge.There is no denying its a film full of twaddle, balderdash, and piffle, but for heavens sake, its a lot of fun, in that cheesy eighties way.Elvira could be anyone's queen for the night, and again, there is a particular orientation who lap this sort of female character up, and she knows this, playing on every innuendo in the book. She is likable, but not too annoying, as one would expect from her garish wardrobe.The townsfolk all hate her at first, and the youngsters love her, and before all is good, it goes very bad for Elvira, but as always, you know all will be well come the end.There is a subplot about a cookbook, that can render the holder very powerful, song and dance numbers, a wonderful reference to Carrie, and it all ends with a fight with rings, but it all works in a camp, silly kind of way.Guaranteed to brighten your day.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) * 1/2 (out of 4) TV horror host Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) is notified that the great-aunt she never knew has died and left her a mansion. Elvira shows up in the small town where many of the old-fashioned locals look down on her but even worse is the fact that this old house contains a recipe book, which brings with it all sorts of spells and monsters. I've never been a fan of horror hosts and I never was a fan of Elvira so I really wasn't sure what to expect from this film. I had heard many negative things about this over the years and while the film is pretty bad it also has a certain charm that keeps it somewhat watchable. The entire screenplay is bizarre to say the least because it's never quite sure what type of film it wants to be. I say this because it's kept kid friendly but at the same time you've got all sorts of strange sexual talk that really stands out because you're not expecting to hear it in a movie like this and when you do hear it, it just stands out from everything else going on. All the boob jokes aimed at Elvira is expected and I think a good argument could be made that the film producers would have been much better served had the film gone for a tad bit darker and more adult natured film. The horror elements are all rather weak but I think fans of the genre will get a few smiles out of seeing some cult movies shown here including IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOS. There's also a pretty funny joke involving the first potion that Elvira cooks out. As for Peterson, I'd be lying if I said she gave a "good" performance but she is good at the character she created and there's no question she can play the part well. The supporting players are all good in their parts but no one really stands out and takes over the film. ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK has a little charm but certainly not enough to carry a fairly weak story.