Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Steineded How sad is this?

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

mark.waltz An old friend of mine used to utilize lines from this movie as a part of his routine wisecrack response, whether saying, "If I wanted your opinion, I'd beat it out of you!" or responding to "What should I call you?". "Tonight". Cassandra Peterson, with a bawdy sense of humor and a self-deprecating way of keeping herself in check, makes every moment count. It is obvious that this was a film made for the audiences, not the critics, and it's just the type of popcorn movie that audiences flocked to before society began to take itself way too seriously. Usually, in horror spoofs like this, mere mortals end up in an old dark house, unsure of how to handle the spooky people who live there, but here, the all too goody goody Massachusetts town has the horror brought to them, or at least in ghoulish form. Inheriting part of her great aunt's estate, Elvira heads back to her mother's home town where she finds the prejudices mighty high upon her arrival, especially from the manipulative, Gladys Kravitz like Chastity Pariah (a delightful Edie McClurg) who has absolutely no sense of fun other than tasting everything in bulk at the boring socials that the town throws on special occasions.Immediately noticing that the young people are quite repressed, Elvira sets out right off the bat to change all that, inciting the wrath of nasty waitress Susan Kellerman who is upset that Elvira has enticed her supposed boyfriend, the hunky Daniel Greene. This leads to a bit of mean-spirited revenge that spoofs "Flashdance" but ends up with Elvira soaked with something other than gold glittered water. Elvira, through the help of a mysterious cookbook that her nefarious uncle (W. Morgan Sheppard) wants to get his hands on. In disguise as a supposed respectful townsperson, Sheppard has some nefarious plans up his sleeve, which literally sets the town (and Elvira) on fire. But between Elvira's chesty muscles, her street smarts and a magical dog, Sheppard is going to have his work cut out for him. It's the dark arts vs. the white arts, because it is made very clear that even though she dresses in witch's black and looks like Barbara Steele in "Black Sunday", Elvira ain't into all that Satanic garbage.A great supporting cast helps this become an entertaining mixture of slob comedy, horror spoof and cult classic, with McClurg delightfully stuffy, especially in her description of Elvira past the initial statement of "a woman of easy virtue". Character actor favorites William Duell and Pat Crawford Brown steal their moments as a married couple who own the local motor inn, with Duell much easier going than his judgmental wife, and getting a great last line in on Ms. Brown. Sheppard becomes one of the great campy movie villains, much like Christopher Lloyd in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". There's also some great music here, including "Shout!" where the teens all willingly help Elvira fix up her house and a campy Vegas number which was Elvira's goal from the start to get away from the syndicated TV station where her only asset for the new station owner was located just below her neck. How she deals with the perverted pig is deliciously funny, as is the repercussions it presents for a stuffy news reporter, a gag later repeated with Kellerman's vindictive waitress.

jacklyn_lo Wonderful movie with an excellent play by Cassandra Peterson, in the main role of seductive Elvira. It's an action horror comedy about an ambitious, goal-driven entrepreneurial- minded entertainer, who appeared in the town of hypocrites. In this town she is experiencing ups and downs, taking risks, ripping off the masks from the goodies and even facing a real danger. The movie is ending up with Elvira's victory and dreams coming true as a result.The key learning message in the movie could be presented by the quote from Bible: "Separate the wheat from the chaff".Thanks for great job!

gavin6942 When her Great Aunt dies, famed horror hostess Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) heads for the uptight New England town of Fallwell to claim her inheritance of a haunted house...This film actually scared me as a child, and watching it now, I am still not surprised. Sure, it is largely a comedy, but the "casserole" scene is still creepy in much the same way as "Gremlins" is creepy. Sometimes the scariest moments come when thrown into an otherwise tame film.Relying on many movie references, some horror, and plenty from "The Wizard of Oz", this is a movie fan's film. While not quite a parody, it shows a light-hearted love of pop cinema that I think will touch a lot of people.Vincent Talbot (W. Morgan Sheppard) is the ultimate villain. He has that look, that voice... he comes from the same mold as Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Roddy McDowall. Except, sadly, I feel like he is largely unheard of, even with his endless list of credits under his belt.I love that this comes from the same ingredients as "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", a film Peterson made a cameo in. Paul Reubens and Peterson were in comedy troupe the Groundlings together, as was John Paragon (here a gas station attendant, but otherwise better known as Jambi the Genie) and Edie McClurg. Perhaps they would make a good double feature?Mike Mayo seems to accept this movie for what it is when he says "the story could rely less on well-worn gimmicks, but Elvira's flippant feminist irreverence goes a long way." Indeed, it does use some lame gags, but that also seems to be the point. The film tries nothing other than to be the B-movie that it is. There is the subplot of her opening the eyes of the children (much like "Ernest Goes to Camp"), and if you want to call her antics feminist...

Coventry The first celebrity crushes I remember having as a child were on Morticia Adams from the "The Addams Family" and TV-show hostess Vampira from Ed Wood's film "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (and yes, I was a completely normal child). Unfortunately I was never too familiar with Elvira, even though she's pretty much a campy knock-off of them both and her TV-work belongs more to my generation. Her show "Movie Macabre" never aired here in Europe, however, and I never really bothered to seek out her long-feature films because they look so … silly. This is thus my first real acquaintance with Elvira and, even though it certainly isn't the worst film I've ever seen, I can't say I regret having waited so long. Mrs. Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film, undoubtedly knows her cinematic trash and clearly treasures devotion for B-movies, but the film itself unfortunately is just a gigantically juvenile farce focusing on her very own bosom (which is quite impressive notwithstanding) instead of a cool tribute to genre movies. Elvira's offensively witty one-liners and revealing outfits actually take the attention away from the inexistent and mundane plot. When Elvira gets fired from her TV job in Los Angeles, she finally hopes to start her very own show in Las Vegas, but she needs 50k$ for that to happen. But then she gets a letter announcing her great aunt has died and Elvira's name is mentioned in the will. She arrives in a traditional little New England town, where her appearance and behavior promptly shocks the puritan and conservative local population, only to find out she inherited a hideous old house, a cookbook and a poodle. Whilst hanging around waiting for her broken down car, Elvira befriends the younger generation of Fallwell and discovers that her deceased aunt was actually a good witch who wanted to prevent her malignant brother Vincent Talbot from obtaining her magic powers. The first half of "Mistress of the Dark" is just boob jokes and nothing else. The second half tries to be a little more involving, with a dumb but funny cooking interlude, an exciting edition of the yearly Fallwell summer picnic and a genuine old-fashioned New England with hunt. Besides Peterson herself, this film benefices from a pretty solid ensemble cast and everyone delivers performances that are not worthy of the movie, in fact. William Morgan Sheppard is awesome as the wicked Uncle Vincent, and there are neat little roles as well for Susan Kellerman, Edie McClurg and Pat Crawford Brown as the uptight townspeople. The only misfit in the cast is Daniel Greene, who looks incredibly dim-witted as Elvira's love interest. She's clearly too hot to handle for him and he was the Atomic Cyborg!