Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2019) The character of Elvira (as played by Cassandra Peterson) is best known as a pin-up, a naughty icon or a highly successful brand blending gentle horror tropes with curvaceous sex-appeal. Considering that the character was created as a horror-movie hostess, it makes sense that she would have at least one movie to her credit. Actually, there are two once you throw in 2001’s Elvira’s Haunted Hills, but the first 1988 film Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is as good a representative sample of the character than we could have wished for. Firmly executed in the 1980s B-movie tradition, the film features Peterson in character as Elvira travelling from Los Angeles to a small town in Massachusetts to claim an inheritance. Naturally, once over there she gets to shock the mundanes, bring city attitudes to the small town and (naturally) fight evil supernatural forces. The film is a bit more cohesive than the string of quick gags that viewers may apprehend after the first few moments of the film—there’s a real script here, even if it’s focused on comedy and misses no opportunity to play off Elvira’s form-fitting cleavage-showcasing outfit, sarcastic personality, and witty one-liners. Peterson isn’t the world’s best actress, but she inhabits the character with self-aware ferociousness even if the film can’t always keep an even tone. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is unabashedly silly, but crucially it works: it earns its wolf whistles, its laughs and its good humour—not to mention an enduring piece of work to present Elvira to future generations.