Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark Film Review

 

Horror fans there are alot of horror icons out there from Freddy Krueger to Chucky to Jason Voorhees however all of those horror icons kill people and there is one horror icon who makes people laugh. Despite this character being a horror icon this icon has only starred in two feature length films but she's made more then her fair share of TV appearances as well as appearing in other people's movies and so then horror film fans join me as I review the 1988 horror comedy with the film itself being called "Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark" enjoy.

The plot of the film is Elvira has dreams of putting on a show in Las Vegas but has to raise the $50,000 for the project and on top of that all that Elvira inherits a house from a great Aunt that she didn't know about and has to contend with her evil Uncle. The story is as simple as you'd want from a movie featuring the Elvira character since the character of Elvira doesn't demand a complex plot as such this story is perfect for this character and it helps that the story is honestly really well told in my humble opinion.

Starring in the film is co-writer Cassandra Peterson as Elvira and Great Aunt Morgana Talbot and W. Morgan Sheppard as Great Uncle Vincent Talbot. Also starring in the film is 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 , Frank Collison as Billy , William Duell as Lesley Meeker , Pat Crawford Brown as Mrs. Meeker , Ellen Dunning as Robin Meeker , Kris Kamm as Randy , Scott Morris as Sean , Ira Heiden as Bo , Voice Acting Legend Tress MacNeille as Anchor Woman and The Voice Of Great-Aunt Morgana Talbot and Voice Acting Legend Frank Welker as The Voice Of Algonquin.

As for what I thought about the acting in the film the acting in this film is honestly alot better then it really had any right to be. Since this film features a little known actress in the lead role as well as having a cast that is little known and a crew that is little known no one would have blamed the cast if they chose not to put in a good performance but no all of the cast members in this film do a really good job in turning in some rather solid performances in my opinion.

Now people either have forgotten or straight up didn't know this but before this film was even made the character of Elvira was only known to people in Los Angeles. As such this film was made for a few reasons the first was to get the character of Elvira more widely known and the second was to help convince NBC to make a sitcom starring the Elvira character which sadly NBC only made one episode of the show which was called The Elvira Show and that one episode was actually pretty freaking funny in my humble opinion.

One of the things that I didn't like about this film is the fact that it doesn't take full advantage of being a feature film. Since this film doesn't take the time to fully develop any of it's characters which is something that a film should do as such all of the characters including Elvira herself come of as one note characters at best and as one dimensional characters at it's worst and what makes this even worse they try to give Elvira a backstory but the film doesn't go all the way with it which is a shame because I wanted to know more about Elvira's backstory.

Speaking of characters getting no development the character who I feel comes of worse for this Great Uncle Vincent Talbot (who as I mentioned is played by W. Morgan Sheppard) if any character should have got some development it's Great Uncle Vincent Talbot (who as I mentioned is played by W. Morgan Sheppard) simply because he's the film's main villain. As such since we don't get to find out anything about Great Uncle Vincent Talbot (who as I mentioned is played by W. Morgan Sheppard) and as such his character comes of as not only weak but also not that threatening and hell we don't even find out what his nd goal or why he's evil he's just evil for the sake of it and he apparently has no end goal to speak of whatsoever.

This film has a running time of one hour and thirty six minuets and sixteen seconds which for me at least felt a bit on the long side. Simply because for alot of the films one hour and thirty six minuets and sixteen seconds running time nothing happens to advance the plot and so all your left with is watching these undeveloped characters doing things that have no baring on the film's actual plot which honestly makes the film feel a bit boring if i'm being honest.

I won't say that this film is flat our boring because it's honestly not infact I honestly feel that this film is honestly a rather fun film. To me part of what makes the film dumb are oddly enough all the issues that I had with the film since from what I can tell this film is pretty much a spoof of the B movie genre and as such the film fully embraces being a B movie however just because the faults in this film help make the film fun doesn't mean that they are forgivable issues because there honestly not at least that's what I think anyways.

Now then boys and girls since this is a comedy that does mean that I have to talk about the jokes that are in the actual film itself. To me the jokes in this film where very hit and miss since for every joke that did get a laugh out of me it was very quickly followed by two or three (sometimes even more then that) jokes that simply weren't funny which is honestly a shame because the jokes that did work like Elvira using her b**bs to open a gate are really funny and yet there are jokes in the film like when some of the townspeople where are Elvira is staying see her fall of a ladder while a helping friend advertise a film and they mistake the D or E that Elvira is holding for an F with the rest of the rest UCK and how Elvira lands well i'll let you work out what the townspeople think the word says but either way it's not that funny of a joke.

Overall like I said this is a really fun film and it's one that I recommend all horror fans check out simply due to how iconic the Elvira character hell even these last two images are from Elvira's recent comic book series with the top picture being from Elvira: The Shape Of Elvira Issue One an the bottom one being from Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark Issue One. However just because the film is fun doesn't make it a good film since like i've talked about in this very review the film does have some faults but as again like i've talked about in this review the film also has alot of things that are good in the film as such this film gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me , and as for where I got the images that I used in this review well I got the images that I used in this review from Google Images and a comic book website that uses "other methods" for it's users to read the comic books on that site and I have to sat since all of the films images I have no choice but to recommend that you guys use Google Images just due to how much a verity of images there are n Google Images and as always we end this review we always go with our one true goddess Elvira wishing us all some very unpleasant dreams.

 

Babysitter Massacre 2013 Film Review

 

Horror fans one of the most common I guess tropes is that of the killer stalking the babysitter it's a film that's been done so many time it's unbelievable. As such it really shouldn't surprise you that there's a whole fil just dedicated to that idea but there is and not only that this one film has spawned I guess you could say an entire franchise of films and so join me horror fans as I review the 2013 film "Babysitter Massacre" enjoy.

Now here's where I would normally tell you what the plot of the film is as well as give you my opinion on the plot of the film. However the film chose not to include a story which is the first issue since the film is pretty dull without having a plot and I do strongly feel that this film would have been more watchable if there was a story since then we could have got alot more insight into the characters and it would have given the film a reason for existing.

Starring in the film is Erin R. Ryan as Angela , Marylee Osborne as Bianca , Joni Durian as Lucky and Tara Clark as Arlene. Also starring in the film is , Odette Despairr as Linda , Serendipity Lynch as Sandy , Geoff Burkman as Mr. Walker , Stephanie Coffey as Allison , Chandra McCracken as Tina , David Denoyer as Tony , Amy Taint as Cindy , Haley Madison as Cassandra , Mike Canestaro as John , Stephanie Michael as Britney , Marshall Norman as Tyler Petrino , Rachel Kathryn Ritter as Erica , Bradley Diehl as David and Alicia Lozier as Melani.

Just to give you guys an idea of the quality of the acting that's in this film this film was made very freaking cheaply. So yeah as you can expect the acting in the film is going to be pretty bad but given that this is a very low budget film that's to be expected and as such nobody can really knock the film for having bad acting since there of course not going to get the best actors on a tiny as hell budget and I do feel that given the film's budget the acting from all of the cast members is at best passable which is honestly to be expected since like I just said this is a very low budget film and as such you have to lower your expectations.

Like a ton of these low budget horror films there's a ton of nudity in this film and all of it is gratuitous as all hell. Since the nudity adds nothing to the film or the characters hell there's so much nudity in this film that almost every single main female character at one point or another goes topless and I have that it honestly got pretty dull watching the girls go topless for no reason and I get that s*x sells but you still have to make a good movie but here the focus seems to be more about showing us these s*xy women instead of telling a good even passable story.

Now i could be wrong here but it seems like this film was going for a mystery angle and I say that because they have the killer's face hidden for the vast majority of the film. If they were going for a mystery angle then I have to say that they did a poor job of it because they didn't give us any clues whatsoever but if that wasn't the case and the makers of the film weren't going for a mystery angle then I have to wonder why did they keep the killers face hidden for the vast majority of the film since that would imply that we have to work out who the killer is.

I will say that they were trying to go for somewhat of a plot arc with the character of Bianca who as mentioned before was played by Marylee Osborne. However they didn't follow through with that arc whatsoever since her arc was trying to rescue her friends and thus make up for what she did in the past by standing up to the killer however when the time came to resolve that arc Bianca did nothing but stand there and cry with one of her friends telling her to leave so that the friend could save Bianca's life which to me at least a huge let down since it was an interesting arc for the Bianca character it's just a shame that the film makers chose not to go all the way with that arc.

This film has a total running time of one hour and eighteen minuets and thirty two seconds and trust me when i tell you that the film feels alot longer then that. The film feels alot longer then one hour and eighteen minuets and thirty two seconds because not only is there no story but also alot of the victim characters are honestly really unlikable I can't think of a single main character that I liked in this film and to me added to the boredom of this film since all I was doing was waiting for the film to over and done with.

You can tell that this is a low budget film since there's not that many locations in the film and the film is mostly shot in the day. Even the scenes set at night you can tell were filmed in the day because of the fact that in some shots you can see that the sky is still a little bit blue , I get that the makers of this film didn't have a huge budget but surely they could have filmed some scenes like early in the morning since then the sky would match with whatever nighttime scenes they were trying to film but they didn't even try to film very early in the morning and so we are left with scenes that you can tell were filmed in the late afternoon / early to late evening.

Now then since this is a slasher film that does mean that we have to talk about the kills that are in the film. Which are honestly rather simple which given this film's budget is to be expected alot of the kills in the film are either throat slits or people getting hit on the head with a hammer and sometimes people getting stabbed in the chest with the sharp end of a hammer (whatever that ends called) and even those are simple kills that have been done to death they do work really well for this film in my opinion and it's always good seeing all of the extremely unlikable characters getting killed.

Overall if your in the mood for a really low budget horror film then I guess this would be a good one to watch. However at the same time the film does have a lot of faults even for a low budget horror film and those issues are hard to ignore they could have been fixed if the makers of the film but in the effort to make a decent film but since they didn't bother to fix this issue that I mentioned in this and yes the film does have good things in it as well which i've covered in this review as such this film gets a generous 4 out of 10 from me. 

All and I do mean all of the images that I got in this review I got from Google Images and nowhere else. Since I only went to Google Images for the images that I ended up using in this review I have no choice but to recommend that you guys use Google Images if for some reason you want images from this film and alot of the images from this film on Google Images were shocking very high definition and as always we end this review we always do with our one true goddess Elvira wishing all of us some very unpleasant dreams.