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.
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