DVD Profile/Review: 'Elvira's Haunted Hills'

You'll almost certainly get at least a few hearty laughs out of Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001) starring Cassandra Peterson, who appears in the film as a campy, sexy character she developed called Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Elvira gained fame on television programs in which old B-grade horror movies were shown. She introduces the movies and as they unreel, she periodically makes jokey sarcastic comments about them. She is a full-bosomed woman who wears tons of makeup, a black bouffant wig and a tight-fitting black dress that reveals lots of cleavage.

A former Las Vegas showgirl, Peterson has had small roles in several movies, but has played the lead in only two: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) and, 13 years later, the feature film on this DVD. She not only stars in Elvira's Haunted Hills, she co-wrote the screenplay and coproduced. The film is of course silly, but it has high production values. The locations, sets and costumes are excellent, and the actors are well cast. On the soundtrack is heard an old-fashioned score played by a full-size symphonic orchestra. The film is sort of an homage to the movies based on Edgar Allan Poe stories that were directed by Roger Corman and starred Vincent Price.

Elvira's Haunted Hills takes place in 1851 Carpathia, and the characters stay in period, except for Elvira, who looks and talks the same as when she hosts the Movie Macabre series on TV. In the film, she's on her way to Paris to put on a show when she's warned about a castle by Dr. Bradley Bradley.

DR. BRADLEY: The village people say the castle is evil.
ELVIRA: Ehh, who listens to the Village People anymore?

At the castle, Elvira meets Adrian, the hunky stable master who reminds you of Fabio. Adrian tells her about the castle's owner, Lord Hellsubus.

ADRIAN: Since the death of his first wife, he has not been feeling himself.
ELVIRA: Too bad. It might relieve a lot of that tension.

(There's a running gag where Adrian's dialogue, which the actor speaks in Romanian, is deliberately badly dubbed into English. The effect is reminiscent of the old Italian-made Hercules film series.)

One night at the castle, Elvira — who in the 1970s was the lead singer for an Italian rock band — performs a witty musical number titled "Le Music Hall." She ends the number by turning her back to the camera and bending over to show the word "APPLAUSE" on the red garment covering her derriere.

But eventually Elvira finds herself in the castle's dungeon with Lord Hellsubus threatening to kill her.

LORD HELLSUBUS: My slutty adulteress darling.
ELVIRA: Hey, don't call me darling.

In the climactic scene, a huge blade is suspended from a rope, forming a pendulum that with each swing comes closer and closer to the tied-up Elvira.

The Elvira's Haunted Hills DVD contains about an hour of video bonus materials.

The 28-minute "Transylvania or Bust" was made in 2011, and in it cast members and the director look back fondly at shooting the feature film 10 years earlier in Romania. The DVD also provides a feature-length audio commentary recorded in 2011, and heard on it are Cassandra Peterson, director Sam Irvin and three of the actors: Mary Scheer ("Lady Hellsubus"), Mary Joe Smith ("Zou Zou," Elvira's maid) and Scott Atkinson ("Dr. Bradley Bradley"). One of the connections here is that Peterson, Scheer and Smith have all been members of the Los Angeles-based improv group The Groundlings. And it emerges from these bonus materials that Elvira's Haunted Hills traces its roots back to Poe's short story "The Pit and the Pendulum."

The other extras date from 2002. These include the 22-minute "Making Of Featurette," the 54-second "Outtakes" and the six-minute "Interview With Richard O'Brien." O'Brien played the role of Lord Hellsubus in Elvira's Haunted Hills, but he's best known as the writer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and he played Riff Raff in the 1975 screen version of that cult musical.

DVD Release Date: October 4, 2011
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Sexual Humor and Violence

A review copy of the DVD was provided by E1 Entertainment Distribution. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.