FILM REVIEWS

ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS

Starring Cassandra Peterson and Richard O'Brien.
Directed by Sam Irvin, Rated R, 2002.
Film Reviewed By: Chris Beyond.

This is closer to the movie that her original "Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark" should have been. A true modern "burlesque" film, this film is filled with purposely corny jokes, cheesy sets, purposely bad acting, and lots and lots and lots of boob jokes and cleavage flashing.

In a good move, this film in set in the 1800s with Elvira as a traveling cabaret performer hitching rides in the countryside with her hefty servant from town to town until she gets a ride from a gentleman who takes her to his cursed castle (as always tends to happen in those spooky films). Soon she meets the wacky cast of characters that reside behind its walls including Richard O'Brien (Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and his weird looking unfunny sickly niece, and his new wife (played by a reject from Mad TV).

The Good: It's nice to see Elvira on the big screen again. She's a much better character than the scripts she gets. Her valley-girl-like cheesy jokes are well in character and she commands the screen (which isn't so hard with the casts she has surrounded herself with). The sets are surprisingly pretty good and harkens back to the Hammer Horror films of the 60s and 70s. A few more shadows and cobwebs here and there would have made them perfect.

The Bad: Most of the rest of the cast are really annoying and rarely funny. There are actually a bunch of really funny lines and moments, but most of them come from Elvira herself and also from a stable boy who was dubbed really badly for comic effect. The script just needed a good punching up to get it to where it (and the audience) wanted to go. Still I'd rather see a million screenings of this film before I see any film starring Mandy Moore or the soon-to-be-washout Britney Spears. Oh, and this film employs the ol' "speeding up the film" to make a scene funny, but it really would have been better without it. The lady playing the niece was just kind of uncomfortable to watch. The low point of the film was towards the end when Elvira commented on how they could've afforded to make a particular visual effect and, to be honest, the effect was just a very very lo-tech computer effect. Still with a better script, this could have been a great film instead of just a good-to-ok film. I think she should try to do another film really soon. (Hey Elvira, I'll even write it for you!)

So to sum up, I can definitely recommend this for a midnight screening (check the Elvira website at www.elvira.com to see when it's coming to your town.) They are touring it around kind of like a band (and much like the road show pictures from the 50s through 70s) and they definitely need your support to pay for it as it is totally independent. If you can't see it on the big screen, wait for the DVD or video and check it out then. It's worth it, but I wish it was able to go a little further than it did.

-- (Chris Beyond is the editor/creator of No-Fi "Magazine" and contributor to www.anxietyfilms.com)