Elvira: Mistress of the Dark -- James Signorelli
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark throws about a dozen tropes together to create a movie. "We need to raise money to put on a Vegas show!" "Your great-aunt just died and you need to go to New England to pick up your inheritance!" "Your inheritance is a giant, creepy house!" I thought that one was going to come with a stipulation that Elvira needed to spend one night alone in it. Surprised how disappointed I was that that wasn't the case. The movie UHF (released a year later) played off of similar tropes and made an astounding, bizarre, and hilarious movie. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a vessel for double entendres and boob jokes. It's actually not terrible.
There are a lot of familiar faces playing to type: Edie McClurg, Kurt Fuller, William Duell, the town square from Back to the Future (and Monster Squad, and Gremlins). It takes a while for the movie to get to the really fun witchcraft stuff and when it does, it goes by too quickly. The seeds are planted early and I don't know why the screenwriters would rather take the time to fix up the creepy old house (on the outside only) than have Elvira play around with some witchy fun. It would also make her ability to summon rain at the end feel earned because she'd have some experience. Instead, we basically get another slobs versus snobs story.
I was hoping there would be more love towards older horror films, both good and bad. There is some name dropping, but it hardly feels like Elvira even really cares about the genre, which is weird since it's how she made her name, living, and look. I'll probably say this about any genre-based comedy, but I wonder what Joe Dante could have done with this character (or, if you want me to choose someone working today, Edgar Wright).
That said, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark has everything a 13-year old boy could ever hope for (at least in the pre-internet days), complete with a tassel spinning finale.
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