Too Macabre: The Making of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

This was good, but not what I was expecting at all. I seriously thought this was going to talk about the life of Cassandra Peterson, and how she honed the character of Elvira and popularized her in various ways through multiple mediums. Instead, what this ended up being was a very drawn-out documentary all about the making of the 1988 comedy film "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark:- down to seemingly every detail that could be covered!

As a fan of the movie that this documentary is about, I do appreciate it, but found it tedious at times, and thus a bit laggy. However, for fans of the film, it is a worthwhile viewing nonetheless.

Favorite part: Finding out that the movie first premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater on rocker Joan Jett's 30th birthday, September 22nd, 1988! I have said that Elvira is like a more curvy, femme Joan Jett, and this just further shows their connection! And that little tidbit alone made this tediously detailed documentary worth it to me!

It's important to understand the foundation of Elvira for many of us. The first time most of us saw Elvira was on Los Angeles (channel 9) KHJ, hosting a (cheesy) monster movie show, where she played Elvira before, after, and in between commercials. Her show came years after the end of a similar treatment (on a different local channel) by Larry Vincent playing "Seymour". Larry past away while his show was still running (not actually ON TV), so it ended abruptly, and left a sizable audience missing the formula. Obviously Elvira brought assets to the monster flicks that Seymour lacked.

Too Macabre is about 25% about the movie serving as a framework for the rest which is a mix of biography and backstory, of her career, the television environment at the time, the challenges she and others faced, and likely still face. This piece is great because so many people contributed to it, and it is clear how much work and love went into the editing of what had to be hundreds of hours of interview footage. The editing of accompanying footage and stills is also excellent. In fact, anyone wanting to produce a making-of or any kind of interview-intensive documentary would be smart to watch this one several times and take some notes.

Even if you're not an Elvira fan, this is still worth a watch if you like to learn about the inner workings of entertainment production.