Elvira's Haunted Hills

I always thought it was a shame that Elvira, Mistress of the Dark wasn't a success. It was a silly, dumb but very funny movie, one of those things like Scary Movie that everyone complains is tasteless and stupid but that I found wildly amusing.

So I always thought it was a pity that Casandra Peterson (Elvira, if you don't bother reading the credits) didn't have a hit so she could make another movie. But then I discovered that she did make another movie a few years later, Elvira's Haunted Hills, and alas, it is downright lame. Not unwatchable - Elvira is likable and some of the jokes are amusing - but this feels like a Saturday Night Live sketch stretched to an hour and a half. And not even a very good SNL skit. The acting is generally poor and the Roger Cormanesque parody script isn't funny enough to make up for being so trite and predictable.

I just bought the DVD of Elvira's Haunted Hills today. Elvira's one of my favorite horror hosts (her and Svengoolie). We sure did wait a long time for this movie, and I'm glad to see it finally got made. Some of the sets in this film were really first-rate, and the hokey one-liners can still crack anyone up.

The DVD transfer was very good, both sound & video. There are lots of cool extras on the disc too, including "The Making Of Elvira's Haunted Hills" featurette; Interview with co-star Richard O'Brien and the Original theatrical trailer.

Elvira's Haunted Hills is a lot of fun - you'll enjoy this movie!

Elvira! What can one say? Well for starters, this movie is a wonderful tribute to one of the Kings of horror and suspense films – Vincent Price. I think he would have found this tribute to be hilarious and well representative of the genre he so magnificently sharpened through the 40-70's.

This take was filmed in Romania on an admittedly `low' budget. Of course, ultimately, this is one of the things that make this movie a classic. Elvira is at the top of her game in this movie.

Having finally gotten a gig in Paris, Elvira and her maid (unpaid for quite some time and, showing the attitude of someone who hasn't been…) are on the way to Paris to open the act when they get sidestepped in Romania. To any fans of Vincent Price films, the rest of the story is a combination of such thrillers as `Pit & the pendulum' & `House of Ushers' with a taste of our heroine Elvira tossed in.

Check out the Herculean translation job used with the Fabio-like `Stable-Stud'.

Fans of Mad TV will recognize Mary Scheer (Cabana Chat) as the the adulteress Lady Ema Hellsubus. The movie boasts a terrific - albeit short - musical number which tells the story of Elvira's past. It's a wonderful tribute to the Paris Can-Can.

Overall, this movie will be enjoyed by fans of Vincent Price or Elvira. You'll find yourself laughing, snickering and remembering those scary films of your childhood!

Fans of Elvira shouldn't be disappointed. I used to watch Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira weekend afternoons in California hosting bad horror movies and loved her. The movie was good silly halloween humor. Many of the jokes didn't work, some did. Worth seeing just don't go in expecting the next great comedy. I enjoyed her first effort Elvira Mistress of the Dark better.

I enjoy the Elvira movies, no doubt about that. But "Elvira's Haunted Hills" does suffer under the 'curse' of being a sequel - that's being it fails to fully live up to the level of its predecessor "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark".

It does still have the same kind of dark comedy with undertones of sexual nature and just straight downright silliness. But this is, of course, what is part of the Elvira universe and character, and it is what the fans like, that and her in-your-face big, well, you know... charm and wits.

What puzzles me about the story in the 2001 movie "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is why it is set in 1851 Transylvania. Well, aside from the obvious B-movie reference to Dracula, of course, and for the Gothic backdrop, but other than that I didn't get it.

Storywise, then "Elvira's Haunted Hills" falters a bit compared to the 1988 movie "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark", both in contents and in progression. That being said, don't get me wrong, it is not a bad story, far from it. It just wasn't at the same level of the first movie.

Cassandra Peterson performs as to be expected, I mean, she is Elvira in the flesh, after all. But also Richard O'Brien (playing Lord Vladimere Hellsubus) and Heather Hopper (playing Lady Roxanna Hellsubus) really performed quite well in this movie.

The comedy in "Elvira's Haunted Hills" was a bit more subtle than the comedy in the 1988 predecessor, which was a shame, because it made it a tad less enjoyable. The scene that had me laughing the most was one of the last scene with the sinking castle, it was just such a wonderful spoof of Titanic.

All in all "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is an enjoyable movie, and a movie that any fan of Elvira should have in their movie collection. And while not embodying the same Halloween atmosphere as the 1988 movie, "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is still worth putting into a Halloween movie marathon just for the sake of it being Elvira!