Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)

Okay, I don't know if this movie had some kind of undefineable charm or if it was my fond childhood memories of Elvira resurfacing (I even watched "CHiPs" most afternoons after school for her, really), but, even though this really is a bad comedy, I've developed a fondness for it and was actually willing to watch it a couple of times. I mean, in its quest to dig up a couple of gags, the movie throws out bad puns and one-liners (for one great example, scroll down the page to "Choice Quotes") along with predictable slapstick and jokes as old as civilization itself. There's your requisite fat jokes, all revolving around Elvira's faithful servant Zsu Zsu (to be fair, they're not as mean spirited as such jokes can often be), a fart joke or two, and, of course, lots of references to Elvira's ample cleavage (including one visual gag that will make more than a few young boys out there happy). But the movie carries such an aura of innocent fun around it and comes across as such an unlabored effort (it's clear that most of the people involved, especially Richard O'Brien, are having the times of their lives) that it's easy not to care.

Speaking of O'Brien, the movie's almost worth checking out just for his show-stealing performance. He both looks and acts the part of Vladimere Hellsubus, the archtypical gothic villian, with dead-on accuracy. His character's rambling, Byronic monologues are a hoot, harking way back to the gothic novels of the Romantic period (which I bet some of you English majors out there had to suffer through). Mary Scheer does an almost equally fine job as Vladimere's scheming wife, Ema, and actually works, with her wide range of disapproving facial expressions and dead-on portrayl of the gothic villainess (think the Grandma from Flowers in the Attic), as the perfect foil to Elvira.

The real reason to watch this film, though, seems to be for the referencing generously served up by the script. Undoubtedly because it was co-written by Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) herself, the film is loaded with references and cliches from the Hammer films of yesteryear and the Corman adaptations of Poe. This is all somewhat bogged down by the one-liners, slapstick, and innuendo that makes up too much of the movie's humor. Nevertheless, Elvira's Haunted Hills could teach Scream a couple of lessons about pulling off a successful homage/satire.

So, is this a decent enough movie or isn't it? This film doesn't deserve to be branded as a failed comedy in any sense, although the humor is flawed in trying to mix a humorous, reference-rich script and pretty blatant sex jokes with goofy PG-level humor (although you could make the argument that that's just Elvira's "brand"). I'd be right in taking the easy way out and writing that, if you're already a fan of Elvira and her style of humor or just liked either her TV show and her last movie, Elvira's Haunted Hills is more than a safe bet. Devotees of the old Corman-Poe films and Hammer Studios will most likely find something to enjoy here too. For anyone else, I'll troud out this time-worn warning: "Buyer beware."

Choice Quotes:

"The village people say this castle is evil."

"Eh, who listens to the village people anymore?"

-Dr. Bradley and Elvira


Cast Connections:

-Screenwriter John Paragon was Jambi the Genie and Pterri the Pterrodactyl on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." He also wrote the script and did a cameo as a gas station clerk for Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

-Most of you out there will know Mary Scheer (Ema Hellsubus) as a recurring cast member on the underrated "Mad TV" until about 1998.

-Mary Jo Smith was Unibrau on the second Austin Powers movie.