Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

The Elvira character predates the film by seven years. Cassandra Peterson auditioned in 1981 to host horror films on a Los Angeles station, and Elvira's Movie Macabre, built around a character she created herself, caught on immediately. The film puts that character into a story of her own: Elvira sets off to headline in Las Vegas, ends up in a conservative New England town, and has to deal with an inheritance and with the town's moral guardians. Peterson co-wrote the screenplay with John Paragon and Sam Egan; NBC Productions made it and New World Pictures released it. The numbers were not good. It cost around seven million dollars and took $5.6m. The Stinkers named it worst picture of the year and Peterson took the Golden Raspberry for worst actress. It nonetheless became a durable cult item on video and television. Who it is for: viewers who like the 1980s double-entendre tradition and comedies carried entirely by one character. Who it is not for: anyone looking for structure. It proceeds like a run of sketches, and most of the jokes are variations on the same single joke.