Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 14, 2019

The Road Not Taken is one of the most well remembered poems by Robert Frost, one that composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim slightly reworked for the engaging song “The Road You Didn’t Take” from 1971’s Follies. Cassandra Peterson may be forgiven if she’s prone to either reading the Frost piece or listening to the Sondheim tune, since as a rather lengthy and in depth “making of” featurette included on this Blu-ray as a supplement makes clear, Peterson had a choice to make back in the 1980s, and some (including Peterson herself) may feel she made the wrong decision. As Peterson gets into in the supplement, none other than (at that point in time) NBC head honcho Brandon Tartikoff was a huge fan of Peterson’s Elvira persona, and approached Peterson with the idea of Elvira starring in a weekly sitcom on NBC. As another “management” type talking head on this documentary mentions, this was in the day when the demarcation between television stars and film stars was probably more firmly ensconced than it is today, and Peterson had dreams of matriculating Elvira to the big screen, and so declined the offer of a weekly gig on the network. Interestingly, Tartikoff ended up being involved anyway, since the then fledgling NBC Studios was one of the producing partners for the film, but even then Tartikoff hedged his bets by insisting that in turn for helping get Elvira: Mistress of the Dark into cineplexes, he would in turn be granted the “right of first refusal” for any planned Elvira television series. Probably needless to say, an Elvira sitcom never materialized, perhaps due at least in part to the less than rapturous response Elvira: Mistress of the Dark received from critics and (probably more saliently) from the ticket buying public.

One of the kind of cool little aspects to American culture, at least in my not so humble estimation, was the proliferation of (typically late night Friday or Saturday) airings of low grade horror movies on local network affiliates back in the heyday of the broadcast networks, frequently with some kind of goofy host or hostess attached. For example, I grew up in Salt Lake City, where Friday night’s Nightmare Theater gave me my first looks at all sorts of (admittedly higher grade) horror fare like Frankenstein and Dracula, along with substantially less esteemed outings like Robot Monster. (Kind of weirdly but perhaps also understandably, back in my childhood Nightmare Theater was hosted by the same guy who played “Fireman Frank”, host of a weekday afternoon cartoon show.)

One of actually several Los Angeles versions of this phenomenon had been “Sinister Seymour” and Fright Night (hence Fright Night), though that show had lain dormant for several years after the death of star Larry Vincent. When plans were made to reboot the property, the typical series of show business dramas intervened until Cassandra Peterson was ultimately hired to host and pretty much given free rein to create whatever kind of character she wanted. And thus Elvira was born, along with other running gags like the “mystery caller” known as The Breather (John Paragon, who’s also on hand here as a hapless gas station attendant).

What was so immediately captivating about Elvira was the disconnect between her physical appearance (including makeup and costuming) and her personality. While her image was definitely derivative (to the point that a precursor to Fright Night, erstwhile Vampira Maila Nurmi, reportedly threatened to sue, though perhaps at least in part due to the fact that the reboot producers had evidently wanted to build the new show around a new version of that character), Elvira's persona was sui generis, a kind of wacky combo platter of Valley Girl inanities and Mae West double entendres. Needless to say, Elvira became a sensation.

The issue with Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a simple one: little interstitial moments with Elvira on her weekly television horror moving hostessing duties were frequently hysterically funny, but attempting to build an entire feature film around the character tends to only work in dribs and drabs. The set up for the film is that Elvira quits her tv gig in what might be called a #Metoo reaction, even if Elvira’s blatant sexuality and frequent jokes about her own “attributes” might make that hashtag unavoidably ironic. Luckily (maybe), she strikes instant gold anyway when she finds out she’s inherited a grabbag of items that are in the provocatively named Fallwell (this was the eighties after all, when a certain televangelist was all the rage).

Of course Fallwell turns out to be an ultraconservative burg that has never seen anything quite like Elvira, and Elvira pretty much immediately invites the umbrage of local busy body and moral custodian Chastity Pariah (Edie McClurg). The rest of the film is kind of vignette driven, with Elvira encountering both disparagement and acceptance in the little town, while also coming to the realization that her inheritance might be more than she bargained on (something that adds a bit of a supernatural element). There are bits here that are quite funny, but there probably aren’t enough of them to sustain a feature film, and there’s a somewhat overwrought feeling to aspects here that come off as dedicated folks probably trying way too hard to earn what turn out to be kind of fitful laughs.

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with stereo audio.

An original 35mm interpositive was scanned in 2K resolution at Deluxe/EFilm, Burbank. The film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master and restored at R3Store Studios in London. The original stereo mix was remastered by Lakeshore Entertainment.

All materials for this restoration were made available by Mike Lechner/Lakeshore Entertainment.

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark has had a number of previous home media releases going back to the halcyon days of VHS (those were halcyon days, weren't they?). While some international Blu-rays have come out (see our Forum for some comments by Members), my personal experience with this title is limited to the old Image DVD from the early aughts of the 21st century. In that regard, there's absolutely no comparison in any of the categories we typically assess in our reviews, something that should obviously come as no big surprise. Saturation, densities, detail levels and grain resolution are all manifestly improved. A number of our readers evidently have the Cinespectral release, and some of the screenshot comparisons between the two are rather interesting, at least to my eyes. There is arguably a marginally "hotter" look to the Cinespectral, as well as arguably a bit more clarity, but I am judging solely on screenshots which I personally feel is always a risky gambit. I found the palette of the Arrow release to be really warm without ever looking too brash, and some of the bold primaries, red in particular, pop extremely well throughout this presentation. There are some noticeable differences in color temperature and clarity throughout, some of which are due to the variances of lighting conditions. Some of the outdoor material is fantastic looking, with deeply saturated colors and excellent detail levels and clarity, while some of the interior material is a bit hazy at times, with some of the darkest moments suffering from some minor but noticeable crush. Grain is a little coarse looking at times, but generally resolves very naturally. As is mentioned in some of the supplements, this film was shot on a shoestring budget, and it often looks like it, especially with regard to some of the lo-fi special effects. The bottom line is, if you have only experienced this film in standard definition, you're probably going to be generally blown away by the appearance of this transfer. If you have one of the other international Blu-ray releases, I'd recommend you carefully parse the screenshots accompanying this review (as risky a gambit as that admittedly may be) to see how you feel about the look of this version.

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark features a boisterous LPCM 2.0 track that capably supports some of the fun source cues, as well as the big "song and dance" by Elvira that caps the film. Dialogue and effects are also rendered clearly without any problems whatsoever. The stereo imaging is actually rather nicely realized, especially in some of the effects sequences, where kind of ironically the visual element isn't always mind blowing. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and due to the kind of gonzo proclivities of the story and characters, dynamic range is rather wide as well.

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Too Macabre: The Making of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (HD; 1:37:04) is listed as being a "newly revised" version of this feature length exploration into both the film and the character. It's a lot of fun, with a bunch of engaging interviews.


• Recipe for Terror: The Creation of the Pot Monster (HD; 22:13) is also listed as being "newly revised" and gets into both the gonzo "food creature" sequence as well as some of the other SFX.


• Image Galleries

  Production Stills (HD; 14:40)

  Behind the Scenes (HD; 5:10)

  SFX (HD; 11:10)

  Original Storyboards (HD; 4:31)

  New York City Premiere (HD; 1:10)

  Miscellaneous (HD; 1:30)

• Original US Trailer (HD; 1:49)


• Original Teaser Trailer (HD; 1:05)


• Director's Intro (HD; 1:10). Wow. Perhaps you've heard, especially if you listened to the commentary track on the Blu-ray, about the almost insane number of takes it took of Nancy Sinatra singing the theme to You Only Live Twice for John Barry to be able to cobble together a usable version (and this was obviously way before things like ProTools, which makes the process of comping a vocal relatively easy). All I can say is James Signorelli does the verbal equivalent here in a kind of amazing but also maybe revelatory display. This can be found under the Play Menu.


• Audio Commentary with Cassandra Peterson, Edie McClurg and John Paragon


• Audio Commentary with James Signorelli and Tony Timpone


• Audio Commentary with Patterson Lundquist

As is standard operating practice with Arrow, a nicely appointed insert booklet is also included.

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is an admittedly uneven enterprise, one that may simply not be able to overcome what is kind of an inherent toughness of its titular character (and, yes, I just said titular). The film has some amusing moments along the way, but it also misses the bullseye on regular occasions. This Arrow edition features solid technical merits and some very appealing supplements, for those considering a purchase.