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Elvira: Mistress of the Dark: Limited Edition
[Blu-ray 4K]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (26th March 2025). |
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The Film
 "The gal with the enormous… ratings" Elivra, "Mistress of the Dark" (The Working Girls' Cassandra Peterson) has more ambitions than being a TV horror hostess. She wants to open a burlesque show in Las Vegas but she is twenty-thousand dollars short and has just lost her job after refusing the advances ("It's milkin' time!") of the new cowboy studio owner (The Car's Lee McLaughlin). When she receives a telegram stating summoning her to the reading of the will of her late aunt Morgana Talbot, she is off to the New England town of Fallwell, making a grand entrance that has the town's morals committee – lead by Chastity Pariah (Planes, Trains & Automobiles' Edie McClurg) – scandalized. Elvira is less than thrilled to learn that all her aunt – who the locals believed was a witch – has left her is her creepy house, a dusty cookbook, and her dog Algonquin. Her long lost uncle Vincent (Needful Things' W. Morgan Sheppard), however, proves solicitous as he tries to acquire the cookbook which is actually a powerful book of spells. After her realtor (The Running Man's Kurt Fuller) attempts to cop a feel, Elvira decides to renovate the house herself and hopefully sell it to fund her Vegas dreams; and the town's horny teens are eager to help to the dismay of their parents. Elvira further alienates pointy-bosomed town bowling alley owner Patty (Beetlejuice's Susan Kellermann) by falling for the town's humble hunk Bob (Hands of Steel's Daniel Greene). When Vincent and his lackeys Travis (Bay Cove's Jeff Conaway) and Billy (The Blob's Frank Collison) are unable to get their hands on the cookbook, Vincent stokes the town's mob mentality into an old-fashioned witch burning. While younger audiences might recognize her solely on the basis of television and commercial appearances and her renewed popularity in the digital age as a horror hostess, Elvira spent five years hosting the late night horror show "Elvira's Movie Macabre" – which, unlike the latter day incarnation hosted a wider variety of non-public domain horror films including the "how was that shown on TV?" likes of Mark of the Devil and Tombs of the Blind Dead – followed by syndication, the popularity of which lead to her feature film spin-off Elivra, Mistress of the Dark from peak-era New World Pictures in co-production with NBC Productions. This odd ollaboration turns out to be to the film's benefit, filling it with recognizable character actor faces like McClurg, Sheppard, Pat Crawford Brown (Demonic Toys), William Duell (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), and a New England that turns out to be the Warner Brothers Burbank set seen in everything from East of Eden to Back to the Future. The PG-13 rating allows Elvira to be a bit fleshier and naughtier in her double entendres like "How's your head?" and "Chastity Pariah! Oh, I thought that cleared up," along with some ruder examples of the hypocrisy of the moral characters. The gothic horror elements are well-realized thanks to the photography of Hanania Baer (American Ninja) and production design of John De Cuir Jr. (Fright Night) along with the cost-effective deployment of a few creature effects by the workshop of Doug Beswick – d – and a few magic opticals by Apogee Productions whose often provided secondary optical work on larger studio films under the likes of Industrial Light & Magic and Richard Edlund' Boss Film Productions. The film opens with Elvira hosting the climax of It Conquered the World and later doing live commentary on Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!. Screenwriter John Paragon had previously scripted and played bit parts on Elvira's Movie Macabre and would later pen the follow-up film Elvira's Haunted Hills, while director James Signorelli had been working as a producer on Saturday Night Live and was replaced on Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, instead making his actual feature debut with Easy Money. 
Video
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark was released theatrically in 1988 and on VHS by New World and laserdisc by Image Entertainment the following year. Lumivision announced a special edition laserdisc in the late nineties but it was canceled. After an LP sell-through VHS from Starmaker, the film made its DVD debut in 2001 from Anchor Bay with the only upgrades being a 16:9 transfer and a Dolby Digital 5.1 upmix while Image Entertainment's subsequent 2011 DVD and 2019 Blu-ray were even more stripped down; the latter especially compared to the 2018 German Blu-ray from which Arrow derived most of their extras for their 2018 U.K. Blu-ray which did not reach the U.S. until 2023. The Arrow set of extras have been carried over to their 2160p24 HEVC 1.85:1 widescreen Dolby Vision 4K UltraHD edition. The Blu-rays were derived from a 2K scan while the new transfer was derived from a 4K 16-bit scan of the 35mm interpositive. The newer scan offers moderate improvements, better contending with some of the moodier lighting and use of fog as well as the use of windows as practical backlighting and diffusing smoke, although the optical shots – including the entire extended opening credits sequence – look a shade coarser in terms of grain. Shadows vary from black to slightly bluish, and the inconsistency between different interiors seems down to the locations, with the commentary revealing that a few of the interior sets were actually three-walled sets shot outside on the Warner Burbank lot. The night-for-night exterior shots also hold up well between the magical opticals since that was also on the controlled conditions on the lot that could better accommodate studio lighting equipment than an actual municipal town square and suburban streets. Like Arrow's recent 4K UltraHD of Alice, Sweet Alice, what is more apparent with the higher resolution is the slight yellow hue in the brightest highlights which was either less visible in the earlier master or had been timed to white (included screen captures are from the older Blu-ray to illustrate the film review only). 
Audio
The sole audio option is the original stereo track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 which, like the LPCM 2.0 track on the Blu-ray, was supplied by rights owner Lakeshore and subjected to additional clean-up. At a time when Dolby Stereo was the standard of the big studios and Ultra Stereo for everyone else, New World was still being selective about what they put out in mono or stereo, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is pretty surprising with a raucous soundtrack, dog growls, floor creaks, torch-wielding mob ADR, and a climax full of rain, thunder, fire, bazooka fire, and laser stings underlining magic spells, leading up to the cabaret finale, making the film seem bigger than the video shelf perennial it would become until the turn of the twenty-first century nostalgia for the eighties (and the general exploitation of the Lakeshore/New World library). 
Extras
Extras start off with three audio commentaries, the first audio commentary by actors Cassandra Person, Edie McClurg and writer which is listed in the menu as being archival and was recorded sometime after 2011 going by their reaction to seeing the late Conaway onscreen. This is a fun and information-stuffed commentary revealing that a number of the recognizable supporting cast were members of the alumni of the Groundlings sketch comedy theatre group along with Peterson, McClurg, and Paragon including The Simpsons voice actress Tress MacNeille who has a brief role in the opening as a news anchor. They also point out notables in various bit roles including Elvira's former boyfriend Bill Cable – a model for Bob Mizer who also appeared in some adult films in the seventies and bit roles in mainstream films like Basic Instinct as the murder victim in the famous opening sequence – as a traffic cop, performance artist Joey Arias (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar) as the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker, Mario Celario who was a gaucho in Peterson's Vegas show, and Paragon himself as the gas station attendant. They also point out details buried in the production design like Pee-Wee Herman dolls – all three had appeared either on stage, in Herman's television show (Paragon was the genie), or his film spin-off – and the off-camera antics of Conaway. They also discuss aspects of the film's production including New World "forcing" them to include the teenage characters and that Elvira herself turned down the audition of a young Brad Pitt. They also discuss the cold winter shooting conditions – including some interior scenes which were actually on three wall sets outside, working with the dogs that played Gonk including the one that actually bit Fuller (as well as Peterson having to loop her lines for scenes with the dog since the animal trainer was calling commands throughout the takes), and their dissatisfaction with some of the other creative choices imposed by New World. The audio commentary by director James Signorelli and the audio commentary by Patterson Lundquist, one of the producers of the disc's included feature-length documentary (see below), were recorded for German Blu-ray. Signorelli's track is moderated by Fangoria's Tony Timpone who does most of the heavy-lifting here with factoids and anecdotes to prompt the director who infrequently responds between long silences, seemingly more fascinated with revisiting the film. If not for the Peterson, McClurg, Paragon track, the Lundquist track would be what one would have wished the director's track was as the producer has something to say on nearly a shot-by-shot basis – presumably gleaned from shooting the interviews for the aforementioned documentary – including some of the most minute production trivia like having to reproduce the "Movie Macabre" set couch and candelabras because they were unable to use the props from the show.  The film can be played with an optional introduction by director James Signorelli (1:09), but the most substantial extra next to the cast commentary is the documentary "Too Macabre: The Making of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" (97:03) featuring several cast and crew members. Peterson, Paragon, and producer Eric Gardner recall how NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff offered Peterson the idea of an Elvira sitcom but they wanted to make a feature film first, and Tartikoff contacted them a few months later revealing that the studio has formed NBC Productions to create feature film work. The documentary takes us through development, casting, production, post-production, and the film's reception as well as some more information on the would-be NBC pilot. Co-writer Sam Egan reveals that he was asked to work on the film after writing a Halloween episode of The Fall Guy that featured Elvira in a guest role. Sheppard recalls his auditions and his later issues with make-up and working with optical effects to be added in post, Greene recalls his audition, Fuller reveals that he was prepared at that time to give up acting thinking his audition had gone horribly, Kellerman recalls the use of a body double for one shot and Ace bandages for later scenes, and Susan McNabb recalls auditioning to be a double for Elvira with a room full of women in low-cut black tops and black wigs. Ira Heiden (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) recalls Elvira in pop culture of the time and meeting her in the flesh while Kris Kamm (Wyatt Earp) remembers going up against Brad Pitt for his part. Special effects artist Steve LaPorte (The Lost Boys) and puppeteer Mark Bryan Wilson (Evil Dead II) recall being recruited by Doug Beswick to do the creature and make-up effects. "Recipe for Terror: The Creation of the Pot Monster" (22:12) seems to have been shot at the same time as the feature documentary, focusing on the design, creation, and puppetry of the casserole creature. The disc also includes the U.S. theatrical trailer (1:48), the U.S. teaser trailer (1:06) and six image galleries. 
Packaging
The disc includes a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck while the first pressing also includes a slipcover and an illustrated collector's booklet featuring writing on the film by Sam Irving, Kat Ellinger and Patterson Lundquist.
Overall
Despite a compromised production and theatrical release cut short by the fall of New World Pictures, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark's feature film spin-off has earned its status as an eighties nostaligic cult classic.
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