Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) is on her way to France for her big Parisian debut but she and her servant Zou Zou (Mary Jo Smith) are broke and stuck in Transylvania. They’re rescued from wandering the (presumably) haunted hills by Dr. Bradley Bradley (Scott Atkinson), physician for the Hellsubus family. He takes them to the Hellsubus castle so that they’ll have lodging for the night. They meet Lord Hellsubus (Richard O’Brien), who’s stricken by a terrible disease that is driving him quite mad. He’s smitten with Elvira because she looks just like his dead wife, but she only has eyes for Adrian the hunky stable stud. Of course, the castle is cursed. Queue the musical number!
Elvira’s Haunted Hills (2001) is a project that is clearly made with a lot of love, and it really shows onscreen. Director Sam Irvin has been kicking around the film industry since he was a production assistant on The Fury (1978). He directed everyone’s favorite sci-fi western Oblivion (1994) and its sequel. When he found out that Cassandra Peterson was looking for a director for her new Elvira movie, he jumped at the chance. The cast if full of very funny people including “MADtv” alum Mary Scheer and Richard O’Brien of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Dark City (1998).
This parade of nonstop silliness contains as many zany gags and double D entendres as there as nods to the Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe films like Tomb of Ligeia (1964) and The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). But also, there’s dick jokes! The Romanian locations are as beautiful as the fourth wall is broken. I was such a huge fan of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) that I wasn’t fully on board with this film when it came out (even though it was written by Peterson and her regular collaborator John Paragon). But now I’m a perky fan of this firm classic. So don’t be a boob like I was, watch Elvira’s Haunted Hills today!
The new Scream Factory Blu-ray of Elvira’s Haunted Hills looks and sounds great. This version comes from a newly 4K scan of the original print. The only new extra on the disc is an introduction by Elvira herself for the 20-year anniversary of the film. The disc has a ton of extras imported from the old DVD, so if you missed out on that, you’ll have a lot to go through here including an audio commentary with cast and director, two making-of featurettes, an interview with Richard O’Brien, an outtakes reel, and photo gallery. My favorite extra is Cassandra Peterson being interviewed by a Romanian news crew while in character as Elvira. It’s brilliant.