Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
When you hear the name "Elvira" only one person comes to mind... quick witted valley-girl, Halloween icon, and quintessential symbol of all things spooky: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
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Perry: Elvira -- Mistress of the Dark! —Lois and Clark, "Fly Hard"
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Back in 1981, Elvira (portrayed by actress Cassandra Peterson) became the first nationally syndicated horror host and has emerged as one of the most original and outrageous characters in popular culture, resulting in a large cult following. The movies featured on Elvira's Movie Macabre, her first show, were always B grade (or lower) and Elvira often enjoyed interrupting the movie to lampoon the actors, the script, and the bad editing.
Elvira's reign as "Queen of Halloween" has spanned four decades (as of 2021) and includes two feature films, an IMAX film and 2 motion control rides. She has appeared in National ad campaigns for Pepsi and Coors, recorded 5 music CDs, published 4 books and licensed over 400 products, including two Bally pinball machines, BC Rich guitars, three comic book series, Elvira’s ‘Night Brew’ beer, ‘Evil’ perfume and a slot machines from IGT. Elvira also boasts the best selling female costume of all time.
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark provides examples of the following tropes:
Mistress herself:
- Absolute Cleavage
- Actor-Role Confusion: Peterson wrote in her memoirs that this happens to her more than she'd like.
- Annoying Laugh
- Beehive Hairdo
- Catch Phrase: "Unpleasant dreams!"
- Captain Ersatz: The show was originally going to be a remake of a similar show with a similar host named Vampira, who was played by Nurmi (whom Nurmi claimed was based on Morticia Addams); Nurmi worked on the new project for a while, but quit when the producers hired Peterson to play the role rather than the actress Nurmi recommended. Since Nurmi still owned the rights to Vampira's name and likeness, the character was altered into, well, Elvira. Nurmi would later go so far as to file a lawsuit against Peterson claiming plagiarism, which was eventually dropped.
- Deadpan Snarker: Part of her humor was giving snarky commentary on the movies she was hosting, predating a similar routine on Mystery Science Theater 3000 by several years.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Denies worshipping the Devil, but admits to dating him once.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Especially the men in her movies.
- Double Entendre: Constant references to pumpkins was a Running Gag.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- Femme Fatalons
- Gag Boobs: The sassy lassy with the classy chassis.
- Hot Witch
- Ms. Fanservice
- Not Using the V Word: Oddly, nobody on the show ever referred to Elvira as a vampire, even though the general depiction is obvious. She even famously did a poster where she posed reclining in a coffin.
- Ornamental Weapon: The dagger; she has used it in one scene in one movie, and even then simply to scare someone who hit on her - it proved to be a prop with a retractable blade.
- Perky Goth
- Pie in the Face: Happened to Elvira at least once.
- Product Placement: She's appeared in commercials for Coors beer, Mug root beer, Pepsi, and PETA, often broadcast around Halloween,
- She's Got Legs
- Silver Fox: Cassandra Peterson was born on September 17, 1951. While makeup can account for her "ageless" reputation, she looks striking even without it.
- Strange Girl
- Valley Girl
- Vampires Are Sex Goddesses: Seriously, just look at her!
- Vegetarian Vampire: Famously appeared in a commercial for PETA, attempting to persuade a flesh-eating zombie to avoid meat.
- Woman in Black
The films have the examples of:
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)
- Absolute Cleavage
- Acting for Two: Peterson plays both Elvira and Elvira's aunt.
- Action Dress Rip: Happens offscreen.
- Agony of the Feet
- Angry Mob: Subverted near the end.
- An Axe to Grind
- Barrier-Busting Blow
- Big Freaking Gun
- Bookcase Passage
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Breath Weapon
- Bucket Booby Trap Booby Trap: Elvira gets pulled off on this when she pulls one rope on the bucket and causes tar and feathers to fall down on her during her Flashdance to the song "Maniac".
- Burn the Witch
- Chekhov's Gun: Elvira's ring.
- Combat Stilettos: Subverts the old trope about female victims running from slasher-movie villains, then tripping and falling (and then being killed) due to high heels... Elvira throws her stiletto heels as weapons.
- Cool Car: Elvira's Macabremobile.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Elvira is many things that may not correlate with goody-goody, but she's nowhere near a bad person.
- Daydream Surprise
- Deadpan Snarker
- Developing Doomed Characters: Not in the film itself, but commented on during the beginning with the B movie.
- Diner Brawl
- Distracted by the Sexy
- Dramatic Thunder
- Drink Order: Bloody Mary, of course. Unfortunately, the bar she enters doesn't serve hard liquor after 8PM.
- Drop What You Are Doing
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- Erotic Eating
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed
- Everything's Better with Bob: Bob, Elvira's love interest.
- Evil Laugh
- Fainting
- Familiar: Gunk is revealed to be one.
- Gag Boobs
- Give Her a Normal Life: In a flashback her mother is shown dropping the infant Elvira off at a convent to protect her from the convoluted magical politics in their family.
- Subverted: Elvira is many things, but normal? Not so much.
- Green-Eyed Monster
- Grievous Bottley Harm
- Groin Attack: Non-violent - though humiliating - version: Elvira's method of saying "No" to two mashers who hit on her in a bar is to take their beer and pour it on them there.
- Helping Hands
- Henpecked Husband
- Hypocritical Humor
- Lingerie Scene
- Look Behind You!
- Love Interest
- Lover Tug of War
- Male Gaze
- Marshmallow Hell
- Meaningful Name: Chastity Pariah.
- Mirror Scare
- Moral Guardians
- Neck Lift
- Nightmare Sequence
- Noodle Incident: What exactly Elvira did to that hitch-hiking axe murderer?
- Ominous Fog
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Role Called
- Screaming Woman
- Shadow Discretion Shot
- Shout-Out
- Spell Book
- Stock Footage
- Stuff Blowing Up: Elvira accidentally blows up a gas station on her way to Falwell.
- Tar and Feathers: Elvira is tarred and feathered in a spoof of the movie Flashdance.
- That Came Out Wrong: "Sure, I'll do it for 50 bucks!"
- "Well, here's to my big opening. I mean..."
- There Is No Higher Court
- There's No B in Movie
- Title Drop
- Total Eclipse of the Plot
- Transformation Sequence: Gunk transforms itself to a rat to help Elvira.
- Unexpected Inheritance: The trope is applied twice. First, when Elvira got an inheritance from her Grandaunt, whose existence Elvira was completely oblivious to; and Second, when she inherited her Granduncle's fortune. She had all reasons not to expect anything from him but, since she was his next of kin and he never bothered with making a Will, she inherited it all.
- Unusual Euphemism
- Vanity License Plate
- Viva Las Vegas
- What's a Henway?: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is a Hurricane of Puns, but one of the most memorable is after the titular character has hit her head on a movie marquee:
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"How's your head?" |
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Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)
- Axe Before Entering
- Double Meaning Title
- Dramatic Thunder
- Driven to Suicide
- Fainting
- Flash Back
- Funbag Airbag
- Gag Boobs
- Grave Robbing
- High-Class Glass
- Hollywood Darkness
- Hong Kong Dub: Everybody talks normally except for one badly-dubbed character. Lampshaded when Elvira turns to the camera to ask, "How does he do that?"
- Marshmallow Hell
- Repetitive Name: Bradley Bradley.
- Rimshot
- Running Gag: The screaming.
- Screaming Woman
- Secret Passage
- The Shrink
- Super Senses
- Vertigo Effect
- Victoria's Secret Compartment