Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Nov. 12 as the street date for the 4K Ultra HD debut of director James Signorelli’s Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, starring Cassandra Peterson as the legendary late night horror hostess in first film adventure.
Elvira is in a bind and things for her look bleak … she’s quit her horror hostess job at KSFB when the new station owner, Earl Hooter (Lee McLaughlin), starts hitting on her and her big chance to star in a Las Vegas show is about to fall through unless she can come up with $50,000 to finance the production. Poor, poor Elvira!
But wait, her great aunt Morgana has just died and Elvira is the will. This could be a game-changer, so off she goes to Fallwell, Massachusetts to hear the reading of the will and claim her inheritance. Simple, right?
If it were simple, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark would be a very short movie. Instead, our heroine discovers that she had inherited a rundown mansion, a poodle by the name of Algonquin and little more, save an old “recipe” book that Morgana’s brother, Vincent (played by William Morgan Sheppard) — who was cut out of the will — is willing to buy for sentimental reasons. Elvira! Wake-up, don’t believe him … it’s a book of spells and it is the only thing between him and turning you into lord knows what!
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is great fun as a film vehicle that gives Cassandra Peterson a free reign to let her Elvira persona have fun with her natural sex appeal and in the process deliver truck loads of double entendre mischief. Over time Elvira has become a legend … and this film fits right in with that. Enjoy!
Bonus nuggets include an intro to the film by Signorelli, plus three vintage commentary options — one with Signorelli and Fangoria’s Tony Timpone, a second with Patterson Lunquist (webmaster of elviramistressofthedark.com) and a third teaming Cassandra Peterson with actor Edie McClurg (as Chastity Pariah) and writer John Paragon.
Also included with this 4K Ultra HD release of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is the 2018 feature-length documentary Too Macabre: The Making of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and the featurette titled “Recipe for Terror: The Creation of the Pot Monster.”
