Elvira - ruler of darkness
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Elvira - ruler of darkness |
| Original title | Elvira: Mistress of the Dark |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1988 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | James Signorelli |
| script |
Sam Egan John Paragon Cassandra Peterson |
| production |
Eric Gardner Mark Pierson |
| music | James B. Campbell |
| camera | Hanania Baer |
| cut | Battle Davis |
| occupation | |
| |
Elvira - ruler of the dark (original title: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark ) is an American horror comedy directed by James Signorelli from 1988. The film depicts the adventures of the extravagant TV presenter Elvira in the fight for an inheritance in a petty bourgeois provincial American town . A computer game based on the film was released in 1990 for several computer systems popular at the time.
action
The flamboyant Elvira presents as a TV presenter cheap horror films in the night program and dreams of her own Las Vegas show. Unusual make-up for pale complexions and generously cut dresses that accentuate your cleavage are her trademarks. The sudden news of a surprising inheritance from her late great-aunt Morgana Talbot comes in handy, as she has just lost her job after refusing to sleep with her new boss. The prospective inheritance, a mansion in the New England town of Fallwell, Massachusetts , promises to make Elvira's dream of his own stage show, which requires a financial investment of $ 50,000, still possible.
After her arrival in the ultra-conservative small town, Elvira, not embarrassed by a flippant comment, quickly got the displeasure of the strict residents due to her eccentric demeanor, combined with open-hearted and body-hugging outfits. The hoped-for inheritance is disappointing, besides a dilapidated Victorian villa and a neurotic white poodle named Algonquin, it only includes a dubious cookbook.
With bright colors Elvira styles the domestic ruin and the white poodle, for whom she shaves a brightly colored punk rock hairstyle, in her own poppy style. Young people living in the city, with whom she quickly becomes friends, help her to renovate the villa as workers. When Elvira and her new friend Bob Redding, who runs a local cinema, are sitting on the living room sofa in the villa, Elvira goes into the kitchen to cook a hearty stew using the presumed recipe book. But in the subsequent dinner the hot pot suddenly rises a monster with a long snout and sharp teeth (in English: the pot monster ), which both Elvira attacks and Bob and died after a fierce battle in a kitchen chopper. It turns out that the book contains diabolical magic formulas rather than cooking recipes. For the picnic of the local morality club, Gothic -Vamp Elvira prepares the demonic stew again, with the smug intention of letting the monster loose on the ignorant club members. However, Elvira made a mistake with the recipe, which means that the enchanted dish instead acts as an aphrodisiac and triggers an uninhibited orgy among the Puritan picnic visitors .
Elvira's opaque Uncle Vinnie tries to buy the book he's been after for over 300 years from her. Because Elvira refuses, he incites the villagers against her through an intrigue. Denounced as a suspected witch, Elvira is tied to a stake for public cremation on a pyre and can barely escape the situation with the help of a red magic ring. Vinnie has since stolen the book from her mansion. Elvira realizes that he is a demonic wizard. In a showdown between the two of them, which leads Elvira and Uncle Vinnie through a foggy cemetery and in the course of which the old villa goes up in flames, she banishes the evil sorcerer to the underworld and can recapture the book. In the end Elvira reconciles with the remorseful village population. Since her uncle is now dead, the full legacy of Great Aunt Morgana legally falls to her, which is why Elvira can finally stage her stage show in Las Vegas with athletic dancers in red devil costumes.
backgrounds
Actress Cassandra Peterson was known in the US as the hostess and presenter Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, even before the movie . Her weekly television show on KHJ, Los Angeles was called Movie Macabre . Their unusual appearance with tight-fitting, low-cut dresses is practically identical in the film and broadcast. The film ended Elvira just like the episodes of the TV series with its standard spell as a farewell formula: "Unpleasant dreams!" (In English Unpleasant dreams! ).
As a means of transport, Elvira drives a pitch-black, all-American Ford Thunderbird Convertible built in 1959 with whitewall tires (in English: the macabre mobile ), decorated with skulls, garlic on the rearview mirror and a silver cobweb grille . The seats in the Thunderbird have a leopard skin pattern . The vehicle designer George Barris (* November 20, 1925 - † November 5, 2015) was responsible for the visual design of the chrome-plated Thunderbird , who also worked on the designs for the famous Batmobile in the Batman television series in the 1960s.
Stickers of the rock bands Anthrax , Ramones , TSOL , Suicidal Tendencies and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles are emblazoned on the suitcase that Elvira carries with her on arrival in the small town of Fallwell . In the scene in which the Fallwell youths are sitting in the cinema, they are watching a midnight screening of the 1978 horror film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes , moderated by Elvira .
The pot monster leaping out of the seething saucepan comes from the imagination of the animator and costume designer Doug Beswick, who also worked on films such as Ghostbusters - Die Geisterjäger (1984), Beetlejuice (1988) and Gremlins 2 (1990) and the extraterrestrial Cantina band from Krieg der Sterne (1977).
In 1989 Cassandra Peterson was nominated for the Golden Raspberry in the category Worst Actress for her role in the Elvira movie , in the end the negative award went to Liza Minnelli for her performance in the two films Rent-a-Cop and Arthur 2 - On the Rocks .
Because of the strong resemblance to the older cinematic character Vampira from the 1950s, then played by the actress Maila Nurmi , for example in the science fiction film Plan 9 from space from 1959, there was a lawsuit against actress Cassandra Peterson with the Allegation of plagiarism. The case was in Peterson's favor.
In 2001 a second feature film called Elvira's Haunted Hills was released with actress Cassandra Peterson in the title role as Elvira.
As a parody of the character Elvira, the makers of the American animated series The Simpsons created the character Barbara "Booberella" Lelavinsky , who has appeared in several episodes of the series since 2003.
criticism
"Rough slapstick as a promotional event for the leading actress who is actually the presenter of a horror show on American television."
Adaptations
In 1990 the British development studio Horror Soft published a computer role-playing game of the same name based on the film for home computers that were common at the time .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elvira - ruler of darkness. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .