Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark

**Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark** is a popular figure in American culture that has appeared in a variety of media since the early 1980s. She is portrayed by Cassandra Peterson.

Elvira is known for her high beehive hairdo, complex eye makeup, revealing dress & curvaceous figure, and propensity for corny jokes.

## *Movie Macabre*

In 1981, Elvira debuted as the host of *Movie Macabre*, a late-night television program that showed "scary" movies. It was originally intended to revive the character Vampira, but Vampira's creator/performer Maila Nurmi left the project over creative differences.

Like *Mystery Science Theater 3000*, *Movie Macabre* featured host segments consisting of short sketches. Elvira would occasionally interrupt the movie, appearing on screen to make a short joke, though this did not constitute a running commentary such as on MST3K.

*Movie Macabre* ran from 1981 until 1986. It was eventually syndicated across the United States, and was re-run frequently. Episodes were also released on home video.

*Movie Macabre* was revived in 2010 with a 20-episode production run. Some of the films were re-used from the original run with new material produced.

The following is a list of films that appeared on both *Mystery Science Theater 3000* and *Movie Macabre*:

* *The Incredible Melting Man*
* *The Human Duplicators*
* *Village of the Giants*
* *The Giant Gila Monster*
* *The Brain That Wouldn't Die*
* *Eegah*
* *Teenagers from Outer Space*
* *Santa Claus Conquers the Martians*
* *Tormented*
* *Manos, the Hands of Fate*
* *Hercules and the Captive Women*

Additionally, some films featured on Movie Macabre were used by Cinematic Titanic (*Legacy of Blood*, *The Doomsday Machine*, and *Frankenstein's Castle Of Freaks*), The Film Crew (*Killers From Space*), and Rifftrax.

## Similar Projects

Starting in the mid-1980s, Elvira provided host segments for a series of home video releases called Thriller Video. The series included *The Human Duplicators* and *Blood Waters of Dr. Z* (released under the alternate title *Attack of the Swamp Creatures*).

In 2014, a new series of 13 episodes was produced for the on-line streaming service Hulu, which were made available over the last 13 days of October in an event called "Thirteen Nights of Elvira". One of the films selected was *Hobgoblins*.

## MST3K Connections

 File:MSTcomic.jpg
* A storyline that appeared in *Elvira Comics* in 1994-95 featured characters that were analogues of Joel Robinson, Tom Servo and Crow. They had been lured into a trap along with several other television movie hosts and were rescued by Elvira.
* In 1995, Frank Conniff co-wrote the prime time TV special *Attack of the Killer B Movies*, which starred Elvira. The 2-hour special featured heavily edited versions of the films *The Wasp Woman* (which had also been colorized), *Killers From Space* (also colorized), *Monster from the Green Hell*, and *The Navy vs. the Night Monsters* (starring Mamie Van Doren).
* Elvira appeared as a guest on an episode of "*Space Ghost Coast to Coast*".
* Frank Conniff made a passing reference to Elvira during the Cinematic Titanic presentation of *Blood of the Vampires*.