The film's screenplay, written by Peterson, John Paragon, and Sam Egan,[3] follows Elvira inheriting a house nestled in the heart of an overtly prudish community.
Buxom Los Angeles TV horror hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, quits her job after the station's new owner sexually harasses her.
In Fallwell, Elvira's worldly attitude and revealing clothes set the conservative town council against her, but theater operator Bob Redding befriends her.
As his sole living relative, Elvira has inherited Vincent's estate, which allows her to open her show in Las Vegas, where she performs a lavishly-produced musical number.
[7] Tartikoff later finalized a deal for NBC to produce a film,[8] which would possibly be followed up with sequels,[9] and eventually a TV series[10] but he ended up leaving the network before a show materialized.
[11] Peterson and frequent writing collaborator John Paragon met in the comedy troupe The Groundlings, and he worked his way up from recurring guest-star to writer on her Movie Macabre series.
[12] Sam Egan was brought into the fold because he was an experienced TV writer[13] and had impressed Peterson with his script for The Fall Guy episode "October the 31st," which he had written explicitly for her.
[14] Tartikoff pushed for a storyline similar to Harper Valley PTA,[15] and after the first draft was turned in, the writers were forced to add a group of teenagers,[16] which resulted in reducing screen time for all of the other characters.
[17][18] After appearing in a small part in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Peterson thought Tim Burton was the perfect choice to direct her film, but he got tied up with the production of Beetlejuice.
[25][26][27] Many roles were played by Cassandra Peterson's associates from The Groundlings, including Edie McClurg (Chastity Pariah), Tress MacNeille (Anchorwoman), Joey Arias (Hitchhiker), Lynne Marie Stewart (Bartender), Deryl Carroll (Charlie), and co-writer John Paragon (Gas Station Attendant).
[44] The first scenes were shot at a bowling alley in Montrose, California,[45] and Peterson worried about beginning the production with her character's big monologue,[12] but much bigger stresses were soon to follow.
The dog also bit Kurt Fuller's ankle too hard, leaving permanent scars on the actor, and certain scenes had to dubbed over to mask the trainer's commands.
[50] The goofy ditty "Chicken Fried Steak", which is faintly heard at the gas station, was an original composition written and performed by the founder of The Groundlings.
[51] There was no soundtrack album and the majority of songs have never been issued, but "Here I Am" and two different versions of Lori Chako's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" eventually surfaced on the digital compilation Elvira's Gravest Hits.
The website's consensus reads: "A gothic, campy, raunchy comedy elevated by Cassandra Peterson's iconic persona yet driven off course by one-note jokes, this isn't the best — or worst — introduction to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
(...) [Elvira is] fun, a Transylvania Valley Girl grown up into the Queen of the Bs, but after 96 minutes you may start thinking more fondly about those '50s and '60s camp classics she's usually interspersed with.
"[56] Anthony Arrigo said in Dread Central in 2020 that "Elvira managed to make a seemingly oxymoronic character into a household name, built off her bountiful looks, quick wit, and indefatigable charisma.
The film received a Razzie Award nomination for Cassandra Peterson as Worst Actress in 1989, losing to Liza Minnelli for both Arthur 2: On the Rocks and Rent-a-Cop.
[69][70] The script for Elvira's Haunted Hills was written in the late 1990s, but after spending three years trying to get Hollywood to produce the project, she and then-husband Mark Pierson decided to finance it themselves.
Elvira returned the following year with an increased role in Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!, in which she spends the bulk of in a flat-top variation of the Macabremobile and dispatches another monster with a stiletto to the forehead.