Elvira's Movie Macabre: Difference between revisions

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'''''Elvira's Movie Macabre''''' (titled on-screen as '''''Movie Macabre with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark''''' in its original run), or simply '''''Movie Macabre''''', is an American [[Horror host|hosted]] [[horror movie]] television program that originally aired locally from 1981 to 1986. The show features [[B movie]]s, particularly those in the horror and [[Science fiction film|science fiction]] genres, and is hosted by Elvira, a character with a black dress and heaven bump hairstyle, played by [[Cassandra Peterson]]. Elvira occasionally interrupts the films with comments and jokes, and in some episodes receives phone calls from a character called "the Breather" ([[John Paragon]]).

In the late spring of 1981, six years after the death of [[Larry Vincent]], (who starred as host Sinister Seymour of a local [[Los Angeles]] weekend horror show called ''[[Fright Night (TV seriesshow)|Fright Night]]''), show producers began theto task of bringingbring the show back.<ref>{{cite Decidingweb to|last=Boone use|first=Brian a|title=What female hostElvira, producersMistress asked 1950s [[horror host]]ess, [[Maila Nurmi]], to revive ''[[The Vampira Show]]''. Nurmi worked onof the projectDark forLooks aLike shortToday time, but eventually quit when the producers would not hire [[Lola Falana]] to play Vampira|url=https://www. The station continued with the project and sent out a casting callnickiswift. Peterson auditioned against 200 other horror hostess hopefuls and won com/136138/what-elvira-mistress-of-the-dark-looks-like-today/ role.|website=Nicki ProducersSwift left|access-date=October it3, up2021 to her to create the role's image. She and her best|date=October friend23, Robert Redding, came up with the sexy punk2018}}</vampire look after producers rejected her original idea to look like [[Sharon Tate]] in ''[[The Fearless Vampire Killers]]''.ref>

Shortly before the first taping, producers received a [[cease and desist]] letter from Nurmi. Besides the similarities in the format and costumes, Elvira's closing line for each show, wishing her audience "Unpleasant dreams"," was notably similar to Vampira's closer: "Bad dreams, darlings..." uttered as she walked off down a misty corridor. The court ruled in favor of Peterson, holding that "'likeness' means actual representation of another person's appearance, and not simply close resemblance." Peterson claimed that Elvira was nothing like Vampira aside from the basic design of the black dress and black hair. Nurmi claimed that Vampira's image was based on [[Morticia Addams]], a character in [[Charles Addams]]'s cartoons that appeared in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vampirathemovie.com/nurmi-v-peterson/ |title=Nurmi v. Peterson |date=March 25, 2007 |website=Vampira: The Movie |access-date=3 October 2021 |archive-date=3 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211003142451/https://www.vampirathemovie.com/nurmi-v-peterson/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

ThePeterson's Elvira character rapidly gained notorietynotice with her tight-fitting, low-cut black gown which showed ample, cleavage. The movies featured on ''Elvira's Movie Macabre'' were always B-gradedisplaying ([[Zblack movie|or lower]]). Elvira reclined on a red Victorian couch, introducing and often interrupting the movie to lampoon the actors, the script, and the editinggown. Adopting the flippant tone of a California "[[Valley girl]]", she brought a satirical, sarcastic edge to her commentary. She reveled in dropping risqué double entendres and making frequent jokes about her display of cleavage. In an ''AOL Entertainment News'' interview, Peterson said, "I figured out that Elvira is me when I was a teenager. She's a spastic girl. I just say what I feel and people seem to enjoy it." Her campycamp humor, sex appeal, and good-natured self-mockery made her popular with late-night movie viewers, and her popularity soared.<ref name="about">{{cite web |url=https://movieweb.com/person/cassandra-peterson/ |title=About Cassandra Peterson |website=[[MovieWeb]] |access-date=3 October 2021}}</ref>

The Elvira character rapidly evolved from obscure cult figure to a lucrative brand name. andShe "Mistresswas ofassociated all Media", spawningwith many products throughoutthrough the 1980s and 1990s, including [[Halloween]] costumes, comic books,<ref>[http://www.comics.org/series/3147/''Elvira's House of Mystery''] [[DC Comics]] (11 issues) at the [[Grand Comics Database]]</ref><ref>[http://www.comics.org/series/4907/''Elvira, Mistress of the Dark''] [[Claypool Comics]] (166 issues) at the Grand Comics Database</ref> action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, Halloween decor, model kits, calendars, perfume and dolls. She has appeared on the cover of ''[[Femme Fatales (magazine)|Femme Fatales]]'' magazine five times. Her popularity reached its zenith with the release of the feature film ''[[Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (film)|Elvira, Mistress of the Dark]]'', on whose script, (co-written bydirectly for the screen, Peterson) (collaborated with [[John Paragon]] and Sam Egan.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pierce-Steinmetz |first=Johanna |title='Elvira' True to Star's Deadpan Humor Trademark |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988)-09-30-8802030362-story.html |website=[[The Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=October 3, 2021 |date=September 30, 1988}}</ref>

| 20||''[[Daddy'sPigs Deadly(1973 Darlingfilm)|Pigs]]''||98||June 17, 1984

| 09||''[[Strait-Dark Sanity|Straight Jacket]]''||129||August 17, 1986

| s1e06||''[[Scared to Death (1947 film)|Scared to Death]]''||6||October 25, 2010

| s1e09||''[[Teenagers from Outer Space (film)|Teenagers from Outer Space]]''||9||November 15, 2010

| s1e21||''[[Attack of the Giant Leeches]]''||21||Unairedunaired

| s1e22||''[[Beast from Haunted Cave]]''||22||Unairedunaired

| s1e23||''[[Monster from a Prehistoric Planet]]''||23||Unairedunaired

| s1e24||''[[The Killer Shrews]]''||24||Unairedunaired

| s1e25||''[[The Wasp Woman]]''||25||Unairedunaired

| s1e26||''[[The Wild Women of Wongo]]''||26||Unairedunaired

To celebrate the original show's 40th anniversary, Cassandra Peterson revived her role for a special one-night movie marathon, which premiered live on Shudder, the horror streaming service. The special came out on September 25, 2021, the same week as her memoir, ''Cruelly Yours Cruelly, Elvira.''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/09/23/elvira-cassandra-peterson-halloween-horror-special-film-shudder/ |title=Newly-out Queer Icon Elvira celebrates 40th Anniversary with 'Very Special' Event |last=Yates |first=Jonny |date=September 23, 2010 |work=[[PinkNews]] |access-date=October 5, 2021}}</ref>

! !!Film shown!!Year Mademade

| 01||''[[Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (film)|Elvira,: Mistress Ofof Thethe Dark]]''||1988

| 02||''[[House on Haunted Hill|House On Haunted Hill]]''||1959

| 03||''[[The City of the Dead (film)|The City Ofof Thethe Dead]]''||1960

| 04||''[[Messiah of Evil|Messiah Of Evil]]''||1973

In 2004, Time Life released a series of three special Elvira DVDs titled ''Elvira's Horror Classics'', which was done in a similar fashion to ''Movie Macabre''. EachThere DVD hadwere twoseven films andtotal theyin werethe laterseries. re-releasedThere inwas a 3-DVD box set for six of the seven films titled ''Elvira's Box of Horrors''. This box set consists of three double feature DVDs. The films featured were all in the public domain. They included:

* ''[[The Little Shop of Horrors]]'' and ''[[The Brain That Wouldn't Die]]''

* ''[[NightDementia of13]]'' theand Living''[[Carnival Deadof Souls]]''

* ''[[House on Haunted Hill]]'' and ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''

* ''[[Scared to Death (1947 film)|Scared to Death]]'' and ''[[Tormented (1960 film)|Tormented]]''

====FourQuadruple feature sets====

* ''Giant Monsters'' featuring ''[[The Giant Gila Monster]]'', ''[[Attack of the Giant Leeches]]'' (previously unaired), ''[[Teenagers from Outer Space (film)|Teenagers from Outer Space]]'', and ''[[Daikyojū Gappa|Monster from a Prehistoric Planet]]'' (previously unaired)