by MATTHEW HAYS

The double entendres are all back, from the film’s title right down to multiple cheeseball one-liners. Elvira, the cult horror goddess played by Cassandra Peterson, has returned to the big screen with Elvira’s Haunted Hills, a film released directly to DVD just in time for this Halloween season.

In the film, Elvira plays herself, though this time the action’s set in medieval Europe. Elvira and her trusty servant find themselves trapped in a mansion full of creepy monstrous types. Shot in the style of an old Roger Corman movie, the film plays heavily on the history of the genre. Perhaps not as slutty as her ’88 cult masterpiece Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the film is still a crazy comic assault on all things fantastic and horrific.

Elvira has emerged as much more than a film star, of course. She’s got her own comic books, video games, CDs (carried by Rhino and which feature her singing all sorts of scary songs) and oversees her merchandising empire. She’s also very busy every October, appearing in full Elvira regalia at numerous public events.

Elvira was in town for the Comedia Film Fest last summer and agreed to sit down to chat with the Mirror about what took so long for her to make another movie, what keeps her so busy and what horrifies her. She did so on one condition: that the Mirror help to shamelessly hock her latest film! (Actually, we’re happy to do so; Haunted Hills is a welcome addition to any cult DVD collector’s library.)

Mirror: I loved the first film and I know it’s done very well on video. What took so long for anther movie?

Elvira: You don’t want to know! I’ve been trying to do another movie ever since Elvira, Mistress of the Dark came out. It sounds like sour grapes, but it’s true: that film did very well. When it opened it was no. 1 in L.A., no. 1 in NYC, no. 2 in San Francisco. What happened to that film was that the day it was released, it was supposed to be released in 1,200 cinemas, but our distribution company, New World, went bankrupt, that day. Suddenly it was cut to less than 300 from 1,200, and most of those theatres were in major centres. We were beating Gorillas in the Mist that weekend! But even if you’re a big success, you can’t win out in 300 cinemas. You wouldn’t be able to be the biggest blockbuster if you’re only in 300 cinemas. The perception of people is that the film didn’t do well, but it’s successful, it shows on TV every year, it’s done amazingly well on video. They still don’t want to believe it. I’ve been to every studio pitching projects, I’ve got a file cabinet full of scripts. One place I sold a script to went bankrupt. I did a pilot as Elvira that almost went, but didn’t. So it’s kind of a sad, long story. That’s why it took me so long. Screw this big studio stuff, we finally said, we can’t afford the years to get it moving. We’ll just do it on our own.

The birth of an icon

M: Can you tell me how you got your very first gig as Elvira?

E: I was in L.A. working with a comedy improv group called the Groundlings, with Phil Hartman and Paul Reubens. I was auditioning and acting wherever I could and there was this late-night horror host position being advertised. The host they had had died. I went on an audition and they saw me on the Groundlings. There were thousands of people auditioning for it, they’d advertised it in the papers so every freak on the street wanted to host this horror movie theatre. They said they wanted me for the part because of the comedy I was injecting into it. They liked the sexy and comedy elements I was bringing to it.

M: You’ve become a Halloween and horror icon, appearing all over as Elvira and starring in your own comic book as well as the TV appearances. Do you ever tire of Elvira?

E: I only get tired of putting on the makeup. It’s like being a clown, it’s so much more than girly-girl makeup. I don’t tire of the character, though. I’m always doing different things with the character. I do live shows, I write books, CDs, comic books, merchandising. So I do so many different things and a lot of different projects with her. The last two years of my life has been nothing but getting this film done.

M: I love the new film, Elvira’s Haunted Hills. Are you happy with how it turned out?

E: I’m very happy with the film and how it came out. The nice thing about being without a studio is that we had creative control, no one told us what to do. So we made it exactly how we wanted it. Our only limitation, of course, was money. Some things we wanted to do we couldn’t because of money. But having a low budget sort of lent itself to this movie. I like to say they’re special effects that aren’t so special. They’re really cheesy, just like old Roger Corman movies.

M: What up with your massive gay following?

E: I think about it all the time—these one-name women who are extremely strong and sexy. Madonna, Cher, Elvira—I like to put myself in their category—wish I was drawing the bucks in that they are! Really strong women who are also sexy, I think that’s the appeal. Really, how many straight men are in the audience for Cher? Two? It’s women, women really love it, and gay men. I don’t take no crap from nobody, I have an attitude and the very sexy look. Also, Elvira’s basically a drag queen, let’s face it. I got all the drag queen stuff going on, the wig, the makeup, the heels.

Sly subtexts

M: There’s a cool feminist subtext in your first film, one that inverts a lot of the traditional gender roles in horror movies. That beefy male keeps screwing up and you keep having to get him out of trouble. He exists much like many female characters do in traditional movies: like a sex object for your pleasure who’s actually rather dim. I liked that role reversal, it was very funny.

E: It’s the same thing in this film. The stud stable master, he’s the big stud, but he can’t help me at all. I have that line where I say, “Adrian, you came too late—again!” I yell at one point, “Do I have to do everything myself?” And it’s sort of like that, you can’t rely on a man to do anything for you. If you want to do it, do it yourself. Elvira gets into a lot of crap, but gets out of it herself too.

M: You look entirely different in person than you do as Elvira. Do you find casting calls difficult, as you’re so associated with her?

E: I don’t go on casting calls at all. I gave up. What they wanted was a six-foot amazon with big boobs who was 25 years old. There would be other women there who all looked like Elvira. They would want an Elvira type. It was annoying. I would look around and just realize I was in the wrong place. I quit going. I don’t have time to do anything else anyway, Elvira’s a full-time job! People must think I just do the Halloween gigs and then sit around the other 10 months of the year eating chocolate. It’s not like that! We now have an Elvira slot machine, for example, and I spent a lot of time helping in the design of that and then making public appearances to introduce it.

M: I’ve read you grew up around gay people. Tell me about your beginnings.

E: I was born in Kansas, believe it or not! Since I hit puberty, the guys I hung out with all seemed to be gay. I guess I was one of the original fag hags. Looking back now, I realize most of my childhood friends turned out to be gay. I felt competition from women and girls, which I thought was silly. Straight guys scared me. But I glommed onto gay men and they saved me. They taught me everything I know, how to dress, how to put on makeup, how to act.

A gay man played a very intrinsic role in putting Elvira together. My best friend Robert Redding designed Elvira’s whole look, basically, her hair, the costume. He was my best friend and he died of AIDS, so that’s why I’ve done so much AIDS-related charity work. AIDS decimated my entire social circle. People I’d known my entire life, gone. People who were like brothers to me. Young people seem to think it’s over, but lord knows, I’ve got friends who have it now and it’s still hell.

M: That’s an issue that people have gone to sleep about, sadly.

E: People want to be in denial about AIDS. The younger generation didn’t sit by the bedside of people dying, so they don’t think about it. People think it’s like gonorrhea now, it’s just so easy to get rid of. It’s not. People are running around with HIV now and they don’t know it, spreading it like crazy. I wish people would practice safe sex. Young people think they’re invincible. I tell you, that’s what horrifies Elvira. :

Elvira’s Haunted Hills is now available.
Info: www.elvira.com

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