Elvira’s Haunted Hills  B+
By Kage Alan

“Evil. Terror. Lust.”

The year is 1851 and Elvira and Zou Zou, her French maid, are traveling through Romania on their way to gay Paris (though the straight men like her too) where she (Elvira) is to perform a show. After all, she’s an entertainer. Luck doesn’t seem to be on their side, though, and after narrowly escaping an irate innkeeper that pays hilarious homage to “The Shining”, they find themselves having to hitchhike. Fortunately, Dr. Bradley Bradley picks them up and carts them off to Castle Hellsubus for the night. Once there, they are introduced to family members who make The Addams Family look well adjusted. There’s Vladimere (Richard O’Brien, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”) who’s sensitive to light and sound, Ema with an attitude and face like a lemon and niece Roxanna who frequently faints and coughs up pieces of her lungs. It seems that the family is cursed, which started when Vladimere’s first wife committed suicide.

Well, nothing is ever as it seems and it begins to dawn on our fearless lodgers that perhaps the first wife didn’t commit suicide after all. Oh, and just guess who happens to be a spitting image of the late woman herself? Add to that mix an extremely attractive stable stud named Adrian whose voice NEVER matches his lips, so much like watching a dubbed foreign film that even Elvira looks at the camera and asks “How does he do that?”, and you’ve got yourself the perfect set-up for a 90 minute laugh fest.

This is a total camp film with a number of puns, opportunities for physical comedy (such as all the items Zou Zou is able to keep stored between her bosoms), verbal insults, chances for Elvira (who remains gay friendly to this day) to address the audience, a fantastic musical number and, yes, plenty of breast jokes. Fortunately, Elvira is more than the sum of those jokes and always steals the show when she’s on the screen. Her supporting cast members never overshadow her, but rather compliment her performance wonderfully. The DVD contains a 22-minute featurette, Richard O’Brien interview and photo gallery.