Here are a couple of big things I noticed in the Elvira: Mistress of the Dark movie.

§ July 18th, 2016 § Filed under movie reviews § 6 Comments

So just on a whim (mostly because I was reminded of the film the other day and that I hadn’t seen it) I rented 1988’s Elvira: Mistress of the Dark from Netflix, and…well, it was amusing enough, I suppose. Elvira’s always likeable (unless, I guess, if you’re Vampira) even when the material is a bit slight, and even though my brain is still refusing to process the ending musical/dance number, it’s overall a watchable, silly movie.

However, there are a couple of things I wanted to point out. First, in the bowling alley scene, we are introduced to the bad guy’s goons (one of whom is the late Jeff Conaway of Taxi and Babylon 5 fame). To demonstrate that at least one of said goons is a slow-witted dolt, he is of course given a comic book to read:

elviram1
And it isn’t just any ol’ comic book…it’s Amazing Spider-Man #299, also from 1988, featuring Todd McFarlane’s second art job on the title, as well as featuring Venom’s first “on-screen” appearance in a panel or two:

amazing299cvr
That’s worth a small amount of money nowadays, so as the fella in the still above was manhandling the comic something fierce, Mr. Comic Shop Owner here was cringing a bit. And then Jeff Conaway ripped the comic out of that guy’s hands and tore it in half:

elviram2
URGH.

Well, I suppose it could have been worse. If they’d filmed this scene a few weeks later, it might have been Amazing Spider-Man #300 that the prop guy bought off the rack at the local 7-11 and we could have been watching a comic that now regularly sells for two or three hundred bucks being torn in half. In a looping GIF. Forever and ever. Pinned to the top of this site.

Second thing I noticed:

elviram3
Sure were a lot of boob jokes in this film. Who would have guessed?

6 Responses to “Here are a couple of big things I noticed in the Elvira: Mistress of the Dark movie.”

  • Yeah…I’ve always chafed when “comic reading” is the visual shorthand for “he am not smart”.

    And don’t get me started on mishandling of comics on screen:

    Ahem…
    I present you with not ONE, but TWO instances of THAT 70s SHOW, Ashton Kutcher meatpawing classic comics (a Spider-Man issue featuring Doctor Strange & an Astonishing Tales featuring Ka-Zar & Man-thing)

    http://sanctumsanctorumcomix.blogspot.com/2010/09/that-70s-show-enter-dr-strange-or-doc.html?m=0

    http://sanctumsanctorumcomix.blogspot.com/2011/01/that-70s-show-mark-of-man-thing-or.html?m=0

    As for Elvira… I enjoyed her FIRST movie enough that when I saw that AND her SECOND film in a discount bin, I grabbed both her wares.

    …what?

    Btw, her 2nd flick was called “Elvira’s Haunted Hills”, . But I don’t recall seeing any hills…OH!

  • Thwacko says:

    It appears that was a direct market edition, and not purchased at a 7-11.

  • James says:

    I had to remind myself of what Jeff Conaway looked like, and in most of his google images, he has his mouth open and his teeth showing prominently. My immediate thought was he looked like a Rob Liefeld character.

  • Arynne says:

    I remember him best from Babylon 5, but to my mom he’ll always be Kenickie in Grease — “Hey, a hickie from Kenickie’s like a Hallmark Card: ‘When you care enough to send the very best’.”

  • Bryan says:

    I started buying “Amazing Spider-Man” around issue 271 and bought it monthly until issue 299. I saw issue 300 at the grocery store, but the only copy was on the floor, covered in salt and dirty snow tracked in off customers’ boots, so I didn’t buy it*. Try and get THAT image outta yer head, Comic Book Seller!

    *I think I also thought at 11-years-old that I was outgrowing comics, which I held as a thought until around six months later when I was in a convenience store and I saw a MacFarlane-drawn battle between the Green Goblin and Hobgoblin on a ASM cover, and got sucked back in again. Those were the days….

  • Andrew Leal says:

    For the record, the other goon is character actor Frank Collison, who has spent much of his career playing slow, often rural types (or just those who come off that way): a yoyoing projectionist consumed by THE BLOB (1988), telegrapher Horace on DR. QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN, Wash Hogwallop (what a name) in O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU, Ed Gein’s brother (and victim) in HITCHCOCK, one of the weirdo townspeople in THE VILLAGE, etc. My favorite credit on his CV: “Armenian Robber #3.”