THE FIRST GOTHIC PRINCESSES
ELVIRA (Gothic period)
Let's remember that in one of the previous sections, I referred to Elvira (a sui generis case that lies between the pre-Gothic and the Gothic), the presenter of horror movies series B, who had reached American fame with her show for television: Elvira´s movie macabre, in 1981.
But international success was lacking, a film was needed. Unfortunately, the actress Maila Nurmi, who played Vampira decades ago, had sued the producers of Elvira's show for appropriating her image without her consent.
The lawsuit delayed the project of the film and when in the end everything was aired in Elvira's favour, no matter how much haste they had, in the end the film was released a few months after Tim Burton's film: Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice - March 30, 1988; Elvira, mistress of the dark - September 30, 1988).
Unlike the studio war between The Addams and the Munster family, in the case of Tim Burton's film and Elvira's film, there was no confrontation, it was simply a coincidence that both were released the same year.
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The film would be called: Elvira, mistress of the dark. In which, the protagonist in order to collect an inheritance, travels to a small town where the inhabitants are xenophobic to the core and make her life impossible.
In the end, Elvira saves the people (and perhaps the whole world) by confronting the true villain played by the well-known actor: William Morgan Sheppard, who under a mask of a respectable citizen and pillar of the community, hides his satanic nature.
At the end of the film, Elvira looks at the screen and says goodbye with her famous phrase: " May you have sweet nightmares ".
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For the project it was not necessary for Elvira to change clothes or personality. With what the film may well be described as a family comedy, however, just as in her show, the irreverent, two-way jokes with sexual content and unexpected horror scenes are present in the filming, which would eventually catapult Elvira's character to international fame.
An interesting aspect of the film is that Cassandra Peterson would take advantage of her previous experience in showgirl and dancer work to give us one of the most memorable scenes at the end of the film.
Elvira achieves her dream of dancing in a Vegas show. The show itself is an erotic dance, with good taste but with very dynamic and aggressive characteristics, something that would never have been dreamt of by any of the pre-Gothic actresses that preceded her and that only Cassandra would dare to perform, achieving total success in the process.
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Since in this work I consider the year 1982 to determine what is encased in the pre-Gothic of the Gothic itself. And considering that Lydia Deetz appeared almost six months before Elvira on the big screen, I can conclude that Elvira ranks second among the first Gothic princesses. Bad luck, Elvira, but second place isn't bad, not bad at all.
Long live to the Mistress of the Dark!
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Curiosities:
Elvira would produce a sequel: Elvira´s haunted hills in 2001, which is practically a parody of the old films of the English company Hammer, specializing in horror and vampire films with Christopher Lee (who played several times Dracula, Lord of the Rings' Sauron, and Count Doku in Star Wars).
Elvira had a couple of games, the most popular without a doubt: "Elvira 2: jaws of cerberus", a puzzle and horror game by the company Horror Soft, distributed by Accoelade in the 90's, the golden decade of computer games with their graphic adventures and more like the present game.
CONTINUARÁ…
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