How the movie "Elvira - Mistress of the Dark" was filmed: 20 interesting facts about the film (16 photos)

"Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" is an American comedy film about a vamp woman who comes to a small town to find out about the will of her rich aunt Morgana. The film became an incredible hit among viewers, and the image of Elvira was remembered by viewers all over the world for a long time.





1. The film about Elvira was original, but the idea to make such a film did not arise from scratch. Back in the 50s, some otherworldly show by Maila Nurmi under the pseudonym Vampira was on American television.



In the 80s, television people decided to revive the show about Vampira. The only catch was that the actress Maila Nurmi was already over 60 years old, so it would not be very convenient to film her in this image. But she was offered a fee for the use of her image and name. Initially, Maila even agreed to these conditions, but then she left the project, due to the fact that television people refused to hire actress Lola Falana for the role of Vampira.

2. In the end, they took the female comedian Cassandra Peterson for the main role. This greatly outraged Maila Nurmi, because of which she even sued Cassandra. And after a long trial, the judge ruled that the characters had nothing in common except for the color black and the name, and that it was ridiculous to sue someone because someone simply wore a black dress.





Cassandra Peterson

The producers realized that Mayla would not leave it that way, so they decided to change the character's name to another. That's how Elvira came to be. Moreover, the name was chosen in an interesting way. Each member of the film crew wrote their name on a piece of paper, after which they threw their pieces of paper into a vessel. Cassandra took out one of the pieces of paper, on which was written "Elvira". Cassandra herself said that she did not like the name Elvira, but in any case, she was glad that now her heroine would have her own name.

3. In 1981, television people launched the show "Kinomrak with Elvira", which stayed on the air for as long as 5 years. It was a kind of collection of short horror films with sketches and comments from the main character.



4. The image of Elvira was created by Cassandra's close friend - makeup artist Robert Redding, who was inspired by the images from makeup books, and the voluminous hairstyle was inspired by the hairstyles of popular girl groups of the 50s.



Unfortunately, shortly before the start of filming, Bob Redding died, which was a huge loss for Cassandra. Therefore, she decided that the character in the film would be called Bob Redding. This role went to actor Daniel Greene. Later, Cassandra rejected all the hairstyles that other stylists offered her. She loved her friend too much.

5. Despite the fact that the show "Kinomrak with Elvira" was low-budget, it was noticed. Cassandra began to be invited to various significant events, and this image quickly began to gain popularity. Over time, accompanying merch (dolls, perfumes, clothes, calendars, etc.) began to appear, which made Elvira even more popular.



6. The producers decided to make a separate sitcom about Elvira, but Cassandra herself was against it. More precisely, she really liked the idea, but she wanted a separate full-length film about Elvira to be made before that.



NBC studio president Brandon Tartikoff found the idea interesting and agreed to make a separate film about Elvira. Moreover, he liked how Cassandra played the role of a biker in the film "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" (1985) by the aspiring director Tim Burton.

7. Cassandra wanted to take Tim Burton, with whom she had already worked, as director, but at that time he was already busy filming "Beetlejuice". Tartikoff then decided to bring in James Signorelli, who had previously mostly directed skits for Saturday Night Live, to direct.



8. Also, Cassandra wanted the actor Paul Reubens, who played Pee-wee in the aforementioned film "Pee-wee's Big Adventure", to appear in the film. But he was also busy filming the sequel about Pee-wee. Nevertheless, Paul Reubens could be seen in the film "Elvira - Mistress of the Dark", although it was only a doll that was in Elvira's dressing room. But Cassandra still managed to get several of her friends into the film, among whom were Eddie McClurg (gossip Chastity Paraya), Lyn Marystuart (barmaid), John Paragon (gas station attendant).



9. The script for the film was written by Cassandra Peterson herself in collaboration with John Paragon (her regular co-writer, who played the gas station attendant) and Sam Egan.

10. The director was strongly against the scriptwriters interfering in the creative process. And as a result, a considerable number of jokes were written by him personally. Moreover, he insisted that the scriptwriters be absent from the set (except for those moments when they themselves were filming).



11. Initially, there were no teenagers in the film. But in the end, it was decided to include young people in the film in order to attract a teenage audience to watch it. However, because of this, they had to cut some other scenes. And Tartikoff believes that because of this, they actually lost part of the target audience.



12. A young and unknown actor Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of one of the teenagers, but his candidacy was ultimately rejected by Cassandra Peterson herself. And it's not that she didn't like him. Quite the opposite. She thought he was too cute and handsome. And she thought that her heroine simply couldn't be interested in Daniel if Brad Pitt was on the horizon. It is noteworthy that a few years later (when Pitt became famous), the actor bought a mansion from Cassandra.

13. Elvira's hairstyle has its own hidden meaning. It was specially made in such a way as to hide the burns on the actress's neck and shoulders, which she received as a child.



14. The town where the events of the film take place was completely rebuilt at the Warner Bros. studio. But the facade of the building where the will was read out was real. It was the historic Hirsch House mansion, located in Los Angeles.

15. Remember the portrait of Elvira's great-aunt? In fact, it depicts Cassandra Peterson herself, but without her gothic makeup.



This portrait was painted by her friend Robert Redding, so its appearance in the film was another tribute to the makeup artist, who passed away before filming began.

16. One of the biggest challenges during filming was working with the poodle. According to members of the film crew, this was the most disobedient and capricious dog. She constantly bit and disrupted the filming.



As a result, some scenes had to be filmed either with a puppet of the dog, or using the method of combined shooting, since the dog could not perform even the simplest commands. And once he bit the assistant director so hard that he was left with a scar.

17. The car that Elvira drives is a converted 1958 T-Bird. It is noteworthy that the car itself was purchased for $2,500, while its conversion cost $7,000.



18. The film was supposed to be distributed by New World Pictures, but shortly before the release, the company went bankrupt. The filmmakers barely managed to get the film shown in a couple of hundred theaters, although it was originally planned that the film would be shown in more than 1,000 theaters.



19. With a budget of 7.5 million dollars, the film collected only 5.5 million at the box office. It was an obvious failure. Nevertheless, he managed to recoup all his expenses and even make money. Moreover, the film became a real hit. And all thanks to sales on video cassettes. Yes, there was a time when sales on video media could make up for poor box office receipts.

20. In 2001, a sequel to the film was released, but it turned out to be so unsuccessful that it completely failed at the box office, and in principle, few people know about it.