YMMV / Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Early in the movie, Elvira is at a gas station that explodes just as she leaves (Elvira left the gas pump on the ground in irritation at the lazy attendant, who then unknowingly flicked his cigarette into the gas). Not only is this never mentioned again, and completely superfluous to the plot, but Elvira doesn't seem at all freaked out by it.
• Crosses the Line Twice: As the townspeople attempt to burn Elvira as a witch, some of the town's children can be seen roasting marshmallows on the same fire.
• Cult Classic: In spite of the film's campiness (or rather, because) and the mixed and negative reviews it received from critics, it still has a number of fans who watch it for the laughs.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Tress MacNeille appears as an anchorwoman who butts heads with Elvira. Years later, she would play Boobarella, a parody of Elvira, on The Simpsons.
  • The scene where Robin eyes Elvira from the legs up and Elvira not being fazed by the girl staring at her becomes this due to Peterson's own coming out as LGBTQ in late 2021.
• Moral Event Horizon: Vincent Talbot crosses it when he and the townspeople attempted to burn Elvira at the stake for witchcraft.
• Narm Charm: The film is intentionally cheesy and ridiculous, but quite a few people like it for just these reasons.
• Nightmare Fuel: Being a horror comedy parody film, it still has its dark moments:
  • The 1950's science fiction clip in the opening. That alien monster.
  • The woman's screams for help as she is helpless against the space monster killing her.
  • One man attempts to rid the planet earth of the space monster by taking a blow torch to it's eye, causing the creature's eyesocket to gush blood. The man dies by the monster's tendrils not long after.
  • When a hitchhiker tries something on Elvira, she throws him out and tosses his ax at him. And his screams of pain are heard off-screen.
  • The opening title sequence set to rock music, organ noises and the sound of a wolf howling.
  • The gas station explosion. Though out of place, it is still unnerving. Especially Elvira's nonchalant reaction to the scene as she drives away.
  • Elvira's nightmare of her encountering a rotting elderly ghoul inside of her home the first night she slept there. The ghoul calling out for Elvira, "Elvira! Elvira!". That Jumpscare in the mirror with the ghoul facing Elvira and Elvira's screaming.
  • When Vincent Talbot returns to his secret chambers, dawns a red cloak and vows to kill Elvira like he did to her mother. Then he lets out an evil eerie laugh while the darkened room lights up from thunder crashing and fog lifting from the floors.
  • Every time Gonk's eyes glow red as a familiar.
  • Elvira's humiliation prank being doused in tar and feathers courtesy of her rival Patty. It almost blinds her and she has to bathe in gasoline to remove the tar. Afterwards she advises her friends not to smoke for she is now clean but flammable.
  • Elvira's home cook dinner for her love interest Bob. Gone horribly wrong. What happens when you mistake a spell book for a cook book. As soon as she presents dinner, a monster pops out of the pot snarling, growling and attempting to claw Elvira and Bob. Then the creature has to be killed via the sink garbage disposal.
  • Elvira attempting to work a spell on money in her attic. Only for Bob to turn on a light and Elvira to find a python in her hands. As soon as she panics and the snake hits the floor, it combusts into flames.
  • Elvira almost being burned at the stake alive due to accusations of witchcraft.
  • When Elvira is cornered helpless in the graveyard by Talbot. The scared look on her eyes and then the creepy close-up of his mouth as he speaks in a evil foreign language to her. He's got fangs!
  • Talbot frailing his arms around violently, shooting off charges of electricity that almost hit Elvira. As he attempted to remove a high heel embedded in his forehead.
  • One of Talbot's henchmen dies screaming in pain as Elvira tosses a can of leeches onto him that suck him to death of his blood.
  • Talbot screaming in pain as his arm gets sliced off by one of Elvira's wall trophies.
  • Talbot attempting to strangle his own great-niece to death. For a spell book, for dark power.
• The Woobie: Elvira herself: She gets fired for not giving her Slimeball boss sexual favors. She then has to go to Fallwell, Massachusetts to get an inheritance and the town leaders treat her badly just because she's different and they assume she must be a bad person, and try to make her life miserable even though she never did anything to them. This became Harsher in Hindsight after Cassandra Peterson came out in 2021.