The film (co-written by Peterson) is truly amazing. It’s not so much a tribute to B-movies as it is to bimbodom, with Peterson decked out in two-foot tall wig, giant eyelashes, lightning bolt eyeliner, a glued-on dress that truly defies gravity, and a lineup of corny jokes that succeed in making more mileage than one ever thought possible out of D-cup innuendoes. It’s hard to dislike a woman who can offer up her own elegy: “Tell them I was more than a great pair of boobs – I was also a great pair of legs. And tell them I never turned down a friend – I never turned down a stranger for that matter. And when all is said and done, I only ask that people remember me by two simple words – any two’ll do, as long as they’re simple.” The film has no real pretence to be anything other than a series of rather obvious bad jokes, innuendoes and sight gags, something at which it at least proves entertaining. It makes a light-hearted dig at fundamentalism – the town for example is called Fallwell, Massachusetts – although it never takes its own stand-point very seriously, as evidenced by the end where Elvira is saved from the pyre and the locals come and apologize for setting her on fire. Nothing in the film though is as amazing as Elvira’s closing Las Vegas stage act, which involves a remarkably energetic display of her twirling tassels attached to the breasts of her costume.

Peterson has appeared in the Elvira persona in a number of other films and tv series. The Elvira Show (1993) was an attempt to spin a sitcom out around her, although this never went beyond a pilot. Peterson also appeared as Elvira in the IMAX short Encounter in the Thrid Dimension (1999). Elvira’s Haunted Hills (2001) was a film sequel to this.