_**Elvira returns to the silver screen after 13 years**_ Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) is traveling through the Carpathian Mountains in 1851 with her servant (Mary Jo Smith). They’re on their way to Paris when they’re invited to spend the night at the creepy Hellsubus castle by a physician (Scott Atkinson). Richard O'Brien plays the tormented lord of the manor while Mary Scheer appears as his dubious wife. Heather Hopper is on hand as their cute niece, the poster child for catalepsy. “Elvira’s Haunted Hills” (2001) is the follow-up to “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” (1988), the latter of which was a fun flick but failed at the box office due to its main distributing company going under just before it was scheduled to be released (it was supposed to show at 2500 theaters, but only made it to 500). Cassandra couldn’t get studio funding for this prequel and so she & her then-husband put up $1 million with an additional $500,000 from relatives. As such, this movie cost 6 times LESS than the previous one from 13 years earlier (factoring in inflation). While there’s a 13 year gap between these two films and Cassandra was 49 years-old during shooting, you wouldn’t know it by her fit form & all-around animated beauty. Another plus is the authentic Transylvania locations with a real castle (although the indoor scenes were obviously shot on studio sets). Despite the gross lack of fu…

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