Elvira Pulls Back the Curtain on Her Beloved Halloween Persona, 40 Years Later
The Mistress of the Dark is making all our undead dreams come true.
Cassandra Peterson a.k.a. Elvira has been making audiences swoon, laugh and shiver in fear for over 40 years as a hilarious horror hostess. During the anniversary of debuting her “Santa Claus of Halloween” stage character, Peterson has made headlines with her same-sex relationship, tell-all memoir Yours Cruelly, Shudder and AMC+ streaming movie marathon Elvira’s 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special Special and taking over Netflix‘s social channels every Sunday in October for weekly Netflix & Chills events.
Even Melissa Joan Hart is hoping to collaborate with Elvira for a Sabrina the Teenage Witch crossover!
At age 70, it’s safe to say that Peterson is still the queen of Halloween—and she’s clearly just getting started with her second act. The B-movie scream queen revisited her O.G. series Elvira’s Movie Macabre, and exclusively spilled on why her character Elvira was never “accidentally funny.”
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Below, see inside Elvira’s epic world through the years as Peterson answers all our burning questions about being the Mistress of the Dark.
E! News: Congratulations on your 40th anniversary special. What was it like stepping back into Elvira for the Shudder and AMC+ movie marathon?
Cassandra Peterson: I hadn’t done it in quite a while. I think the last thing I did was for Hulu [with 13 Nights of Elvira] but that was quite a few years ago [in 2014]. So coming back and doing this again, my regular horror hosting gig, was really fun and exciting for me. I love doing it. I found a new writer, Eric Kornfeld, who is awesome. He has been a writer with Bette Midler for the past 20 years. I think the material is really funny. We had a blast doing it. It was kind of rushed and kind of low budget but I think we pulled it off. We’ve got four fantastic movies.
E! News: How did you pick the movies to be featured, from House on Haunted Hill, City of the Dead and Messiah of Evil, to your own Mistress of the Dark?
CP: I couldn’t believe it, Shudder really came up with this choice of movies, and of course I was thrilled it was Mistress of the Dark but I was equally as thrilled it was House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price because that was the movie I saw as a child that got me turned on to horror, and I think ultimately led me to this gig of being Elvira. So having that movie there was really nostalgic for me. I loved seeing it again—I’ve seen it a million times over the years, but seeing it again and then having my idol Vincent Price being in the movie, a guy that I just worshipped as a kid right up until the time he passed away…He was just a wonderful human being.
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E! News: Looking back, how did Elvira come to be?
CP: I started in comedy at the Groundlings Theater, which is a comedy improv group in L.A. I was there for four-and-a-half years. I also have seen myself as a comedian. I think a lot of other people don’t realize that. I mean, they know I’m funny but I think they think I’m funny accidentally. I actually studied and got that together, but it started out…
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