The legendary Mistress of the Night, Elvira was planning to make a comeback, but it seems she had no takers! The campy and vampy Elvira is basically the “drag queen” persona of Cassandra Peterson (even though she’s an actual woman), who rose to fame in the ’80s as the host of ‘Evira’s Movie Macabre’, on which she would introduce cheesy horror movies, with additional comedic “bumpers” in-between commercial breaks. She parlayed that success into a theatrical movie, ‘Elvira, Mistress of the Dark’, which is a cult classic, although at the time, it was a flop. At 67 years of age, Peterson still looks amazing and does occasionally still get dolled up in her classic cleavage-enhancing gown and poofy black wig, but don’t look to Netflix, Hulu, or Shudder to see her again. They all passed on an ‘Elvira’ revival.
It isn’t clear what Peterson was shopping around. It’s possible that she simply wanted an outlet to pick up her original ‘Movie Macabre’ series, although the rights may have been tricky, considering she was simply hosting films made by various studios. It’s also possible she was hoping to revive the concept. In 2014, she filmed 13 new episodes for Hulu, dubbed ’13 Nights of Elvira’. Fans have also been dogging her for years to make a sequel to her 1988 film.
On Instagram, she replied (via Movie Web):
“I’m giving this some serious thought. A LOT of people ask this question, so I’m thinking maybe one more … We’ll see!”
Back in January, Peterson reported that she was working on a deal with Netflix, with a “fingers crossed” emoji.
However, days ago, she reported via Twitter (tweets have since been deleted) that Netflix was a “no go.” Fans suggested the horror-specializing Shudder, but Peterson replied, “They said no too!”
One tweet that Peterson didn’t delete was this one:
So now what? pic.twitter.com/YWr1KfOpZ6
— Elvira (@TheRealElvira) August 27, 2019
It’s possible that Peterson deleted her initial posts because an opportunity presented itself, possibly from one of the previously disinterested parties. Also, it isn’t known why those outlets passed. Maybe she was asking for too much money, or there could be rights issues if she wanted to do another ‘Movie Macarbre’. Though it isn’t quite the same, Netflix presented a revival of ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’, but it doesn’t seem as though that was that successful, as no additional episodes were ordered after the initial batch. Perhaps Netflix didn’t see this “host of cheesy movies” format as profitable enough.
But stay tuned to see “now what” will happen to Elvira. Are you a fan? How would you like to see Elvira return?
