Elvira's Haunted Hills

A better-than-it-oughta-be tribute to the Roger Corman-Edgar Allen Poe "classics" (it's even dedicated to Vincent Price), this horror-comedy doesn't go for the usual obvious laughs at the expense of cheap-looking monsters -- unless you count Elvira's hooters -- and deliberately bad acting, but rather by placing an anachronistic American TV horror hostess (the tit-ular Elvira, a.k.a. co-writer Cassandra Peterson) in 19th-century Europe to make cheesy double entendres (think the film's title's a groaner? You ain't heard nothing yet!) while poking around a haunted castle owned by Vladimere Hellsubus (Richard O'Brien, creepy as usual). Turns out Elvira may be the reincarnation of his dead wife Elura (played by "?," according to the end credits), who was either a mad woman or the victim of some dreadful curse. Don't go to this movie looking to be actually scared, but as a gothic romp it's surprisingly effective. And the dubbed-into-English European love interest is a scream.