It was late last summer 2002 when the word went out. The long awaited second film featuring that busty babe in black, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, was finally ready for its release in a theater near you.

But don't be too surprised, kiddies, if you were among those who never saw it. Despite a Herculean effort by Elvira's alter ego, Cassandra Peterson and her husband and long-time producer, Mark Pierson, the new movie, "Elvira's Haunted Hills," never made it to more than a handful art and revival theaters across the country. Despite the continuing popularly of the babe on the couch who became famous hosting some of the worst horror flicks ever made on her television show, "Movie Macabre," Elvira's new film failed to attract an distributor willing test her popularity at the box office, and the mistress was left out in the dark.

But take heart. Even if you weren't among those who attended one of the midnight showings, "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is currently available at your favorite video rental store on VHS and DVD.

While most of "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is cleverly written by Cassandra Peterson and her long-time partner John Paragon, funny and in some places downright hilarious, it's easy to see why distributors and exhibitors might have been reluctant to take a chance on it. The problem isn't the script, sets, direction or production values of the film. The problem is the Mistress. After 20 years of vamping, Elvira is starting to look a little frayed around the edges, and the naughty valley girl thing seems more desperate than cute. To put it bluntly, what was once proud and perky is now beginning to droop.

But if you can get past a 50-year old woman trying – by the use of lighting, camera angles and two tons of make-up -- to look and act like a 21-year old, "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is an interesting little film. Essentially, it's a send up of all the old Roger Corman/Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe flicks of the mid to late 1960s that Elvira once hosted on "Movie Macabre." There're bits and pieces of everything from "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Raven" to "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Premature Burial," all done in grand style and with tongue planted firmly in cheek. It even includes a Barbara Steele look-alike and a hunky stable stud with a purposely dubbed-in voice. And there's sight gags too, like the creepy psycho that gets sliced in half by his own pendulum, or my favorite, the dramatic scene in which the Usher-type house sinks into the mire, only it does it exactly like the Titanic. And then there's the scene where Elvira tastes the mutton and complains about the over amount of Tabasco in it only to be told that it's "the master's chamber pot."

Actually, "Elvira's Haunted Hills" has a lot going for it. It's funny, it's nicely paced, appropriately atmospheric and it's well written considering the genre. If it had been made ten years ago as a follow-up to the theatrically successful "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark," it wouldn't have had a single problem finding its way into your local theater. But despite the attempt at re-claiming the years of former glory, Elvira's flick comes off as a sort of "Sunset Boulevard" for the Mistress of the Dark. It reminded me of Goldie Hawn's last flick, in which she tried to pull off the same kind of cute she's done for years only to come off looking like a sad middle-aged woman in a halter top at a single's bar or like Clint Eastwood who, at age 70, tried to pull off a role that had obviously been written for a 40-year old in "True Crime."

It's interesting to note that both Peterson and Eastwood wrote the roles that time has rendered them unable to effectively play, which is pretty much the same mistake Sylvester Stallone is about to make by writing himself – at 56-years old – back into role of boxer Rocky Balboa for one last sequel. What's he going to do, beat up the recreation director at the retirement home? Even heavyweight champion George Forman knew when it was time to hang up the gloves and sell grease-less grills instead.

But to see the film that will doubtlessly serve as the swansong of an 80's Halloween icon, "Elvira's Haunted Hills" is available on DVD and VHS from Good Times Video.