Elvira's Movie Macabre: Gamera Super Monster / They Came From Outer Space

The beauty of this and the other Elvira Movie Macabre's IS the poor quality and corny jokes. Movie Macabre was my weekend treat. When I was a kid I didn't quite get the Elvira comments. Now, watching them, she is a bit more witty and acerbic than one would think. The WINK, WINK comments are hilarious. I hope more come out soon!

Gamera is ridiculously fun, in no small part due to its gaping plot holes (what kind of mother lets her 12 year old boy bring an injured woman to her house -- and let her son sleep in the same bed with her!) and its amazingly bad dubbing.

Almost as great in its badness is They Came from Beyond Space. This 1967 gem is nothing but unintentional laughs watching scientist Curtis Temple (Robert Hutton) try to save the woman he loves, then the world, from hooligans from outer space. There's a little more to the plot, but nothing important. In this type of movie, plot isn't important.

As fun as Gamera and Space are, they are even more enjoyable with the injection of Elvira and her humor at each "commercial break." As mentioned, up until watching these movies, I had never seen Elvira's show "Movie Macabre." Of course I had seen her. The woman is a machine, and genius, when it comes to marketing herself. There's a very good reason -- arguably two very good reasons -- why she can still be a major guest at a con 20 years after her show went off the air.

The best part about Elvira is she's not a "punny" horror host. In my (admittedly limited) experience, with the exception of Joe Bob Briggs, the hosts I have seen insist on being punny (think The Crypt Keeper from "Tales from the Crypt"). And I've never liked groaners, as they live up to their name. Instead of using weak -- and always obvious -- puns, the valley girl-esque Elvira pokes fun at the people and discrepancies in the feature film and her breaks are always amusing on some level. The best part about her is if she does resort to a groaner or pun, she cuts the camera a knowing look because she is quite aware how unfunny it is -- and that's what makes it funny. Laughter is not expected, but you end up smiling anyway because she's so damn likeable.

Both DVDs offer two ways to watch the movie -- either with or without Elvira. If you bought an "Elvira's Movie Macabre" disc to watch it without Elvira, you're a damn fool because she is the reason to buy these releases.

This was the first time I had seen Elvira besides the movie. While this is no MST3K, her jokes can be somewhat funny, but it is nice to have these movies that aren't normally available on dvd. The movies can be watched with or without Elvira which is also another nice added touch.