Lady Ema Hellsubus (Mary Scheer) is the hidden villainess in the 2001 comedy horror film "Elvira's Haunted Hills". The film uses a number of Edgar Allan Poe stories as motivation, such as "The House of Usher", "The Raven", and "Pit and the Pendulum".
Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) finds herself stranded in the Carpathia Mountains of Romania in 1851. She is being attended by her maidservant Zou Zou (Mary Jo Smith) enroute to Paris for a can-can revue. The owner of the coach that breaks down is owned by Dr. Bradley Bradley (Scott Atkinson), and he takes them to stay at the caslte of Lord Vladimere Hellsubus (Richard O'Brien).
Lady Ema Hellsubus first appeared at the door of the castle, when she answered the knock from Dr. Bradley and Elvira. Lady Ema immediately acts like she sees a ghost and lets out a blood curdling scream. Lady Ema says that it is because Elvira is so pretty, but in reality it is because Elvira looks exactly like Lord Hellsubus' first wife, Lady Elura Hellsubus.
Lady Ema asks Elvira to remove her cloak, her gloves, and finally her shoes, due to Vladimere being super sensitive to sound. When Elvira meets Vladimere, he is also terrorized by her similarity to his first wife.
While taking Elvira to her room, she is introduced to Vladimere's niece, Lady Roxanna Hellsubus (Heather Hopper), who faints. Roxanna sufferes from catalepsy, a condition that is characterized by a trance or seizure with a loss of consciousness. It is learned that this condition runs in the family.
While Dr. Bradley says goodnight to Elvira, Lady Ema is seen spying on her, which is a little bizare.
The next morning, Dr. Bradley is called away on business, and is unable to give Elvira a ride. Elvira goes exploring and finds the stable stud Adrian (Gabriel Andronache) and the two of them hit it off. On her way back to the castle she runs into Lord Valdimere, who explains that Elura killed herself by throwing herself off the castle wall.
During a seance, Elvira is possessed by Vladimere's first wife Elura, which frightens not only Vladimere, but also Lady Ema, Lady Roxanna, and Dr. Bradley.
It is later learned that Lady Ema is having an affair with Dr. Bradley, and the two of them are seen in bed together. Not only that, but they are gaslighting Vladimere, which means that they are using psychological manipulation in order to sow seeds of doubt in Vladimere. This really is not needed, since Vladimere has a split personality. One personality thinks that his first wife, Elura killed herself, and the other knows the truth, that she was having an affair with his brother. Therefore, Vladimere walled Elura into the basement to die there.
Elvira discovers a torture chamber located in the dungeon where Zou Zou has been left in a cage. While helping her, Vladimere surprises her from behind. Vladimere believes Elvira to be Elura and the two begin a struggle. Elvira is able to fight him off by giving him a kick to the groin, which gets him into the catalepsy state. Just then, Dr. Bradley and Elura come down the stairs into the dungeon. Elvira hides, and when Elura sees Vladimere seemingly to be dead, she begins laughing. She recites to Bradley that their plan has worked, and they can now take the family jewels and estate for themselves. With the help of Bradley, they could have him committed as insane.
When Elvira tries to sneak away, Elura and Dr. Bradley chain her up to the rack and begin stretching her. When Vladimere wakes up, he kills Dr. Bradley. Then he turns to Ema and uses a spear to force her into an iron maiden. When Ema is trapped, he locks the door. However, Ema tells Vladimere that she is not Elura, that Elvira is, and points to her on the rack.
Vladimere ties her to another table and begins turning a large wheel, which sets in motion a pendelum with a large blade attached. Elvira is able to escape when the blade across her ample cleavage is cut.
Roxanna attacks Vladimere and the two of them fight. Roxanna falls to her death, while Vladimere is sliced to death by the blade on the pendelum. The castle around them is beginning to rumble, and a large crack is beginning to form in the foundation. As a result, the castle is about to sink into the abyss.
Adrian the stable stud comes to Elvira's rescue, but not before Vladimere has already been killed. The two of them rescue Zou Zou and flee the castle. However, they overhear a blood curdling scream from Lady Ema who is still trapped in the iron maiden. Adrian despite the plea from Elvira to ignore her screams, is unable to so. It turns out that Adrian is the illegitimate brother of Lady Ema. As a result, Adrian runs back into the castle as it is crumbling. Large blocks crumble down upon Adrian, and we see the castle from a distance begin sinking and dispearring from view.
Trivia[]
- Lady Ema Hellsubus's death is similar to that of Elizabeth Barnard Medina (Barbara Steele) in the 1961 horror film, "The Pit and the Pendulum".
- Mary Scheer appeared as Gladys in 25 episodes of the 2015 Disney Channel TV series "Bunk'd".
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