It's more the opposite. Petersen was a regular at comedy improv and she pretty much designed her character herself, based on her love of everything horror pulp.

Are we talking kayfabe? Like RoUS says, I think Cassandra genuinely loves horror, just as Arino genuinely loves games. In-universe, I don't know. I don't know enough about the Elviraverse to say for sure; I never detected any subtextual hatred for the genre in any of her films, but there is that sort of chipper campiness throughout that feels at odds with the general goals of Horror. Compare this to, say, Rob Zombie, who also has a somewhat campy postmodern relationship with Horror, but really does seem to revel in the sickness and scariness of the genre! When Rob comments on Horror, it's like you're staring into the mind of a sociopath raised in front of a box TV, on a steady diet of 50s monster movies, CCA-banned murder comics, and neon green sugary cereal. But when Elvira comments on Horror, it feels like you're at a really fun Halloween party, with lots of sex. The elements of transgression and terror just aren't there.

I guess I'm kinda the opposite. I know a lot about Elvira but not too much about Zombie. For the most part, I see him as sort of an Ed Roth caricature from Hell or something, and as comparatively violent as House of 1000 Corpses was to Elvira's Universal-licensed Monsters with a Sexy Twist, I couldn't stop myself from laughing the entire way through that movie.

Rob's a sick individual, but he has a sense of humor. The laughter was intentional, although I think you have to be born after a certain year in order to appreciate the joke.

(whoops meant as a reply to Maggot Brain) :)