Bubba Ho-Tep

Dir: Don Coscarelli

2002

*****

Bubba Ho-Tep is one of the greatest horror-comedies of all time. The plot is ridiculously good. It is based on novel of the same name by the great Joe R. Lansdale, which originally appeared in the anthology The King Is Dead: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem. Originally the film was "roadshowed" by director Don Coscarelli across the United States. Only 32 prints were made and circulated around various film festivals, though these garnered critical success. I remember in 2002 myself and my film friends were desperate to see it but the internet wasn’t quite as useful as it is now and it seemed as if the only way to see the film would be to book flights to the US and do so as quickly as possible. It wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully we weren’t alone and soon Coscarelli and his crew knew how popular it was so by the time it was released on DVD, it had already achieved cult status, largely thanks to positive reviews, lack of access and of course the inclusion of Mr. Bruce Campbell. I have met both Campbell and Lansdale and it seemed that Bubba Ho-Tep was the one film they seem happiest talking about. The film had me at Coscarelli/ Campbell/Lansdale and the fact that it was about Elvis and JFK hunting an ancient Egyptian Mummy only sweetened the deal. It also features a cameo by Reggie Bannister from Coscarelli's Phantasm series – the film couldn’t be more perfect. An elderly man (Bruce Campbell) at The Shady Rest Retirement Home in East Texas is known to the staff as Sebastian Haff, but claims to be the real Elvis Presley. He explains that during the 1970s, he grew tired of the demands of his fame and switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff (also Campbell). He claims it was Haff who eventually died in 1977, while he, the real Elvis, lived in quiet, happy anonymity and made a living pretending to be himself. After a propane explosion destroyed documentation which was the only proof that he was actually Elvis, he was unable to return to his old lifestyle. A hip injury during a performance causes him to get an infection and slip into a coma. Twenty years later and living at the retirement home as the film opens, he is contemplating his age, frailty, loss of dignity, impotence, and "A growth on his pecker". Elvis's only friend is a black man named Jack (played by the brilliant Ossie Davis) who insists he is President John F. Kennedy, claiming to have been dyed black after an assassination attempt, and abandoned by Lyndon Johnson in a nursing home. Initially skeptical of Jack's story, Elvis does spot a mysterious scar on the back of Jack's head. It could be from the head wound seen in the Zapruder film, but then it might not be. The film was already great and could have carried on in the same vein without much happening other than the pair talking to each other. However, Elvis and Jack soon have to face off against a re-animated ancient Egyptian mummy that was stolen during a U.S. museum tour, and then lost during a severe storm in East Texas when the thieves' bus veered into a river near the nursing home. The mummy strangely takes on the garb of a cowboy and feeds on the souls of the residents of the home. It is dubbed 'Bubba Ho-Tep' by Elvis, who is given a telepathic flashback of the mummy's life and death when he looks into its eyes. The slow, plodding mummy is a real and credible threat, as instead of going against young adults who could potentially outrun or overpower it, the mummy gives chase to the elderly. Jack and Elvis lack mobility and need a motorized wheelchair and a walker to get around the grounds. Elvis and Jack create an elaborate plan to destroy the mummy. Destruction of the mummy would release the trapped souls of their dead friends, and they would be able to go to their final resting place. Elvis and Jack battle the mummy in the middle of the night, with Jack in an electric wheelchair and Elvis wielding a makeshift flamethrower. Jack is knocked out of his wheelchair by the mummy and is about to have his soul sucked. Elvis hops in the wheelchair, zooms into the mummy to save Jack, and damages the flamethrower, getting a large gash in his abdomen in the process. Jack dies from a heart attack. Elvis becomes committed to getting rid of the mummy, and he throws the gasoline on him and then throws matches at him, killing the mummy. Elvis lies on a hill near the river bank, dying from the blood loss from the gash and broken ribs. He talks in his mind about how he doesn't fear death, knowing that he still had his soul and that he saved all of the fellow people at the Shady Rest Retirement Home. As he reflects upon this, the stars align into a message for Elvis, saying: "all is well". With a dying "Thank you, thank you very much", Elvis passes away. The film had me at ‘Bruce Campbell as an elderly Elvis’. It might be the greatest work from everyone involved. Before Bruce Campbell accepted the role of "Elvis," he had only one question for director Don Coscarelli: "Are you going to show the penis?" Brilliant, like that’s the only thing he needed to know. Now, I love Bruce Campbell and even though he made fun of my beard the first time I met him, his performances as Ash from Evil dead are some of my favorite of all time. His Elvis is a super close second. The film is so good that I don’t actually want a sequel. The end credits actually announce a second film entitled Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires but it was meant as a joke. Nerds aren’t good with jokes and pressure (and success)  changed Coscarelli’s mind about it and wrote a brief draft that would center around the production of a 'lost' Elvis movie from the 1950s or 1960s, and would bring in Paul Giamatti as Colonel Tom Parker. Campbell bowed out after a few years of speculation but Coscarelli and Giamatti kept the flame burning for a while after. I think they should leave it as it is as the ending is just too perfect to mess with. I could watch it every day and never tire of it. Hail to the King baby.