Bubba Ho-Tep DVD Review

Elvis (Bruce Campbell) had had enough, he wanted out. So he swapped places with Sebastian Haff, the best Elvis impersonator around and went on to enjoy a life of trailer parks and gigging as an impersonator of an Elvis impersonator. Sebastian, who was living the high life as Elvis, died, and the real Elvis falls from a stage, breaks his hip and ends up in a coma.

Now an old man in a Texas nursing home, Elvis hobbles around on a walking frame and has a disturbing growth on his pecker. Something strange is going on at the nursing home, Elvis has an encounter with an oversized beetle and his friend, John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis (R.I.P.)), who has been dyed black and has sand for a brain, has discovered that a 3000 year old mummy (Bob Ivy) is at large, sucking the souls of elders through their arseholes. Elvis and JFK are the only hope for the old folk at the Shady Rest retirement home, so they plan their confrontation with the ancient soul-sucking Egyptian.

Phantasm director, Don Coscarelli, has taken a short story by Joe R. Lansdale and created a wonderful original film. I can't imagine anyone giving a better performance than Bruce Campbell as Elvis, he is truly outstanding, and very believable as the aged King. Ossie Davis is great as Campbell's sidekick, a black guy in his mid 80's playing JFK, pure genius! By Hollywood standards, Bubba Ho-Tep is a low budget film, and is free from the cliches of most modern American mainstream movies. The heroes are old men, the story is relatively slow paced, taking time to develop the characters, and the very effective humour is balanced with some poignant moments. Comedy, horror, social comment, it's all in there. Bloody brilliant. Hail to the King!

S.J.T.

Bubba Ho-Tep. 2002

Directed by Don Coscarelli