Bubba Ho-Tep

Bubba Ho-tep
File:Bubba Ho-Tep poster.JPG
Directed by	Don Coscarelli
Produced by	Don Coscarelli Jason R. Savage Ronnie Truss Mark Wooding
Starring	Bruce Campbell Ossie Davis Ella Joyce Bob Ivy Heidi Marnhout
Cinematography	Adam Janeiro
Edited by	Scott J. Gill Donald Milne
Music by	Brian Tyler
Running time	92 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$500,000

Bubba Ho-tep is the title of a novella by Joe R. Lansdale which originally appeared in the anthology The King Is Dead: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem (edited by Paul M. Sammon, Delta 1994) and was adapted as a 2002 horror-black comedy film starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley - now a resident in a nursing home.

The film version also stars Ossie Davis as Jack, a black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy. He says he was patched up after the assassination in Dallas, dyed black, and abandoned by Lyndon Johnson. The film was directed by Don Coscarelli.

While the novella and film revolve around an Ancient Egyptian mummy (played by Bob Ivy) terrorizing a retirement home, many claim Bubba Ho-tep is really about aging and growing old in a culture that values only the young.

The film features a cameo by Reggie Bannister, the cult hero of director Don Coscarelli's Phantasm series.

Plot

During the 1970s, when Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) grew tired of the demands of his fame, he switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff (also played by Campbell). It was Haff who eventually died on the toilet in 1977, while 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 Presley, he was rendered unable to return to his old lifestyle.

A hip injury during a performance causes him to get an infection and slip into a coma for twenty years. He finally wakes up and finds himself in an East Texas nursing home, and, as the movie 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 (Ossie Davis) who insists he is JFK, claiming to have been dyed black after the assassination attempt, and abandoned in a nursing home. The truth behind his identity remains unclear, but 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.

Most of the film's plot is driven by Elvis' internal monologue, as he reminisces about his life and ponders his condition.

Eventually, Elvis and Jack face off against a re-animated ancient Egyptian mummy that was stolen during a US museum tour and then lost during a severe storm in East Texas when the bus being driven by the thieves veers off the road and into a river near the nursing home. The mummy strangely takes on the garb of a cowboy and 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 following its murder of an elderly woman at the home. The slow, plodding mummy is a real and credible threat, as instead of going against young adults who could potentially outrun it, the mummy gives chase to the elderly heroes who lack mobility and need a motorized wheelchair and a walker to get around the grounds.

After hatching an elaborate plan Elvis and Jack manage to destroy the mummy, and the trapped souls of their dead friends appear to be released to their final rest (somewhat contradicting the characters' earlier supposition that the souls had been destroyed forever, unless these were simply souls that hadn't been completely digested yet). In the process of defeating the mummy, Elvis and Jack are themselves mortally wounded, although their deaths are heroic and honourable. As he lies dying, Elvis gets confirmation that his soul is prepared to move on as he looks up into the stars and sees the message "ALL IS WELL" spelled out; his final words are classic Elvis: "thank you, thank you very much."

Awards

Joe R. Lansdale's original novella was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, while the screenplay for the film won a Bram Stoker Award in 2003. It was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Hong Kong International Film Festival and won "Best screenplay" and "Best actor" at the U.S. Comedy Arts Film Festival.

Merchandise

Action figures of Sebastian "The King" Haff and Bubba Ho-Tep have been released by NECA. The official soundtrack, t-shirts, and posters have been offered through the film's website.

Trivia

• Although Elvis Presley is the protagonist, the movie does not feature any of Elvis's music. Given the film's small budget, it would have been too costly to license any.
• A black Cadillac sedan driven by Elvis's entourage is shown to have a Texas plate reading AZN-700. This same plate was indeed actually owned by Elvis (although on a red Cadillac convertible, not a black sedan) The same plate later appears on Elvis's red Cadillac convertible as he drives down the highway (after "becoming" Sebastian Haff).

Bubba Nosferatu

A film suggested in the credits for Bubba Ho-Tep, Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires, has apparently been announced. In a DVD 'making of' documentary, Coscarelli revealed that this was originally intended as a joke, however, due to positive fan response to the film, a sequel is now a possibility. He then went on to speculate he would like to make a sequel documenting the production of a 'lost' Elvis movie from the 1950s or 1960s. Although it has not yet entered production, Bruce Campbell, Don Coscarelli and Paul Giamatti (as Colonel Tom Parker) have reportedly been attached to the project.

External links

• Official website
• Bubba Ho-Tep at IMDb
• Bubba Nosferatu at IMDb
• Joe Lansdale website