Bubba Ho-Tep was one of those dream movie projects that seemed too good to be true. Don (Phantasm) Coscarelli directing a Joe R. Lansdale story? I had read "Bubba-Ho-Tep" in a wicked cool anthology called The King is Dead: Tales of Postmordem Elvis, so I was particularly excited about it.
We all heard about Bubba Ho-Tep, and anticipation was incredibly high. It didn't get any real theatrical distribution, and even home video took forever. We waited and waited. I heard rumors of bootleg tapes or discs floating around, and at one point someone from Gorezone offered me one. I wasn't too proud to accept an illegal dupe. I was freaking dying to see it, and I would have paid for the real thing when it came out. The deal never came through and I had to wait.
Looking back it seems like a blink of an eye, but it seemed like forever before Bubba Ho-Tep got a DVD release. MGM finally brought the movie to slavering fans in 2004. Two torturous years after the film was completed.
Joe R. Lansdale has been treated pretty well by filmmakers. Cold In July is as good an adaptation of the novel as any reasonable person could hope for. Hap and Leonard was a good show too. Great performances, and the mojo spirit of Joe is present. I liked a little short called The Job, based on the Lansdale story from Razored Saddles. A very low budget movie was made from the hard-hitting short story, "Drive-In Date". Don Coscarelli did a nice episode of Masters of Horror with another harrowing Lansdale short story, "Incident on and Off a Mountain Road".
So how is Bubba Ho-Tep? Pretty damned good.
This movie demonstrates that any idea, now matter how ludicrous, can be made into a good picture. Bubba Ho-Tep deals with a geriatric Elvis impersonator at a senior citizen's home who believes he is truly The King. Ossie Davis plays a black man who insists he is John F. Kennedy who was altered in mind and body and hidden away. And maybe they really are who they think they are. The movie is careful to keep the possibility open.
A mummy is killing old folks at the Shady Rest Retirement Home. It sucks the life force from the residents to stay alive. Only Elvis and JFK know the truth and it's up to them to stop the evil from stealing more souls.
Bruce Campbell plays Elvis, and it is really nice to see him break free of the wise-cracking douche stereotype he typically plays. There's some of that in Bruce's performance, but it's mostly a nuanced and sensitive portrayal of a man near the end of his life.
Lansdale's trademark outrageous dialogue and situations are in full force in Bubba Ho-Tep, but there is grace and wisdom below the surface. Meditations of mortality, fame, identity, and honor are examined. There is also a lot of humor and action to keep the movie speeding along.
The rapid editing in Bubba Ho-Tep is pure 2000s, but the effects and tone make me feel like I'm back in 1987 watching a cool horror comedy. I had not seen the movie in quite a long time, and it really has aged incredibly well. The themes and subtext are as relevant today as they were in 1994 when Lansdale's story first saw print.
A sequel is promised at the end of Bubba Ho-Tep, and there has been talk of one on and off over the years. So far it has not happened as a film, but there is an excellent comic version of Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers. It was written by my good friend Joshua Jabcuga.
Written by Mark Sieber
We all heard about Bubba Ho-Tep, and anticipation was incredibly high. It didn't get any real theatrical distribution, and even home video took forever. We waited and waited. I heard rumors of bootleg tapes or discs floating around, and at one point someone from Gorezone offered me one. I wasn't too proud to accept an illegal dupe. I was freaking dying to see it, and I would have paid for the real thing when it came out. The deal never came through and I had to wait.
Looking back it seems like a blink of an eye, but it seemed like forever before Bubba Ho-Tep got a DVD release. MGM finally brought the movie to slavering fans in 2004. Two torturous years after the film was completed.
Joe R. Lansdale has been treated pretty well by filmmakers. Cold In July is as good an adaptation of the novel as any reasonable person could hope for. Hap and Leonard was a good show too. Great performances, and the mojo spirit of Joe is present. I liked a little short called The Job, based on the Lansdale story from Razored Saddles. A very low budget movie was made from the hard-hitting short story, "Drive-In Date". Don Coscarelli did a nice episode of Masters of Horror with another harrowing Lansdale short story, "Incident on and Off a Mountain Road".
So how is Bubba Ho-Tep? Pretty damned good.
This movie demonstrates that any idea, now matter how ludicrous, can be made into a good picture. Bubba Ho-Tep deals with a geriatric Elvis impersonator at a senior citizen's home who believes he is truly The King. Ossie Davis plays a black man who insists he is John F. Kennedy who was altered in mind and body and hidden away. And maybe they really are who they think they are. The movie is careful to keep the possibility open.
A mummy is killing old folks at the Shady Rest Retirement Home. It sucks the life force from the residents to stay alive. Only Elvis and JFK know the truth and it's up to them to stop the evil from stealing more souls.
Bruce Campbell plays Elvis, and it is really nice to see him break free of the wise-cracking douche stereotype he typically plays. There's some of that in Bruce's performance, but it's mostly a nuanced and sensitive portrayal of a man near the end of his life.
Lansdale's trademark outrageous dialogue and situations are in full force in Bubba Ho-Tep, but there is grace and wisdom below the surface. Meditations of mortality, fame, identity, and honor are examined. There is also a lot of humor and action to keep the movie speeding along.
The rapid editing in Bubba Ho-Tep is pure 2000s, but the effects and tone make me feel like I'm back in 1987 watching a cool horror comedy. I had not seen the movie in quite a long time, and it really has aged incredibly well. The themes and subtext are as relevant today as they were in 1994 when Lansdale's story first saw print.
A sequel is promised at the end of Bubba Ho-Tep, and there has been talk of one on and off over the years. So far it has not happened as a film, but there is an excellent comic version of Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers. It was written by my good friend Joshua Jabcuga.
Written by Mark Sieber
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