Bubba Ho-Tep

"Now the two key words for tonight - 'caution' and 'flammable'".
"Also 'watch your ass'".

Put on your blue suede shoes, whip up a Fool’s Gold Loaf and empty your colostomy bag, because this week's recommendation is Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).



The movie is a horror comedy based on a novella by the same name, authored by Joe R. Lansdale in 1994.

The story centres around an aging Elvis, feeble and living out his last days in a retirement home. In the 70s, he had switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff, who died before they could switch back. One evidence-destroying trailer home explosion and one gyration-induced coma later, and nobody is aware that he is still alive.

Alongside the king is Jack, an elderly black man who claims to be JFK, dyed by the CIA after surviving the Dallas assassination attempt.

The two must contend with an ancient Egyptian mummy who is sucking the souls out of the arses of the retirement home's residents.

The film deals with themes of aging, identity and mortality, as viewers are presented with the juxtaposition of the two heroes and the villain, all trying to cope with life (or undeath) long after the peaks of their greatness.

No punches are pulled with the retirement home, depicting it with the same tragic, depressing and darkly comedic atmosphere that anyone that’s been to enough of them are all too familiar with. It’s a setting that isn’t depicted too much in media, possibly because it’s not something many of us want to think of: a grim inevitability.

I was hesitant to recommend this movie, as I had assumed that it was more well-known than it was. I thought it might be redundant, like recommending Friday the 13th. After DREWill suggested that we recommend it, I talked about it with a few other people and was surprised that they didn’t seem to know it. This may be because it had a roadshow release amongst film festivals, rather than a mainstream theatrical release.

Horror legend Bruce Campbell plays the role of Elvis, in what might somehow be his most compelling performance. His execution, alongside that of his co-star Ossie David (Jack), manages to give one of the most bizarre scripts of all time genuinely emotional moments. If any part of the writing, directing or acting in this film wasn’t what it was, it wouldn’t have worked, but somehow it does.



“Gone down and out with both guns blazing, soul Intact”