Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) – The Whole Truth about Elvis and Kennedy

To be honest, I didn’t want to write an article about this film. Even taking into account the fact that Elvis Presley himself appears in the foreground of this film, little rock and roll or anything at least similar to it is shown on the screen, and therefore I thought that this movie was not our content. But I can be said to have been convinced that this can and should be done on October 31, and after thinking about it, I decided: the film is good and unknown to anyone, there is Elvis Presley – in general, my format, it’s still worth writing a couple of lines.

So, let’s start by listing those responsible for all this outrage. The director of this film is Don Coscarelli himself – a rare employee of the film industry, who can really be called independent, who became known to many for the series of horror films Phantasm, which, perhaps, remained his greatest creation. But I still haven’t watched a single part of the Fantasy, and I’m familiar with the work of Comrade Coscarelli from the 1982 film The Beastmaster. And, I think, those who watched the Lord of the Beasts will agree with the fans of Fantasy in the opinion of how good a director Don is. In general, when I saw Coscarelli’s name on the cover of the film, I immediately tuned in to something good.

Next is better: Elvis was personally played by Bruce “Groovy” Campbell, for whom the killing of otherworldly creatures is nothing but a matter of life. Actually, there’s nothing more to say here-Campbell is Campbell, period. The secondary protagonist is played by Ossie Davis – and again, somehow, I was able to dodge all the numerous films with this actor, although I heard many times how well he plays. Actually, it is the duet of Bruce and Ossie that we will look at most of the time, and therefore the fact that we are waiting for a high-quality acting game is clearer than the sun in the sky on a cloudless day.

In terms of budget, Bubba Ho-Tep (or Bubba Ho-Tep) is closer to the first Fantasy than to the Beast Lord: the horror movie about the mummy was shot for a million dollars, and the first part of the saga about metal spheres – for three hundred thousand in the same currency. These amounts are quite close to each other, given the difference of a little over twenty years between the mentioned films. Also, according to the English Wikipedia, a solid part of the team that worked on Phantasms followed their director to the set of Bubba Ho-Tep … and, nevertheless, it is worth noting that the film about the confrontation between the mummy and the King of Rock and Roll was made in a completely different way. The fact is that the Fantasy – at least the first one with the plot of which I am familiar – is made in the key of a serious horror movie. Bubba Ho-Tep is the most amazing comedy, which can be compared, for example, with the movie Bum With a Shotgun. But let me just go to the plot of the film and describe a small part of it.

So, everyone’s beloved Elvis got tired of fame, found a double and signed a contract with him that they would swap places, with the condition that Presley could return everything to normal at any time if he suddenly wanted to. However, this detail does not matter at all, since the contract burned out, and Elvis did not feel like returning to his former glory: he lived well, portraying himself, and everything was wonderful. But during one of the performances, his hip failed him and, falling off the stage, the King went into a coma for twenty years. He woke up without a cast, but in a nursing home and, apparently, with penis cancer.

We are interested in two people among the population of the nursing home: the black old man Jack, who claims that he is none other than the 35th US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was repainted after a failed assassination attempt, incidentally pouring a little sand into his head to replace the lost piece of brain, as well as an ancient Egyptian mummy in a cowboy hat, which in the truest sense, he sucks the souls of local residents through the ass, drawing hieroglyphs on the walls in the toilet in between this important business.

Yes, that was the synopsis of the movie. And if you’re interested in how good it all looks on the screen, I’ll be honest.: looks just about ***nno. This is a great mix of horror and comedy, one of the best in my memory, and the thrash of everything that is happening only benefits this mixture – from my point of view, too many horror films make a fatal mistake, trying to present what is happening on the screen under the heading “Seriously”. The cheapness of the film is not particularly felt: they won’t show us much, but everything they show is done, if not at the highest level, then certainly for that very million. Watching the adventures of Elvis and Kennedy is a pleasure. Everything looks in one breath, the film leaves the viewer completely delighted, and the credits promise us a sequel…

Which, most likely, will not be. And it’s not even that the hint of a sequel was a joke: somewhat surprised by the popularity of Bubba Ho-Tep, Don Coscarelli decided to take up the second part, but it quickly slipped into production hell. From time to time, disappointing news appeared about her, like the one in 2007, when it was reported that Bruce Campbell was no longer involved in the project. The last time they talked about the sequel was in 2013: one of the actors said that there was a “really wonderful” script, and expressed his wishes that the second part would be filmed someday – but that was the end of it.

So if you liked the movie, then I can only suggest that you read the original story with the same title, according to which this movie was shot, as well as some comics: the five-part Bubba Ho-Tep And The Cosmic Blood-Suckers 2018 and four issues of the Army Of Darkness crossover / Bubba Ho-Tep of the 19th, in which two Bruce Campbell at once – in the form of Ash and Elvis, respectively – find each other and guess what they are doing. Actually, I’m even ready to recommend a crossover: I don’t read comics very often these days, but I read Bubba Ho-Tep from and to, and I really liked it. Especially in the absence of a sequel to the film.

In conclusion, we can mention one more interesting fact: Bubba Ho-Tep is a rare case when a film has acquired cult status, in fact, before its public release. The fact is that instead of a typical release in cinemas, the film was promoted using the roadshow method, which, in fact, has not been used by anyone since the eighties. I won’t be able to translate the name of this method into Russian in one word, but the bottom line is that Don kind of toured the country with the film. A total of 32 copies of the film were made, and they were shown once or twice as part of festivals and other events. According to the rules, a normal, full-fledged release should go after the roadshow, but this did not happen with Bubba Ho-Tep. Thus, by the time this film was released on DVD, it had received a ton of laudatory reviews from the few who still managed to see it, and there was an army of Campbell, Davis and Coscarelli fans who had been dreaming of touching the new-found legend for a long time.

But, actually, even if you are not a devoted fan of the above personalities, I still recommend that you spend the evening watching this movie. Actually, fans have probably been familiar with this film for a long time and appreciated it. So my words are rather meant for everyone else, and I repeat: watch this movie. Believe me, he will not disappoint you.