Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death," then missed his chance to switch back. He must team up with JFK and fight an ancient Egyptian mummy for the souls of their fellow residents.

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Matt from Chicago
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I recently had the wonderful opportunity to see this film at a horror and fantasy convention. Since it is not yet in distribution I jumped at the chance. Just to set the record straight, I didn't go into this film with normal expectations. The god that is known as Bruce Campbell stars in this film, and let's just say that any morsel of Bruce Campbell goodness I can get is going to make me absolutely love a movie.

The basic premise of this film is that Elvis Presley is alive and not too well. He lives in an East Texas nursing home. It seems that years before Elvis tired of his fame and switched places with an Elvis impersonator. The Elvis we see in this picture is a 68 year old man with a penchant for rings and large, jewel studded sunglasses. Whenever he claims to be Elvis, everyone just laughs at this crazy old Elvis impersonator obviously going senile in his old age. Elvis discovers that there's a mummy inhabiting his nursing home who is sucking the souls out of the residents through a rather disturbing bodily orifice. So Elvis teams up with an old African American man (Ossie Davis) claiming to be John Kennedy (his explanation for what happened to him has to be heard to be believed, and is one of the funnier jokes in the movie) to stop the mummy and save the souls of the residents of the nursing home.

As crazy and silly as this setup sounds, the film actually achieves depths that most "serious" movies can't even begin to touch. The film deals with what it's like to be an elderly person in this country when nobody cares about you. Elvis and Kennedy are both regretful about not being there for their children when they needed them. And a last chance for glory and leaving this world honorably is a recurring theme throughout the film (see Kemo Sabe's showdown with the mummy). All of these themes are handled with a deft hand, never hammering the point home, but intended to be taken seriously.

Ossie Davis gives a terrific comedic performance as "Jack" Kennedy. He delivers some rather eyebrow raising exposition with such a light touch, the audience is forced to except his explanation as fact and move on.

And then of course, Bruce Campbell. Campbell plays Elvis as we've never seen him, a 68 year old man with a bad hip and a cancerous growth in a very uncomfortable place. Anyone who has seen any of Campbell's performances knows he can play the hero or the buffoon with equal skill. But here, he pushes the bounds of his talent like never before. Perhaps the highest praise I can give his performance is that 10 minutes into the film, I forgot it was him, and truly believed it was Elvis on the screen.

The film was written for the screen and directed by Don Coscarelli. Coscarelli has been in something of a rut since his breakthrough hit with "Phantasm" over 20 years earlier. This is truly his best film since that horror classic, it may even be better.

The film was based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, the gifted writer. Lansdale routinely puts different genres in a blender together and comes out with something better than a genre outing. This film played just like one of his novels: Horror, comedy, fantasy, and a little bit of western.

Bruce Campbell was on hand for the screening I saw and made some comments before the film. He said that he did the film because it was so weird and that we need more films that aren't in the cookie cutter format. I couldn't agree more and I can't recommend this film highly enough. It breaks all molds and expectations. Seek it out when it finds a distributor, you won't be disappointed.

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Shawn Watson from The Penumbra
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Who would have thought it? Don Coscarelli, the man who wrote and directed Phantasm a long, long time ago comes back out of nowhere, after spending his entire career in the dregs, with something like this. A film that is more an exploration of regret, fading dignity and growing old than it is about a soul-sucking mummy.

Very old Elvis is brilliantly played by Bruce Campbell. The voice, the hair, the mannerisms are all perfect. He's stuck in Mud Creek rest home where the cynical staff believe he's really called Sebastian Haff, the man Elvis traded places with back in the 70s. And when Haff died, so did the Elvis the public loved. This only left the REAL Elvis free to live his life in peace and eventually indignity.

He pals up with a man who believes he's JFK, only problem is he's black. Though it's more likely he's senile rather than a truth-teller like the so-called Sebastian Haff. Both men have one concern, to stop some kind of Bubba Ho-Tep mummy from taking the souls of all the rest home residents.

Yes, it's insane. But also wildly imaginative and more than balances out the endless, heartless, conveyor belt Hollywood productions. Elements of the story will stay with you and the character development is graceful and important.

The finishing touch is Brian Tyler's awesome score. The main theme is one of the best ever and will flood you will feeling and emotion. Not only is Bubba Ho-Tep blessed with a cast and crew who care about the film their making, it also has wonderful music too. I am lucky enough to have the rare score CD (autographed by Coscarelli and Tyler). Hunt it down, it's seriously worth it.

Keep a lookout for Reggie Bannister as the rest home manager. And watch all the way to the end of the credits for a weird message...

ELVIS RETURNS IN 'BUBBA NOSFERATU: CURSE OF THE SHE VAMPIRES'

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michiman_7 from United States
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I'd heard that when the end credits rolled for 'Bubba Ho-Tep' during the premiere in Detroit, there was a five minute standing ovation. Having seen the movie, I have to honestly say a five minute ovation seems not long enough. What a film! Other reviewers have called this film, "excellent," "fantastic," "wonderful," etc. While I won't question the reviewers' choice of words, I'm not sure the they're sufficient to describe just what an experience 'Bubba Ho-Tep' is.

"Superlative" probably comes closest.

So what exactly IS 'Bubba Ho-Tep?' Take your pick of one or all: Drama. Horror. Comedy. Tear Jerker. Life Lesson.

'Bubba' not only succeeds in each genre, but excels. Lesser movies have attempted to be jack-of-all-trades, but usually fall far short of one goal. One movie may be hilarious at its core, but preachy in the moral lesson. Another could be a fantastic horror film, but the creature ends up as more interesting and sympathetic than it's human co-stars. Yet another movie can teach a valuable lesson on life, but leave you depressed as you're exiting the theater.

'Bubba' succeeds where others have failed.

Enough praise can not be heaped on Bruce Campbell for his utterly believable performance as Presley. Even the hokeyness of Elvis threatening the mummy with his karate "stuff" was never over the top, as one could OH so see Elvis doing that! Campbell offers an amazing view into Presley's soul. Here lies a man upset with his lot in life, wanting to get away from the limelight yet craving it at the same time. A man wishing for the best but accepting of the worst. A man ready to shake off his failures and embracing his desire to be what he's always wanted to be - a hero. His finest line: "Always the questions, never the answers. Always the hopes, never the fulfillments." Sound familiar?

And how can one go wrong with Ossie Davis, who adds an aristocratic touch of humanity and sympathy as Jack Kennedy. IS he the President? Hey, stranger stories than his have been told! Best line: "It's now up to you, Elvis. You got to get him... You got to... take care of business." I challenge you to still have a dry eye after that.

The accolades should not stop here, however. Director Don Coscarelli didn't just write and direct 'Bubba,' he crafted it. With love, and with the finest attentions to detail, fit and finish. More so, he was faithful to Joe Lansdale's original story. (Which is a tribute to Coscarelli, as most mainstream Hollywood movies would have mangled the source material into something unrecognizable from what it once was.) The supporting cast was as fine as could be had. Pay special attention to Ella Joyce as the nurse. Though her character is meant to be cold and uncaring, Joyce still manages to sneak glimpses of humanity into the performance. One could see the nurse as someone who once had and still wants to care, but has become so desensitized that caring for her charges has all but dissipated. And who can forget the score? Talk about a custom fit between movie and music!

All in all, it is a crime that 'Bubba Ho-Tep' did not get greater exposure. More of a crime is a lack of Campbell's recognition by mainstream Hollywood for his outstanding turn as Elvis. (Then again, one gets the refreshing impression that Campbell gladly accepts this shun.)

Just as William Hurt's outstanding movie 'The Doctor' should be a prerequisite for any prospective medical student, 'Bubba Ho-Tep' should be required viewing for anyone who wants an uplifting, thoughtful, humorous, scary, and just plain great movie!

10 out of 10, no question, ifs ands or buts.

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ccthemovieman-1 from United States
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I laughed when a friend suggested this movie. "Yeah, right," I answered, eyes rolled up.

"Well," he finally said a few weeks later, "Here, just look at it. Take my copy and bring it back."

"Okay, " I answered, "what do I have to lose? "

Obviously, I was shocked. This has to be one of the all-time surprises I've ever encountered in movie-watching. Who would have thought this film was this good? Talk about "original!" This is about as original and entertaining as they come, and, as I have stated in several other reviews, entertainment is the name of the game....so I have to rank this film right up there with my favorites.

I refuse to detail the story because the more you explain what it's about, the stupider is sounds and the less likely you will give it a shot.

I will say Bruce Campbell does a fabulous job of imitating Elvis Presley. In fact, he is the best I have ever heard, speaking-voice-wise. Ossie Davis is also a hoot as the old black man who thinks he's President John F. Kennedy. See? I can't say more, because it gets worse, story-wise, the more you explain.

Just trust me that if you appreciate dark humor with some horror thrown in, you'll love it. It's a bit sleazy and the language is very rough, so be ready for that. I guess you could say this "is not for all tastes." You have to be a little warped to enjoy this, but most of us are to some degree.

Be also be ready for one of the oddest films you've ever seen.

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Dan1863Sickles from Troy, NY
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Everything about this movie is wonderful -- the laughs, the scares, the poignant dialog, the richness of characterization. As Homer Simpson says, it works on so many levels.

BUBBA HOTEP is a magnificent blending of many different styles and genres. Like ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST it is a grim, realistic story of institutional living. Like FROM HERE TO ETERNITY or COOL HAND Luke it depicts outsiders fighting a corrupt system. As in GRAND ILLUSION two aristocrats from widely different backgrounds meet inside the grim walls of a prison, their rank and status no longer respected. But instead of giving in to despair, they put aside their differences in a spirit of sacrifice, redeeming those around them even as they accept the end of their own existence.

Okay, enough of that stuff. Let's talk about Elvis. The film gets everything right, not only the sideburns and the accent but all of his weaknesses and illusions. The desire to be a hero, the fat gut, the fake karate moves, this movie knows and shows Elvis at his worst and forgives him --then turns things around so that by the end you actually want to stand up and cheer.

Let's talk about JFK. The story of a black man and a white man becoming brothers in the face of danger is old hat -- come back to the rest home again, Huck honey. But this time there's something new. The black JFK is turning Elvis on his head -- a black man becoming JFK is the mirror image of white trash Elvis singing the blues in a segregated world. The power of the allegiance is based on the bold violation of taboo.

The horror works in BUBBA HOTEP. On a minimal budget they created a monster. What makes the mummy real is the obvious link between his past and the failures of the real Elvis. Watch the scene where the mummy walks, and Elvis stares deep into his eyes and sees his past. The real truth the movie hints at is that Elvis is Bubba Hotep. Elvis was both the "bubba" in our world -- the dumb hick -- and the Hotep -- immortal God King. But the real Elvis, tragically, abused his body and defiled his own divinity with "drugs and stupidity and the coveting of women." (As the movie says.) In the final battle Elvis is not merely slaying the mummy -- he is overcoming himself.

Watch the movie. Rejoice in Elvis. Rejoice in BUBBA HOTEP.

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awalter1 from Seattle, WA ~ USA
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"Bubba Ho-tep" is a low budget movie that went for the B-movie feel on purpose, accomplishing its goal of being a "fine" piece of pop culture weirdness. The story is set in a current-day East Texas rest home and focuses on two residents who believe they are Elvis and JFK--the JFK character just happens to be black, and the rest home also houses a few other crazies, including the Lone Ranger. Elvis and JFK soon learn that an Egyptian mummy--who was stolen from his traveling museum exhibition--has come to life in their neighborhood and is killing the rest home residents by sucking their life force out their backsides (you can harvest a soul through "any major orifice," you know). Eventually, our decrepit heroes realize that only they can meet the mummy in a showdown.

The film is really a clever piece of pop culture mythology, working up hilarious back stories for JFK (Ossie Davis who is recognizable from, at the very least, several Spike Lee films) and Elvis (Bruce Campbell of the "Evil Dead" movies). Campbell's performance is particularly excellent, Don Coscarelli's as director did a perfect job finding the right mood and balance of humor for the film, and the leisurely plot--from Joe Lansdale's original novella--is totally engaging and a cinephile's dream.

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BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC
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I must confess I had reservations prior to seeing this film. I thought it would be some God-awfully childish film laden with sophomoric jokes, cheesy effects, and inane dialogue. Some of those elements do surface, but this film was a genuine pleasure to sit through. Imagine if you can that Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll, switched places with an Elvis impersonator and now lives a sad, lost life in a small, run-down nursing home in East Texas. Add to the mix Ozzie Davis as a man convinced he is John F. Kennedy and a mummy that sucks the souls of geriatric residents and you have the basic premise behind Bubba Ho-tep. But beyond all that and the jokes about Elvis's genitalia and other low brow references is a film with a tremendous amount of heart and a message about the elderly in our society and how we have, as a society, betrayed them and cast them aside. The script and effective direction of Phantasm's Don Coscarelli make this film work on several levels. It is a comedy. It is a drama. It is a horror film. It has all those elements. You care about the characters and are drawn into this seedy little world. The biggest asset the film has is its performances. Davis gives a fine turn and adds credibility to the film, but Bruce Campbell as the king just bowled me over. I had seen him before, but I had never seen him act like this before. You soon forget Campbell is acting and think Elvis is really there - now 68 and destitute. Campbell's inflection, mannerisms, and poise melt and fuse wonderfully into Elvis. This was one of the very pleasant surprises that come along every so often.

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Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls
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The Evil Dead series already made it pretty clear and – after Bubba Ho Tep – there's nobody who should question this statement ever again: Bruce Campbell is one major cool dude! Campbell stars as Elvis. Old, fat and supposedly out of his mind, he's a resident in an East-Texas rest home. An ancient Egyptian mummy that has been stolen from a museum wanders around in the area, soul-feeding on the weak victims of the nursery home. Elvis, tired of his indigent and pathetic life, teams up with a black man who thinks he's former president Kennedy to destroy the mummy once and for all. The story of Bubba Ho-Tep is remarkably simple… Too simple actually, and if it wasn't for Campbell and a few ingenious gimmicks, this would have been an unnoticed and forgettable comedy/horror film. Bruce gives away an outstanding performance and he is the KING in ways you can't imagine. The saddening, self-criticizing monologues he gives while lying on the hospital bed are some of the best lines in recent cinema and his charisma speaks for itself. Veteran Ossie Davis gives great feedback as the 'president', seeing conspiracies wherever he looks.

The comedy aspects of Bubba Ho-Tep show right away, yet it also is a subtle drama, criticizing the way we often mistreat our elderly by placing them in a home and leaving them to their own devices. It is these outcasts that fight back here and save the day! Bubba Ho-Tep is filled with appealing one-liners and imaginative findings. How about the idea of a 2000-year-old mummy writing stuff like 'Cleopatra does the nasty' on a toilet's wall, like we all did in high school? The film also depends on the professional directing skills of Don Coscarelli. He finally found a worthy successor for his classic horror franchise 'Phantasm', even though that premise was a lot more complex and horrific. Recommended to fans of pop-culture flicks and bizarre gems. One of the better genre films since the new Millennium.

Hail to the King, baby!

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LeonardPine from East Texas
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Very faithful to Joe R Lansdale's weird and wonderful short story, this film is a real gem. The gist of the story is that Elvis (Bruce Campbell) didn't die (it was an impersonator he swapped places with who popped his clogs),and is spending the rest of his days in a Texas rest home, with a busted hip and a growth on the end of his pecker,and he's none to happy. That is until a soul sucking mummy turns up at the rest home and Elvis is forced into action to defend his home and it's residents. Teaming up with another resident, an elderly black man who thinks he's JFK (Ossie Davis) they decide to take care of business and defeat Bubba Ho-Tep.

If that sounds weird, it is, it's also very funny, hugely entertaining and oddly moving. It also has THE best performance of The King that this Elvis fan has ever seen! Bruce Campbell, i salute you!

So check this baby out. And if you like it you could do worse than check out the original story by Joe R Lansdale. This guy is some storyteller.

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Brandt Sponseller from New York City
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Set in a retirement home, two residents--a man who may or may not be Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and a man who may or may not be John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis)--encounter strange Egyptian beetles and a mummy with an attitude.

On the quirky weirdness scale, Bubba Ho-tep deserves a solid 10. Writer Joe R. Lansdale and writer/director Don Coscarelli's bizarre confluence of pop culture references, surrealism, absurdism, mythology and social commentary/criticism is very close to my own preferences and approach to art making. Unfortunately, though, at least on a first viewing, the climax didn't quite click for me the way it should have, and I had to subtract one point. But overall this is an excellent film, and a 9 is still equivalent to a letter grade of an "A".

Although often sold as a horror film, and listed as "horror/comedy" on IMDb, Bubba Ho-tep is more of what I consider a "surrealist realist drama". That's likely to seem like an oxymoron and not make any sense, so let me explain. "Realist drama" consists of fictions that try in most ways to approximate the actual world. The concerns are to show "real kinds" of people in "real kinds" of environments and situations, behaving, speaking and interacting in "real kinds" of ways. There are a number of artists, however, who take that framework and build something more surreal/absurdist on top of it, but the realist drama foundations remain.

For a number of reasons, this tends to be more easily found in literature, and a number of my favorite authors write in this style, including Tom Robbins, Harry Crews, Thomas Berger, Thomas Pynchon and on the more journalistic side of things, Hunter S. Thompson (yes, it's odd that most of them have some variation of "Tom" in their names). Although some filmmakers approach the style (and of course, films have been made from some of those authors' books), like the Coen Brothers, David Lynch, Tim Burton, David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam, and others, the tendency with films is to let them slide from surrealist realist drama to surrealist fantasy or other kinds of genre films, maybe with some hints of realist drama. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, it's just two sometimes subtly different approaches. I like surrealist fantasy and genre films just as well.

The bulk of Bubba Ho-tep is in that genre; it works extremely well as a surrealist realist drama. We never can tell if Campbell is really Elvis or if he's just crazy, but if he may be Elvis, it gives extra weight to the possibility that Davis is a "dyed" and transformed John F. Kennedy (since Davis is black and has obviously different facial features). Campbell receives a remarkable makeup job that helps him change into an aging, unhealthy Elvis. His performance is spot-on. Campbell does an amazing job physically, as well, particularly when he has to use a walker in some unusual ways.

The production design crew did an admirable job with the minimal sets, with Campbell's shared room being appropriate for the caliber of an Elvis impersonator (which the character may be instead) and Davis' room subtly conveying "Presidential Suite" and an obsession with Kennedy's supposed assassination. Coscarelli and cinematographer Adam Janeiro easily capture a nice dreamlike atmosphere in the retirement home and grounds, with the fantastic hallways especially standing out.

The backstory explaining how Campbell's character is Elvis is one of the more entertaining sections of the film--Campbell makes us believe that he's Elvis impersonating an impersonator impersonating Elvis, which is understandably difficult. The horror material is good, but the mummy seems a bit underdeveloped as a character, making the final section of the film a bit anti-climactic. It probably would have been better to keep the focus on the retirement home and its residents, maybe also exploring a similar backstory for Ossie Davis, at least a backstory showing how he started to believe that he was Kennedy. Just as the Elvis backstory may have been mythologized rather than real, the Kennedy backstory could have been from the character's delusions or fantasies, as well.

The film is easy to interpret with a subtext about discarding people as they are no longer needed, with others who are still in the world treating them basically as lumps of mass that are more often than not disturbing to attend to. It doesn't matter how famous the discarded may have been, or how archetypally or mythologically important, as in the case of the mummy. The mummy's vampiric means of self-renewal (and need for self-renewal) is easily taken as a metaphor for the loss of self that the discarded undergo in such situations.

Of course, maybe the mummy wasn't really a mummy, and even that aspect of the film is a bit fantasized. In any event, the ending does have poignancy from the human side of the story, and Bubba Ho-tep is without a doubt worth viewing. The DVD is also worth picking up, as it contains two commentaries (one from Campbell as Elvis), excellent "making of" featurettes, a funny music video and a real rarity--a pithy, well written insert rather than just a "chapter selection" liner/tray card.

Before Bruce Campbell accepted the role of "Elvis," he had only one question for director Don Coscarelli: "Are you going to show the penis?"
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The shoestring budget for this movie was a little over a half million dollars, or roughly 1% of an average big-budget Hollywood movie.
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Although Elvis is the main character, not one piece of Elvis Presley music is heard in the film. Director Don Coscarelli explained that it would have cost about half the budget to license even one Elvis song for the movie.
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The filmmakers managed to round up about 100 extras for the Elvis concert scene, but as the filming dragged on, the extras steadily departed. By the end of filming, there were only a dozen or so extras left, which pretty much dictated which camera angles could still work.
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When Elvis turns on the TV and sees a movie marathon of himself, none of the clips are from Elvis Presley movies. Because the licensing costs would have been too high, the film used stock footage of actors with the same basic body type as Elvis and never showed their faces.
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Bruce Campbell helped promote the movie by bringing it along with him on his book tour for his autobiography, "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor."
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Filmed in 30 days, an unusually long schedule for such a low-budget film.
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Due to all the cameras, lights, and equipment virtually trapping him in his bed, at one point Bruce Campbell was forced to actually answer nature's call by using the same bedpan his character used to capture the giant scarab beetle.
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Only 32 prints of the film were originally made as part of a limited platform release. The Soul of Southern Film Festival, in Memphis, Tennessee, paid for a thirty-third print, so that they wouldn't have to wait any longer to show the film. Several other festivals and theaters paid advances in order to secure prints.
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The trailer park explosion was filmed in one take.
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KNB Effects agreed to make the Bubba Ho-Tep make-up and costume for cost of materials as a favor to Don Coscarelli.
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Don Coscarelli originally wanted a dual narration, with part of the story being narrated by an omniscient third person, not just an Elvis narration. He had recorded another voice narrating the action as it came from the short story it was based upon, but this was abandoned after his friends told him it was terrible. Some of this narration can be heard on the DVD's deleted scenes.
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Most of the movie was shot at an abandoned veterans' hospital outside of Los Angeles. Even the trailer park explosion was done there. They used three hallways of one of the buildings for the interior of the rest home.
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Harrison Young plays Elvis' roommate, a veteran of WWII with a Purple Heart. Harrison portrays another WWII Veteran in Saving Private Ryan (1998) as the old man in the frame story. Of course, his character in Saving Private Ryan was not wounded, but as Elvis' roommate he must have been as the Purple Heart Award would suggest.
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Elvis describes his medicine bag as Mucho Mojo, the title of another story by the same author Joe R. Lansdale.
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The only significant character not to make the transition from page to film is an old lady who believes herself to be a sex changed John Dillinger.
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Don Coscarelli: [closing line] The closing line of the credits, "...criminal prosecution and the wrath of Bubba Ho-tep," is a variant of "...and the wrath of the Tall Man" from the Phantasm (1979) films.
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john f. kennedy|

AKAs Titles:


Certifications:
Argentina:16 / Australia:M / Canada:14A / Canada:13+ (Quebec) / Finland:K-18 / France:U / Germany:12 / Spain:13 / UK:15 / USA:R