Bubba Ho-Tep



Small-release film, written and directed by Don Coscarelli (based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale), starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. The premise: Three old men far removed from their proper places fight it out for their souls. Did I mention the three are Elvis, an old black man who claims he's John F. Kennedy, and a Mummy dressed like a cowboy?

In the 1970s, Elvis Presley (Campbell) sought out the world's greatest Elvis impersonator, Sebastian Haff. They secretly switched places, so Elvis could retire in peace. Unfortunately, all the documentation was lost in a trailer explosion, Haff died from a drug overdose, and Elvis fell from the stage while impersonating himself and went into a coma for twenty years. Now alone, assumed crazy, and convalescent in a west Texas retirement home with a mysterious growth on his genitals, he languishes.

John F. Kennedy (Davis), once president of the United States. His death faked, half his brain removed and replaced with a bag of sand, and his body dyed black by the CIA, Kennedy is also a resident of this same rest home - that's his story, at least. The woman who claims to be his niece is nice enough, and he fears for his life if he goes public, so he sits, re-creating Dealey Plaza in miniature, trying to figure out just what happened to him. He's the only one who believes his neighbor Elvis really is who he claims to be (though Elvis believes he's nuts).

The mysterious cursed mummy was stolen from a museum by treasure-hunting rednecks, dressed in a cowboy outfit, and lost in a storm in the river by the retirement home. He rises from the depths to consume the souls of the living, feeding at the retirement home to avoid detection, releasing the residual parts of their souls into the men's room, and scratching obscene hieroglyphs on the stall. The defeated and sick elders aren't very nourishing, but no one misses them. No one believes them. No one cares.

Only JFK and Elvis can defeat Bubba Ho-Tep before he condemns more helpless elders to an afterlife in the sewer.


 * Acting for Two: Campbell also plays the real Sebastian Haff when Elvis reminisces about the day he finally stepped away from it all.
 * Actor Allusion: Ella Joyce played Elvis's nurse in the movie, although she might be more recognized as Eleanor Emerson, a registered nurse married to Baltimore garbageman Roc in the Fox sitcom of the same name.
 * Adult Fear: growing old and weak and finding yourself left to die in a care home, with your children "too busy" to come and see you. (Elvis sees his room-mate's daughter twice in three years - once when she booked him in, and once after he dies. She throws his belongings and mementos in the bin).
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "How did I end up here? What happened to me? What time's lunch, and considering what they serve, why do I care?"
 * Bittersweet Ending:.
 * B-Movie
 * Captain Ersatz / Suspiciously Similar Song: The movie didn't have the budget to license footage from any of Elvis' movies or any recordings of Elvis' actual music. The TV scene showing old Elvis movies is stock footage with actors who vaguely resemble Elvis without showing their face, and the scene with Elvis performing is using vague Elvis-like music.
 * Catch Phrase: All of Elvis' signature phrases are said multiple times. "Thank you very much" and "Takin' care of business"/"TCB" in particular.
 * Cessation of Existence: What awaits the souls Bubba devours.
 * Credits Gag: The copyright violation warning threatens violators with "the wrath of Bubba Ho Tep". Also, it is stated that Elvis will return in "Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires".
 * After the closing credits on the DVD Elvis says, "Remember to be kind, rewind...well, um, guess you don't need to rewind, with DVD these days."
 * Dramatic Unmask: Subverted. The Lone Ranger is unmasked after he dies with no fanfare.
 * Dying as Yourself: Because soul-suckin' sumbitch mummies do not a friendly bedmate make.
 * Elvis Has Left the Planet: Combined with Alternative Character Interpretation, the real Elvis didn't die of a drug overdose, but had retired in secret.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Bubba Ho Tep consumes and digests the souls of his victims, preventing them from any afterlife. A rather neat way to illustrate why he's such a problem when they'll all be dying soon anyway.
 * Genre Busting: It's a hilarious spoof of B-movie monster films, a poignant tale of the decline of Elvis Presley, a parable about how being old does not necessarily make one worthless, a genuinely unnerving horror film and a kickass action movie.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Three:
 * Inner Monologue: Elvis spends a fair part of the film reflecting and philosophizing about what might have been.
 * Kill It with Fire:
 * Rule of Funny
 * Rule of Scary
 * Shout-Out: Among the others, the Lone Ranger appears to have ended up in the nursing home as well.
 * Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror
 * Stealth Pun: Near the end, the mummy speaks in hieroglyphics... obscene (and fake) hieroglyphics, at that.
 * They Fight Crime: Two legends we only think are dead. They fight one who really is.
 * Ultimate Evil: The mummy's presence causes the lights to fade whenever it approaches, keeping it partially obscured for most of the film.
 * Unreliable Narrator: As stated, Elvis, JFK, or both could easily be someone besides who they claim to be.
 * Whole-Plot Reference: This inspired the AH Dot Com the Series episode The Return of the King.
 * Who Shot JFK?: According to JFK, it was Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress, who proceeded to dye his body black and ship him out when it failed.
 * Your Soul Is Mine