Bubba Ho-Tep

Elvis is alive! Or at least he is in this film. The premise of the film is this: Elvis swapped places with an Elvis impersonator when he got bored with the fame and restrictive lifestyle, and while the impersonator died, Elvis lived on to old age, and eventually wound up in a nursing home. In with him is an old black guy who claims to be JFK. The pair of them are feeling their age, and how everything is going to hell, until, somehow, an ancient mummy ends up creeping the hallways, sucking the life out of the residents so that it can live…

Ok, this screams pulp horror garbage, but you think that, you’d be wrong. This is a class film. Elvis is played by Bruce Campbell, of Ash/Evil Dead fame, as a down-beat, running-on-fumes old guy that suddenly finds meaning in battling the ancient mummy. Ossie Davis – a great black actor seen in countless 60s and 70s TV shows – plays JFK. They bring a dignified air to their parts, and in the lead up to the battle and while they try to battle the mummy, they bring a solomn gravitas to the proceedings. Here, buried in the pulp story, is a study in the effect of ageing on the spirit, and how the elderly are treated in modern society, done to a touching and meaningful depth that ‘serious’ films rarely reach.

This makes is sound pompous – but it isn’t. It’s fun, interesting, and engaging. All this is wrapped up in a fun and interesting 92 minutes, and I believe you miss this, you’re missing something very good.

Also, there’s been talk of a sequel where a younger karate-kicking Elvis takes on Dracula or similar in ‘Bubba Nosferatu’. This gets less and less likely the older Bruce Campbell gets, but we can only hope, huh?

OVERALL: 6/10

REWATCHABILITY: Once every year or two Okay for adults and teens above 13 or so.