Bubba Ho-tep

There have been many stories about what really happened to Elvis Presley and JFK. BUBBA HO-TEP, based on the short story by cult author Joe R. Lansdale, presents the most outrageous and entertaining one yet.

We find Elvis (Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an impersonator years before his “death,” then missed his chance to switch back when the contract exploded in a trailer park accident. Of course no one believe he’s the real deal now. Also spending his golden years in the home is Jack (Ossie Davis), who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, who survived and underwent plastic surgery to protect his identity. As one might expect, no one believes him either. Luckily for the nay-sayers, the two valiant old codgers sally forth to save the day by battling an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds to suck the old folks’ souls at night.

Mind-blowing in its originality, BUBBA HO-TEP transcends the “late-night cult” genre by virtue of captivating performances by Campbell and Davis, and the assured direction of Don Coscarelli. Coscarelli handles the bizarre material with such precision that you actually believe that Elvis and JFK are alive and not quite well. He treats the characters, and old age for that matter, with such respect that no matter how absurd things become, you are completely with him. BUBBA HO-TEP, with its cinematic flash and terrifically offbeat humor, is a fantastic story of redemption, courage and friendship.