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Bubba
Ho-Tep
A septugenarian
Elvis (Bruce Campbell) lies in his bed in an East Texas rest
home, his best days obviously behind him. The world thinks
he's dead, and worse, the staff refuses to believe the old
man before them really is The King. Instead, they identify
him as Sebastian Haff, an Elvis impersonator he traded places
with that unfortunately, "…liked drugs even more than I did."
This
basic set-up from a short story by Joe R. Lansdale would be
enough for an interesting little movie. And indeed, writer/director
Don Coscarelli spends a decent amount of time in Bubba
Ho-Tep exploring this icon left with nothing but his regrets.
That he may actually be Sebastian Haff is quite possible;
in some ways, this plays like Jonathan Demme's loopy and almost
forgotten Melvin and Howard, with a perennial loser
believing a fantastic story about himself when nobody else
will.
But we
want to believe, even when Coscarelli adds another layer.
The only denizen of the home who gives "Sebastian" any credence
is Jack (Ossie Davis), an elderly black man. Though he validates
Elvis, Jack himself has a specious history, as he claims to
be John F. Kennedy, dyed black and hidden away in Texas so
nobody would ever learn the truth. Oh, yes - he also has had
a portion of his brain replaced by a sandbag with the original
piece of grey matter being controlled from a secret lab in
Washington, D.C.
Even
with this, you could just the movie as a quirky look at letting
go the dreams of youth while wallowing in the sunset years.
If you want to get even more lyrical, Coscarelli could be
examining the enduring power of American myth. Indeed, though
not prominently featured, there's another resident (Larry
Pennell) running around (well, hobbling, really) who believes
himself to be The Lone Ranger.
 Coscarelli,
however, is not just another quirky little filmmaker. He has
a certain cult cache around him, like his star Campbell, for
having created the Phantasm and Beastmaster
franchises. Like any artist, he may be interested in the little
things that we all have in common, but he can't let it go
at that.
So we
have a soul-sucking ancient Egyptian mummy stalking the halls
at night.
Inexplicably
dressed like a spaghetti western-era Eastwood, this "Bubba
Ho-Tep," as Elvis dubs him, feeds off the residents, sustained
by their flickering life energies. How he got there isn't
important, even though the script sort of explains. What really
matters is that this will give Elvis and JFK a last shot at
glory.
A bizarre
high concept, Bubba Ho-Tep turns out to be surprisingly
moving. Much of this can be credited to Campbell, an underrated
actor to most of the public, who may not have been an obvious
choice to play Elvis. Once you see him, though, you completely
give over to the illusion. He plays a man hugging tightly
to the tattered vestiges of his persona as infirmities overtake
him. Regrets quietly sit on his face.
 Davis
doesn't fare quite so well, but he plays Jack with dignity.
As written, the role is more an excuse to provide exposition,
as it seems the former President spends just as much time
studying Egyptology as he does his assassination. At no point
does Davis try to convince you he really is Kennedy with a
labored accent. He just is who he is, and the scar at the
base of his neck just might mean he's telling the truth.
What
this film really accomplishes is an exercise of true filmmaking
imagination. A simple but cool idea gets played for all its
worth, without much flash. Occasionally a special effect occurs,
but very primitively by today's big budget standards. Coscarelli,
thank heavens, comes from a time when you had to be creative
in figuring out how to do something on camera instead of taking
care of it all in post-production. It may look a little more
rough, but it somehow makes the film all the more charming.
Bubba
Ho-Tep isn't perfect, moving at a pace appropriate to
its characters' ages. But it's earnest fun that manages to
sneak more than a little poignancy in with its supernatural
doings. I'd take this mummy over The Mummy any day.
Rating:
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