Joe R. Lansdale is arguably one of the most distinctive voices in American literature. Best described as the melding of Flannery O’Connor and Joe Bob Briggs, Lansdale has been writing twisted, entertaining fiction that spans genres for decades now.
With such an impressive (and large) body of work (which includes comics, horror, mystery, etc.), I’m continually amazed we haven’t seen a bunch of films based on Lansdale’s work. Several things (most notably his hilarious Hap and Leonard books–Mucho Mojo et al.) scream for adaptation to the big screen, but nothing has made the transition-until now.
Don Coscarelli (the man behind the Phantasm films) has brought one of Lansdale’s wildest and weirdest stories to the land of cinema with the recent release of Bubba Ho-Tep. Any film that features Elvis and a black (and still alive) JFK battling an undead Egyptian mummy in East Texas is just too good to pass up.
B-movie legend Bruce Campbell tackles the role of The King. It seems the real Elvis didn’t die back in the 1970s-instead, Elvis, fed up with the fame and the money, swapped lives with an Elvis impersonator. They had a ‘trade back’ clause, of course, but once the impersonator died, and Elvis accidentally burned up his copy of the contract, well, no one is going to believe him.
So, The King is spending his twilight years in an East Texas nursing home, suffering from what appears to be penile cancer. The staff treats him like he’s delusional, his roommate and friend has died, and the only person left to talk to is a black man who swears he’s JFK (Ossie Davis).
Once the residents of the home start dying under mysterious circumstances, our two unlikely heroes conclude it’s the work of an ancient mummy-one who sucks out the souls of the living through any of the victim’s orifices. Together, they decide to stop the mummy.
The original short story that the film is based upon appeared in Lansdale’s collection Writer of the Purple Rage. It’s not my favorite Lansdale story by any stretch (I think most of the stories in his earlier collection By Bizarre Hands were arguably better), but it is an interesting choice for a film adaptation.
The film works because Campbell and Davis are so perfect in their roles. Campbell makes the wise decision to not try to mimic all of Elvis’ main mannerisms-a decision that makes it much more effective when he slips in the stereotypical, “Thank you; thank you very much”.
Campbell’s portrayal of The King is one more interested in capturing the tone, attitude, and swagger of Presley instead of the more easily lampooned and cartoonish mannerisms. This makes the character appear all the more real-Campbell’s Elvis is a man-not a walking caricature.
Ossie Davis turns in no less of an impressive turn as JFK. The man’s hilarious stories about how the government replaced his brain with a bag of sand and made him into a black man are some of the funniest moments in an already funny film. Both of the leads deserve kudos for their performances-both manage to be funny without going too far over the top.
The only real problem with the film seems to be in the fact that Coscarelli wrote the screen adaptation and not Lansdale. Coscarelli does a decent job of mimicking Lansdale’s penchant for sardonic dialogue, but the film’s pacing flags at various points in the narrative. Because of this, Bubba Ho-Tep isn’t so much a horror film as it is a horror-comedy-drama. I can’t think of a film since Cocoon that spent so much time with old people in nursing homes.
Don’t let that put you off seeing it though-because Bubba Ho-Tep is an entertaining film that crosses numerous genres with a deft ease. Campbell and Davis are fantastic, and this is your one chance to see Campbell and everyone’s favorite Jawa-killer Reggie Bannister (who was Reggie in the Phantasm films together on the same screen. Now, if I could only convince Raimi and Don Coscarelli to make a crossover film with Reggie and Ash taking on the Evil Dead or The Tall Man, life would be great.
Horror Geek Rating: 4 out of 5
