Bubba Ho-Tep

It’s exponentially less likely than, say, Cold Mountain to pick up an Oscar nomination, but Bubba Ho-Tep’s got the makings of some glorious kitsch. And this inventive horror-comedy, based on a story by Texan novelist Joe R. Lansdale, has already succeeded wildly on its own low-budget terms, picking up enough good word-of-mouth at festival screenings to avoid direct-to-video hell and garner a theatrical release. Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell stars as Elvis Presley—and if you’re like us, that’s when you decided to buy your ticket—who didn’t die in the seventies, but now lives crabbily under an assumed name at a rundown east Texas old-folks home. The King’s best friend is a fellow pensioner (Ossie Davis) who insists he’s really John F. Kennedy, despite being a black man. As happens so often when dead celebrities meet, the two join forces to defeat a soul-sucking Egyptian mummy. Campbell was born to play Elvis, and his Bubba performance is one of his best. It’s not merely camp, but a well-rounded portrait of a bitter old legend who rediscovers his heroic nature. Bubba’s also the career zenith for director Don Coscarelli, whose B-movie auteur status previously rested on Phantasm and Beastmaster, neither of which are titles we’d want carved on our gravestone. No fool, Coscarelli’s already talking sequel, pitting a Clambake-era Elvis against a squad of she-vampires—staking care of business in a flash.
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(612) 825-6006, landmarktheatres.com