re:mote voices

Title: Bubba Ho-Tep

Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Heidi Marnhout, Bob Ivy

Director: Don Coscarelli

Bubba Ho-Tep is, as far as I can gather, a good couple of years old now. One of those films I’ve been hearing about for a while now, muttered about in cult terms. But this is it only hitting UK cinemas now.

Bruce Campbell is Sebastian Haff, who claims to really be Elvis, having swapped places with the real Haff, an Elvis impersonator, in the past. However time has passed, and since following off stage and breaking his hip, the King has been in an old folks home in Texas. Where his best friends are a man who claims to be the Lone Ranger, and Ossie Davis as JFK – who was died black and put in an old folks home after the assassination attempt.

Add to this doddering mix of has-beens some kind of bubba ho-tep – bubba being a reference to a southern gentleman (or redneck, or trailer trash, or...), and ho-tep being the surname for an Egyptian line of Pharaohs – the result being a shuffling, soul sucking mummified corpse in cowboy boots and hat. Working out that something is going on, the nightly body count isn’t entirely natural, then Elvis and JFK resolve that while they may not be long for this world, they are going to go out with their dignity and soul intact, or at least not shat down the visitor’s toilet.

Bubba Ho-Tep is a wonderfully bizarre film, defined by a perverse humour and eye for detail. The idea of imminent death, of encompassing old-age and the helplessness that comes with that being more distressing than that of a shumbling animated corpse. An idea that is as emphasised by the narration by Bruce Campbell as well as providing a great deal of the running jokes.