BUBBA HO-TEP
January 6th 2008 06:42
BUBBA HO-TEP
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis.
Written and Directed by Don Coscarelli.
Based on the short story by Joe R. Lansdale.
I’ve been a huge fan of Joe R. Lansdale ever since a review in Fangoria magazine inspired me to pick up the novel The Drive-In (a B-Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas). So when I heard that one of his strangest and coolest short stories was about to be adapted into a movie I was cautiously excited.
I heard that it was going to be helmed by Don Coscarelli, whose deranged Phantasm flicks have always proven entertaining and a whole lot more inventive than any other horror franchise. Things were looking even more promising.
Then, in what has to be the most inspired bit of cult casting in a long time, I learnt that the lead role was going to legendary B-movie icon Bruce Campbell (best known as Ash from the Evil Dead movies, last seen in one of the few watchable scenes from Spiderman 3). I was basically counting the days at this point.
The plot, for those of you that haven’t read Writer of the Purple Rage, (the short story collection which Bubba Ho-Tep is from), is this: Elvis Presley isn’t dead. He’s holed up in a decaying East Texas rest home where he passes his days contemplating his lost fame and youth…and the possibly cancerous growth on his pecker. For company, he has a condescending nurse and John F. Kennedy - now dyed black - whose brain resides in a battery-powered fruit jar at the White House. And there’s a centuries old Egyptian mummy with a fondness for cowboy duds and the unpleasant habit of sucking the souls of the elderly out through their arseholes.
Why someone hadn’t optioned the movie rights to this baby earlier, I’ll never know.
One of the most striking things about Coscarelli’s film is how true it is to the source material. Not just in how closely it sticks to the details of the short story (extra kudos for keeping its opening line) but also in how it captures the feel of Lansdale’s writing. Lansdale effortlessly combines hilarious offensiveness, grave-black humour, genuine creeping unease and moments of striking poignancy. So does this flick.
Coscarelli’s screenplay fleshes out the narrative, adds some extra weight and depth to the characters, making it funnier…sadder… He also adds scenes of physical comedy, exploiting the leading man’s talent for slapstick.
And Bruce Campbell…oh man, instead of what could have been a 92-minute long Elvis impersonation we get a convincing and measured portrayal of a deeply flawed and regretful human being. This isn’t the lip-curling, hip-swivelling king of rock and roll, nor is it the bloated, pill-popping pederast from his Vegas years, instead this is Elvis at seventy: abandoned by a world that believes him dead and probably wouldn’t care much to learn that he wasn’t.
The late Ossie Davis is a delight to watch as the former Mr President. He delivers his lines with a grace and richness that makes them all the more hilarious…I mean, the guy is talking about a supernatural entity that draws obscene hieroglyphics on the shithouse wall, for God’s sake. I believe this was his final role.
Add fine cinematography (I especially like the way lost time is illustrated), some excellent location work (the rest home is all beige walls and dark hallways), a killer soundtrack (though sadly, no Elvis) and wonderfully old-fashioned monster FX (very little CG…if any) and you have a classy cult film that never opts for the easy route.
Fans of generic horror be warned though, this film moves at a languid pace (even the monster hobbles along) and contains scarcely a drop of spilt blood (save for a nutty flashback scene showing how Ho-Tep came to be) or glimpse of naked female skin (save for that same flashback). Also, none of the leads could ever be described as nubile.
Now, if someone had the cojones too adapt On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks…
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis.
Written and Directed by Don Coscarelli.
Based on the short story by Joe R. Lansdale.
I’ve been a huge fan of Joe R. Lansdale ever since a review in Fangoria magazine inspired me to pick up the novel The Drive-In (a B-Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas). So when I heard that one of his strangest and coolest short stories was about to be adapted into a movie I was cautiously excited.
I heard that it was going to be helmed by Don Coscarelli, whose deranged Phantasm flicks have always proven entertaining and a whole lot more inventive than any other horror franchise. Things were looking even more promising.
Then, in what has to be the most inspired bit of cult casting in a long time, I learnt that the lead role was going to legendary B-movie icon Bruce Campbell (best known as Ash from the Evil Dead movies, last seen in one of the few watchable scenes from Spiderman 3). I was basically counting the days at this point.
The plot, for those of you that haven’t read Writer of the Purple Rage, (the short story collection which Bubba Ho-Tep is from), is this: Elvis Presley isn’t dead. He’s holed up in a decaying East Texas rest home where he passes his days contemplating his lost fame and youth…and the possibly cancerous growth on his pecker. For company, he has a condescending nurse and John F. Kennedy - now dyed black - whose brain resides in a battery-powered fruit jar at the White House. And there’s a centuries old Egyptian mummy with a fondness for cowboy duds and the unpleasant habit of sucking the souls of the elderly out through their arseholes.
Why someone hadn’t optioned the movie rights to this baby earlier, I’ll never know.
One of the most striking things about Coscarelli’s film is how true it is to the source material. Not just in how closely it sticks to the details of the short story (extra kudos for keeping its opening line) but also in how it captures the feel of Lansdale’s writing. Lansdale effortlessly combines hilarious offensiveness, grave-black humour, genuine creeping unease and moments of striking poignancy. So does this flick.
Coscarelli’s screenplay fleshes out the narrative, adds some extra weight and depth to the characters, making it funnier…sadder… He also adds scenes of physical comedy, exploiting the leading man’s talent for slapstick.
And Bruce Campbell…oh man, instead of what could have been a 92-minute long Elvis impersonation we get a convincing and measured portrayal of a deeply flawed and regretful human being. This isn’t the lip-curling, hip-swivelling king of rock and roll, nor is it the bloated, pill-popping pederast from his Vegas years, instead this is Elvis at seventy: abandoned by a world that believes him dead and probably wouldn’t care much to learn that he wasn’t.
The late Ossie Davis is a delight to watch as the former Mr President. He delivers his lines with a grace and richness that makes them all the more hilarious…I mean, the guy is talking about a supernatural entity that draws obscene hieroglyphics on the shithouse wall, for God’s sake. I believe this was his final role.
Add fine cinematography (I especially like the way lost time is illustrated), some excellent location work (the rest home is all beige walls and dark hallways), a killer soundtrack (though sadly, no Elvis) and wonderfully old-fashioned monster FX (very little CG…if any) and you have a classy cult film that never opts for the easy route.
Fans of generic horror be warned though, this film moves at a languid pace (even the monster hobbles along) and contains scarcely a drop of spilt blood (save for a nutty flashback scene showing how Ho-Tep came to be) or glimpse of naked female skin (save for that same flashback). Also, none of the leads could ever be described as nubile.
Now, if someone had the cojones too adapt On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks…
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