Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
THE KING VS. THE KING OF THE DEAD
An aging Elvis Presley and an African-American "JFK" stay in a nursing home where nothing much happens - that is, until a wayward Egyptian mummy comes and sucks out the old people's souls thru their a-holes. The two decide to fight back.
You come for Bruce Campbell doing a geriatric Elvis impersonation, you leave with a newfound respect for the importance of dignified elderly care. In the middle, some souls get sucked out of butts. This movie rules.
I got to go see a screening with the director, writer, and Bruce before this opened wide. Super cool to hear from them.
I went to a screening of John Dies at the End in 2012 and met Don Coscarelli afterwards. He was standing off to the side chatting with someone who appeared to be a friend of his.
I'd brought my DVD of Bubba Ho-Tep and asked him to autograph it. He looked at me for a couple of seconds, turned to his friend, and said "Can you believe that it's been 10 years, and people still like this movie?" We all laughed and he was happy to sign it. Very cool guy.
Yeah, I've heard that Don is a super chill dude who really appreciates his fans. :)
The little touches are what sold me on this movie, like Elvis comparing the scarabs to the “size of a peanut butter and banana sandwich.”
A fun b-movie with a lot of heart, and a great Bruce Campbell performance.
"They dyed me."
This is such a profoundly good movie.
I can't remember why but I didn't enjoy this
Same. I really wanted to, expected to, and didn't.
I love this movie, but my family looks at me funny when I watch it.
Far more fun as a concept than it was a movie.
All opinions are valid about this movie. That's one of the things that makes it such a great movie: it can be anything to anyone.
Wife's a huge fan of it, and I generally like Coscarelli. But this did nothing for me.
I got a DVD of this free(I forget how, maybe with evil dead or something?) but never got round to watching it and now it is lost.
I still think about it whenever ancient Egypt, JFK, Elvis or Bruce Campbell come up.
Fun game for a first watch; Watch half this movie, pause, write down what you think is going to happen, then finish the movie.
Next time family movie night is my pick, I'm introducing them to this. Been forever since I watched it.
The letterboxd link is wrong!
Fixed (give it a bit of time to federate). Thanks for notifying me. :)
I could have sworn this movie came out in like 2012, maybe that's just when I found out about it
And here I was thinking it came out in the '90s.
https://www.bubbahotep.com/home
I couldn't find out the full story, but apparently the distributor only made 32 copies for theatrical release. It looks like they decided early on it was 'straight to video.' There were showings around the country. I myself have only seen it on DVD
I saw it at a midnight showing at an art theater. It was a cool place, gentrification killed it and the pandemic finished it off. Anyways, the thing I remember about this movie was how the weirdness obscured the subtext, which is how the main characters, dementia addled elders, face death with dignity. I remember liking it more than I thought I would.
There was a brief period when straight to DVD meant that some really off the wall movies could get made even if they'd never see in theaters.
Here's an oddity that flew in under the radar.
"Predestination" https://youtu.be/-FcK_UiVV40
until a wayward Egyptian mummy comes and sucks out the old people's souls thru their a-holes.
So, basically the mummy was a Kappa, looking for shirikodama's?
I was surprised to discover this was based on a book. I've been meaning to read it but haven't gotten around to it yet.
I will always remember this movie. Went to visit my big brother at Ball State University and watched this in a dorm room. Brings back great memories.
There are a few genuinely creepy scenes in this movie.
Loved Evil Dead, hated this movie.