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Thursday, 14 May 2020

Bubba Ho Tep


So this little known gem needs to be seen by more people (seen to be believed!) it's is, as the blurb on the cover says, "ABSOLUTE GENIUS".



An elderly man (Bruce Campbell) at The Shady Rest Retirement Home in East Texas claims to be the real Elvis Presley. He explains that during the 1970s, he grew tired of the demands of his fame and switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff (also Campbell). He claims it was Haff who eventually died in 1977, while he, the real Elvis, lived in quiet, happy anonymity and made a living pretending to be himself. After a propane explosion destroyed documentation which was the only proof that he was actually Elvis, he was unable to return to his old life.
A hip injury during a performance causes him to get an infection and slip into a coma. Twenty years later and living at the retirement home as the film opens, he is contemplating his age, frailty, loss of dignity, impotence, and "A growth on his pecker". Elvis's only friend is a black man named Jack (Ossie Davis) who insists he is JFK, claiming to have been dyed black after an assassination attempt, and abandoned in a nursing home. Initially skeptical of Jack's story, Elvis does spot a mysterious scar on the back of Jack's head. It could be from the head wound seen in the Zapruder film, but then it might not be.
Eventually, Elvis and Jack face off against a re-animated ancient Egyptian mummy that was stolen during a U.S. museum tour, the mummy strangely takes on the garb of a cowboy and feeds on the souls of the residents of the home (I'll let it be a surprise as to how he does this). It is dubbed 'Bubba Ho-Tep' by Elvis

The slow, plodding mummy is a real and credible threat, as instead of going against young adults who could potentially outrun or overpower it, the mummy gives chase to the elderly. Jack and Elvis lack mobility and need a motorized wheelchair and a walker to get around the grounds.

I don't want to give away the rest of the film you should watch it and then thank me later for introducing you to this wonderful slice of weird.

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