A man who may be Elvis (Bruce Campbell) joins up with one who almost certainly isn’t JFK (Ossie Davis) to save the inhabitants of their Texas nursing home from a soul-sucking mummy.
How to make a cult film:
1—Start with a zany idea;
2—Add cultural references and in-jokes;
3—Put in some overly-serious, angst-filled revelations from the protagonist;
4—Get a star of other cult films;
5—Sprinkle liberally with genre icons;
6—Spice with camp as needed.
And there you have it, a…hmmmm… Well, maybe not. Director Don Coscarelli tried so hard to make a cult film, but those aren’t made, they just happen. And it doesn’t happen with Bubba Ho-tep.
Not that the picture isn’t original or that there aren’t plenty of clever moments (such as JFK explaining that LBJ had him removed and dyed black so no one would suspect), but there are far more bland stretches and repetition. For its small budget, the mummy and FX are satisfying. But this isn’t a horror film, or a fun monster mystery; it is a slow, stretched-to-breaking, essay on the elderly. Based on a short story, the plot would fill about a half hour. The rest is Elvis bemoaning his situation, cursing his life and those that treat him poorly, waxing philosophic on the nature of aging, and wondering what might have been. Effective in pointing out the depressing way our culture treats the aged? Yes. Entertaining? No. Perhaps Coscarelli should have made a documentary on nursing home life as that appears to be his concern. Such a film might be meaningful and useful and help people to change society. I urge him to do this, now, and leave the narrative features to someone else.