Bubba Ho-Tep
Elvis lives! JFK lives! With a title like Bubba Ho-Tep (as the title sequences proclaim "Ho-Tep: from that line of Egyptian pharaohs; Bubba: cracker, red neck, trailer park resident"), this isn’t your typical horror movie. If you have mental images of a kind of "Revenge of the Mummy in a Trailer Park", you aren’t far off.
Taking place in an East Texas nursing home, Elvis (B-movie king Bruce Campbell) became sick of being "Elvis" and switched places with the greatest Elvis Presley impersonator, Sebastian Haff. So it was Sebastian that died on a toilet, not the real Elvis. But as Elvis Presley playing Sebastian Haff playing Elvis, he finds that neither his money nor fame can stave off the inevitable: time and death. His fellow resident, JFK (Ossie Davis) also waits for death in his room. Oh yeah, JFK, claims that his assassination was part of a government conspiracy, that’s why he’s now black (Lyndon B. Johnson had him dyed). As further proof of the movie’s sincerity, the two take each other at their word that they are who they say they are and move on.
So when Bubba Ho-Tep, a soul sucker who claims a soul through any orifice, comes a-calling, the two are pressed into action. Old folks souls being small, JFK explains, he needs to suck more of them. Elvis in his walker and JFK in his wheelchair versus a mummy in a cowboy hat looks like, well, what you would imagine it would look like. And yet the horror in this movie isn’t simply the presence of the scarab beetles or Bubba Ho-Tep, it is the inevitability of death. Elvis, pondering how he went from being the king of rock and roll to an old guy in a retirement home, wonders "is there anything to life other than food, shit, and sex?" In part, this movie is a meditation on the true meaning and value of life (Elvis wanted to quit being "Elvis" once Priscilla left him), death (even our cultural icons aren’t immune to the ravages of age) and what happens afterwards (a cursed existence such as Bubba Ho-Tep’s).
The language of horror is the language of spirituality. No other genre, as a given part of its lexicon, deals with the depravity of man, the ontology/reality of evil, the nature of the soul, the reality of the supernatural, the nature of the afterlife, and the embrace of the tragedy of death. To quote from theologian Rich Vincent’s article "Holy Horror" (yes, in the interests of full disclosure, an article dedicated to me):
"The fear of death fuels horror stories. This fear is universal since death is immanent, inevitable, and unstoppable. At heart, every horror story is about our innate fear of death. Whether the fear is manifested through a random slasher, a mystery killer, a terrifying monster, or a perversion of immortality, the fear is the same: a person is endangered by an unspeakably powerful evil that threatens to destroy his or her most precious possession - life itself" The Mummy, Rich goes on to say "is a resurrection to a cursed existence. Like Adam, those who set free the
Mummy unleash the curse, bringing death in its wake. The eternally living-dead one, cloaked in the rags of death itself, exists only to bring misery and perpetuate the curse."
In horror movies, there is no argument about the moral relativity of our society. There is good and there is evil. This is not to say that, by any means, all horror movies are morally acceptable, but they shouldn’t be immediately dismissed. Yes, Bubba Ho-Tep is a cheesy mess of a movie, filled with humor, but not quite camp because it endearingly treats itself and its subject seriously. Much like the Evil Dead movies that first catapulted Bruce Campbell into cult status, this movie will find its place in the B-movie pantheon of greats. Vulgar, yet with characters you come to really like, it’s fun.
Taking place in an East Texas nursing home, Elvis (B-movie king Bruce Campbell) became sick of being "Elvis" and switched places with the greatest Elvis Presley impersonator, Sebastian Haff. So it was Sebastian that died on a toilet, not the real Elvis. But as Elvis Presley playing Sebastian Haff playing Elvis, he finds that neither his money nor fame can stave off the inevitable: time and death. His fellow resident, JFK (Ossie Davis) also waits for death in his room. Oh yeah, JFK, claims that his assassination was part of a government conspiracy, that’s why he’s now black (Lyndon B. Johnson had him dyed). As further proof of the movie’s sincerity, the two take each other at their word that they are who they say they are and move on.
So when Bubba Ho-Tep, a soul sucker who claims a soul through any orifice, comes a-calling, the two are pressed into action. Old folks souls being small, JFK explains, he needs to suck more of them. Elvis in his walker and JFK in his wheelchair versus a mummy in a cowboy hat looks like, well, what you would imagine it would look like. And yet the horror in this movie isn’t simply the presence of the scarab beetles or Bubba Ho-Tep, it is the inevitability of death. Elvis, pondering how he went from being the king of rock and roll to an old guy in a retirement home, wonders "is there anything to life other than food, shit, and sex?" In part, this movie is a meditation on the true meaning and value of life (Elvis wanted to quit being "Elvis" once Priscilla left him), death (even our cultural icons aren’t immune to the ravages of age) and what happens afterwards (a cursed existence such as Bubba Ho-Tep’s).
The language of horror is the language of spirituality. No other genre, as a given part of its lexicon, deals with the depravity of man, the ontology/reality of evil, the nature of the soul, the reality of the supernatural, the nature of the afterlife, and the embrace of the tragedy of death. To quote from theologian Rich Vincent’s article "Holy Horror" (yes, in the interests of full disclosure, an article dedicated to me):
"The fear of death fuels horror stories. This fear is universal since death is immanent, inevitable, and unstoppable. At heart, every horror story is about our innate fear of death. Whether the fear is manifested through a random slasher, a mystery killer, a terrifying monster, or a perversion of immortality, the fear is the same: a person is endangered by an unspeakably powerful evil that threatens to destroy his or her most precious possession - life itself" The Mummy, Rich goes on to say "is a resurrection to a cursed existence. Like Adam, those who set free the
Mummy unleash the curse, bringing death in its wake. The eternally living-dead one, cloaked in the rags of death itself, exists only to bring misery and perpetuate the curse."
In horror movies, there is no argument about the moral relativity of our society. There is good and there is evil. This is not to say that, by any means, all horror movies are morally acceptable, but they shouldn’t be immediately dismissed. Yes, Bubba Ho-Tep is a cheesy mess of a movie, filled with humor, but not quite camp because it endearingly treats itself and its subject seriously. Much like the Evil Dead movies that first catapulted Bruce Campbell into cult status, this movie will find its place in the B-movie pantheon of greats. Vulgar, yet with characters you come to really like, it’s fun.
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