CS Daily Archive > DVD of the Day > 06/02/04

Don't Step on My Blue Suede Bedroom Slippers

by jason davis

A meticulous adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale's humorously horrific short story comes to DVD with a surprising amount of sentimentality and pathos that the premise might not suggest.

Bubba Ho-Tep

Don Coscarelli (also directed)
Based on the short story by Joe R. Lansdale

In an East Texas rest home, an aged Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) discovers that something is literally sucking the life out of the residents. When an elderly African-American man (Ossie Davis) who believes himself to be John F. Kennedy suggests that a revitalized Egyptian mummy is devouring their souls, the King and the ex-prez team up to take down Bubba Ho- Tep or go down fighting.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the production is the sentimentalism with which writer-director Don Coscarelli imbues his characters. The film is an excellent meditation on the plight of the elderly, featuring heartrending moments of retirement home life. For what is billed (and titled) as a comedy, the film offers a chilling commentary on society's forgotten members while cutting the criticism with black humor and dashes of over-the-top action. Bubba Ho- Tep is a strange brew, unsure of its place in cinema, but worth a look for the sheer ambition of its aspirations.

- Audio commentary by writer/director Don Coscarelli and actor Bruce Campbell
- Audio commentary by The King (Campbell comments in character)
- Joe R. Lansdale reads an excerpt from his short story, "Bubba Ho-Tep"
- Deleted scenes with optional commentary from Coscarelli & Campbell
- The Making of Bubba Ho-Tep
- "To Make a Mummy" (make-up effects documentary)
- "Fit For a King" (Elvis costuming documentary)
- "Rock Like an Egyptian" (music documentary)
- Music video for the film's theme
- Theatrical trailer
- TV spots

Coscarelli and Campbell's commentary wanders from production trivia to philosophical musings on the meaning of the film, but fails to offer as much insight into the adaptation of the short story into the film. Conversely, the brief snippets of chat that accompany the deleted scenes offer an account of the narration's evolution that should have been covered in better detail (see below). The real treasure is Lansdale's reading from the short story, which illustrates exactly how faithful the film remains to its source material.

According to Coscarelli, Bubba Ho-Tep took a rather circuitous route to its first-person narration. The film originally featured a third-person voiceover that preserved vast chunks of Lansdale's short story, but became a burden. Then an experimental dub session with Bruce Campbell led to The King's voice guiding the story. It would have been nice to have an alternate audio track with the original narration (which Coscarelli's friends vehemently encouraged him to remove).

Despite the film's unclear identity (Campbell calls it a "redemptive Elvis mummy movie"), Bubba Ho- Tep presents an enjoyable romp that might strain the audience's patience at times but offers a memorable message with regard to modern society's treatment of the elderly.

Bubba Ho-Tep
MGM Home Video
Rated R; 95 min.

Buy it now

At 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. He lives in Burbank.

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