Bubba Ho-Tep
00:35:40
About
This week, we’re discussing Don Coscarelli’s “Bubba Ho-Tep”, and usually at this point, we would write a few amusing sentences about the film. But nothing we can come up with beats this premise: Elvis Presley didn’t die and is now stuck in an Old People’s Home in Texas. He teams up with a fellow resident (a black man who claims to be a post-assassination JFK) to fight a soul-sucking Mummy in Cowboy boots. Seen and loved by many at the time of release, now 23 years later, “Bubba Ho-Tep” seems, sadly, overlooked. Despite its horror royalty combination of “Phantasm” creator Coscarelli behind the camera, and a magnificent portrayal of a bitter and forgotten Elvis/delusional Elvis impersonator by Bruce Campbell (in possibly his best role outside of “The Evil Dead”’s Ash), it just doesn’t seem to get mentioned much anymore. Which is a shame; Campbell’s marvellous double act with the impeccable Ossie Davis as JFK give this mondo idea some real humour and heart. Despite the madcap premise, the film is also a reflection on the regrets, sadness and indignities of old age, with Elvis mourning his lost potential, and his body’s decline (in a scatalogically graphic narration). Like its protagonists, this film shouldn’t be forgotten as it ages, but allowed its time to shine forever. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Even a big bitch cockroach like you should know...Never, but never, fuck with the King.
Famous lines
- "Thank you...Thank you very much."— Elvis
- "That's where they took a piece of my brain. They got it back in D.C. in that God damn jar."— JFK
- "Ask not what your rest home can do for you. Ask what you can do for your rest home."— Elvis
- "We're gonna kill us a mummy."— Elvis
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Adam's research
Verbatim lifts from Adam's own words in the episode. Click a timestamp to hear him say it.
- Ossie Davis's career and historical significance
I will tell you the one place that you have definitely seen him. He is Osmond Poitfoi from that first episode of Night Gallery. You know the one with Roddy McDowell where he's complete shit to him the whole way through. And he keeps calling him Potfoi. Osmond Potfoi. Yeah. That's Ossie Davis. But I mean Ossie Davis is like fucking royalty, you know, I mean he was um, you know, like part of the civil rights movement, he gave the eulogy at JFK's uh at Malcolm X's funeral. you know, he is like and he is a name, you know, certainly in terms of like um like black actors and stuff like that, you know, he was a serious contender.
- Joe R. Lansdale's work and collaboration with Don Coscarelli
Because so obviously it's based on the story by Joe R. Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale's a great author and he does sci-fi and true crime, not true crime like crime, mystery sort of stuff, he does sci-fi and westerns and horror and things like that. And um actually speaking of Dean, he he bought me. Joe R. Lansdale's book, I think it was Zeppelin, it's like Zeppelin's, Flaming Zeppelins, that was it, which was at two novellas to put together. Which is basically like a steampunk western with Jules Verne and Dracula in it. It's it's brilliant. Seriously, yeah, Dean bought it for me like, we're talking 20 odd years ago, you know, like a Christmas present or something like that. But it was just yeah, and it's a it's a great book, definitely, I recommend Joe R. Lansdale to as as an author to watch out for. And actually, him and Don Coscarelli um you know, Masters of Horror, um there's uh what is it, Incident on and off a mountain road, which is the very first episode. And that's Don Coscarelli again adapting a Joe R. Lansdale story. So. And I mean, I mean it's it's okay, I mean. Incident on and off a mountain road is not my first go-to of any of Masters of Horror. It's it's it's good, you know, it's pretty good. It's the very first one where it's a woman gets stuck like she it's a woman who's traveling alone in a car. And then it crashes and she ends up with this guy with a sort of like this giant bold. Possibly undead guy who takes her back to his cabin and he's got like he's basically going to kill her and then she turns it round and kills him. It's it's it's not it's it's sort of, you know, it's a pretty sort of bog standard slasher almost as as it sounds. It certainly is the least Don Coscarelli thing I've seen. If you see what I mean, is that it doesn't so it's it's a fairly straightforward narrative rather than. Oh this is popping up in it or this theory is coming to it or this narrative weirdness or whatever. So um but yeah, and um but yeah, so he wrote Bubba Ho-Tep for an anthology called The King Is Dead, which was like a sort of uh I which is like a it was 1994 like an anthology of stories about Elvis Presley basically. And. Like Clive Barker wrote in there as well. And stuff like that, but this is where Bubba Ho-Tep comes from.
- Origin of the Bubba Ho-Tep story
Don Coscarelli was like. Well, fuck me, I want this because that premise alone, I think it was almost like without reading. That's much as I was with the film. It was like, right, I need to see this, this is, you know, there's there's and then just things it was like I I read the I read about the premise, then I saw the director, then I saw Bruce Campbell, and I'm like, right, I'm in.
- Planned sequel, its development, and related media
Well, apparently, because the sequel Bubba Nosferatu Curse of the She-vampires, which is mentioned at the end of the film, it's at the end credits, it says Elvis will return in. Um and that was. Um Don Coscarelli and Joe R. Lansdale were both up for it. And then. But like you said, it's been that's basically been in development since this film came out. And still nothing's happened. Apparently Bruce Campbell said that he wasn't interested in doing the sequel at some point, and then at that point they were looking to get Ron Perlman to play Elvis maybe. Which I couldn't quite see. But I'm thinking, if you're still serious about doing this, while he's still around. Get fucking Nicolas Cage to play Elvis, because it's all he's wanted to do. Since he fucking grew pubes. You know what I mean? That's all he's wanted to do. So and I think he would be the right guy to play especially because the the premise of it cuz obviously again, we're back to spoiler alert, but obviously Elvis dies at the end of this. Yes. Um but. So uh Bubba Nosferatu is set before he shifted swap places and so it's Elvis back in the day with like Colonel Tom Parker his manager and everything. And they go to I think they're like touring and they go to Louisiana and meet a load of female vampires and Bubba Nosferatu and that's like, yeah. And there is there is a book of it, there is a book called called Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers. Because I think basically Joe R. Lansdale was like, well, we've written the fucking thing, the film's never going to happen, I might as well, you know, I might as well actually release it. So and it also got released as a comic. Um at some point. Um but that was when did he do, yeah, Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers came out in 2017, so I'm going to try and get hold of that, I think, because I need to know the rest.
- Army of Darkness Bubba Ho-Tep comic crossover
Apparently there's also an Army of Darkness Bubba Ho-Tep crossover that came out in the comics a few years back as well. But I think that's just again, people were like, well, it's Bruce Campbell and Bruce Campbell, so we'll put that together at the you know, so. I'm not entirely sure how the evil dead Elvis thing would work, but there you go. And that might be interesting to see because it'd be like surely that would highlight the differences between Ash and Elvis. Because he's not playing Ash in this, you know, this is a, you know, this is a this is a much different beast. And. Yeah, just incredibly, incredibly, it has to be said.
- DVD special features, Bruce Campbell commentary
That the DVD, by the way, also has, I think yours would be the same, Lee, because I think they carried it across all the releases. Because it did get a it did get a UK release in the end and so on. Um but um there's two commentaries on there. There's one which is Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell just doing a standard commentary. But there's also uh Bruce Campbell in character as Elvis doing a commentary. But. But it's not Elvis as in watching himself in the film, this is Elvis has has survived, but he's watching this film that is a fictional account of his life. And he's like going, I will this guy Bruce Campbell who done he he can't get me, he can't do me. And so and it's it's beyond like textural at that point. It's like a joke on a joke on a joke, it's really. mad, I think I I I remember watching that at the time. Uh but uh. I had imagine I was in a very uh very elaborate mental state at that point. So an enhanced state. So I can't really I can't recall that much about it, but I do remember laughing my tiny little butt off at it.
- Film's independent production and marketing
You know, just a a small film. And it's packed with stuff, you've got you know, on there, you've got so many delete scenes and everything else like stuff that you would really unlikely to get on something this independent. Because I mean that's the thing, this this that the publicity for this film was Bruce Campbell was doing a book tour for if Chins could Kill. And he took the film with him as part of the as part of the tour. So you've got to you've got to meet Bruce Campbell. He'd signed the book, he'd do a Q&A and then you'd watch Bubba Ho-Tep, it's a pretty fucking good night out, you know.
- Comparison to 'The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot'
Well, there was that there was a slightly similar film um a few years back. What was it the the man who killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot? And it's a it's kind of similar but just it's just not it's not in the same it's not in the same league as Bubba Ho-Tep as far as I'm concerned. It just it was that film weirdly enough for what it was, felt like it was taking itself just a wee bit too seriously. Even even with that title, you know. It was it it's it's a good film, but I mean the trouble is now if you watched it, you've just watched Bubba Ho-Tep and you'll just go Bubba Ho-Tep did this better. Because it is the same thing, it's basically a guy recalling his youth where he was part of the assassination squad who killed Hitler. And then his old CIA buddies come round and he has to kill Bigfoot because Bigfoot's carrying a disease. And. It's it's a similar sort of thing, you know, it's sort of a man in the woods with a guy who's had the skills but has no longer as able as he was or whatever like that. But again, it just that weirdly enough is just a bit more. A bit more sort of genuinely depressing.
- Film's budget constraints and music/footage usage
Because because obviously on a budget level, they couldn't use any music. They couldn't use anything like the bit where it's they're saying a marathon of Elvis films, none of those are clips from Elvis films because they couldn't fucking afford them. They're just like off cut stock footage of like people from the 50s, you know.
- Supporting cast and their connections
I I think it does. I mean and curiously enough, I think that's the thing is also we're not really talking because there's not really it's basically a two-hander. Because obviously Bubba Ho-Tep is a character but not. Uh it's not a speaking part, he's a monster who's just there. And then you've got Ella Joyce who plays the nurse who's brilliant, I think she's so good in this, she really is for you know. And it's it's a she's basically the next major role. And she's not in it that much, you know. And then and then you've got Reggie Bannister who's the head of the care home who's obviously from Phantasm that we'll we'll probably get into Reggie Bannister at a subsequent date, shall we say.
Highlights
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamNo, I'm Adam.
LeeAnd we're back this evening again for another classic movie. well, I know Adam and I believe so, we'll get Chris's take in a second. We are here to discuss 2002's Bubba Ho-Tep.
Leejust a very quick run through. There will be spoilers and swearing. for anyone who hasn't seen this movie and just needs a rough idea of what it's about.
LeeElvis is not dead. He swapped place with an impersonator and the impersonator died. He was unable to get his identity back.
LeeHe now lives in a retirement home in Texas. He shares a room with a black man who believes that he is JFK, who has been dyed by the CIA.
Leeand a mummy is coming into the old people's home and sucking their souls out. And Elvis and JFK decide that nobody else is going to save all the old folks so they're going to do it.
LeeIs that a fair rundown of this bat shit story?
AdamThat's good, that's a pretty good rundown, yeah.
AdamAnd that is what I come to movies for.
LeeIt is, it's one of those, if you just told somebody that.
LeeI mean, I think I did, I think Adam when this was first going to come out, I think you told me new Don Coscarelli film is coming out, this is the story. And I was like, well, I don't think I've ever been so excited for a movie. This really.
AdamEspecially when you drop in the name Bruce Campbell. That's the added little touch.
LeeYes, yeah, absolutely.
ChrisI do have to say though, that set me up for expecting something slightly different, because you're like, well, I've seen Evil Dead, I know I know what's going to happen in this. And then there's a curveball thrown at you, and you're like, whoa, there is quite a bit more going on in this than you first expect.
ChrisOh, really?
ChrisEspecially, I mean, you know, the premise, like, Elvis Presley. I mean, it's got to be the best Elvis Presley death conspiracy story ever.
AdamYeah, already fantastic.
ChrisYeah. That on its own is a great movie.
ChrisBut you think it's going to be just so absurd and then it's got this kind of tragic, actually, pretty serious, and the way he plays it, he's like really impressive.
ChrisBecause you're like, yeah, he is silly, they're in a weird situation, clearly, or with JFK as well. And then, but then it's actually got some kind of real sadness to it as well. It's like.
AdamIt's got a real heart to it because it's, weirdly enough, it's kind of a meditation on.
AdamAging and getting old, yeah, getting old and the sort of disappointments of life and not having the wherewithal that you used to have or the oomph.
ChrisAbsolutely.
AdamBut it's also a mummy film with Elvis and JFK.
AdamAnd to to my mind, that is far more appealing than someone I I mean, I've I've had my sort of teenage goth phase with movies, where it's like, oh yeah, it's it's a film about how depressing it is to get old, it's in Russian, in snow, in black and white, you could barely, you know, you will be disturbed by the end of it.
AdamWhereas this, you know, it's like, I got all of that plus a fun ride.
Chrisstrips the line perfectly. It's so well balanced.
LeeAbsolutely.
LeeYeah, as you say, his kind of monologues and things are quite, yeah, are quite serious and quite heartfelt and then.
LeeThen you remember.
LeeYeah.
AdamOh yeah, there's a mummy running around.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd I love, I mean, the one thing I would say with your with your synopsis there, Lee, is that he doesn't share a room with JFK, because the interesting thing is, I'm assuming that JFK's family are pretty well off because he's got a lovely room. Whereas, where he's here. Yeah, whereas, which is also I just love the details of he's got all the suspects on the wall and he's got like clay shore and Lee Harvey Oswald and everything else like that, and he's got the diarama and everything. It's yeah.
LeeYeah, he's rich.
LeeIt's huge.
LeeYes.
AdamWhereas because Elvis or possibly Sebastian Harf, because that's the that's the other thing I like with the film is the film has like as far as Elvis is concerned, JFK's delusional.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, it's like clearly the CIA didn't take JFK, replace his brain with sand and him black to hide him away.
AdamBut as far as Elvis is concerned, as far as everyone else is concerned, that's as delusional as I'm actually Elvis. I'm not Elvis. I'm impersonator. I'm Elvis. And and the film kind of lets you live with both.
LeeYes.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, if you want to read it as two delusional men or one delusional man and one who actually is telling the truth or both are.
ChrisAnd either way, somehow, it manages to make them look good, and it doesn't matter which of those stories are true.
ChrisThey look good if they're made if it's all made up, they're doing, you know, they're having sort of one last great heroic time, or they're making a comeback and that's also great. And they're not, they're delusional, but they're still capable.
AdamWell, I think that's one of the the lovely bits because I mean it's quite I mean that's the thing the film doesn't I think that's the when someone tells you that, like you say, especially with Bruce Campbell involved, you assume it's going to be just a wacky. Yeah, and it's actually quite sedate, it's a bit, you know, it's quite a slow start to it and everything.
AdamYou've got the lovely sides with the two guys from the funeral home, keep picking up bodies and everything.
LeeYeah.
ChrisJust just about picking them up.
AdamOne one of whom's in he's the ruler in John dies at the end, another Don Coscarelli film that we've covered. Again, Don Coscarelli, batshit crazy films.
AdamAnd yeah, and he's also Grandpa Munster in the Rob Zombie Monsters.
LeeIs he? I didn't recognize him from that.
LeeI need to rewatch I only saw it when it I saw it the day it was released and I haven't watched it again.
LeeI think it might be due a second watch.
AdamYeah, but I but I think that yeah, you and it's yeah, there's there's just some lovely sort of touches in it and everything else like that that sort of.
AdamBecause the interesting thing is he's obviously yes, it's Elvis, but it's not Elvis that it's it's not Elvis as he was because you're not playing that Elvis, you're playing an Elvis who's been left out in the wild for years.
LeeYeah.
AdamFour.
AdamBecause I was because I was trying to look I was trying to work it out in terms of so Elvis dies in 77 and Priscilla leaves him in 72 and they're divorced by 73, so it's got to be in that window that they switch over.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo and he's not quite, you know, he's not quite bloated Vegas Elvis.
LeeNo.
AdamIn the flashback sort of sequence, is he? So he's he's fast approaching it, obviously.
AdamBut yeah, it's and I just love that idea that it's just like, well, he loved the drink and drugs as much as I did, he just couldn't take it as well as.
LeeSo so it wasn't quite what you expected, Chris.
LeeBut did you still enjoy it?
ChrisYeah.
ChrisNo, like, absolutely should have seen this, whatever, basically when it came out 20 odd years ago.
ChrisWell, yeah.
ChrisYou should have shown me this like about six years ago, maybe seven.
ChrisWhat we on now?
LeeYeah, seven, eight, seven, yeah.
AdamWell, this also, thinking about it, we were bitching or certainly I was at the start of the year, we've never done a mummy film.
LeeYeah.
LeeNow we have.
AdamAnd then it's like, and now we've well we did the mummy, but also we've now done this and it's like, why didn't that even occur?
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamI mean it doesn't it doesn't feature quite the same what you'd imagine the tropes from a mummy film.
AdamI do I do love the idea that he's writing hieroglyphic on the fog wall.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah, trying to make it easy and stuff like that.
AdamYeah, that's it.
LeeCleopatra does that too.
LeeThat's those lines that just make me laugh, so that may be love and the other one that may be fully laugh out loud was the serious look on JFK's face when he says.
LeeAnd I woke up, I was face down and his mouth was right on my asshole.
ChrisYeah.
LeeWhich wasn't what I expected.
AdamI I to be honest, it's it's obviously been quite a while since I've seen this.
AdamEspecially because now now I'm now I'm realizing how fucking old it is.
AdamThat it's like 23 years and more to the point, I'm like, in the back of my head, oh yeah, everyone's watched Bubba Ho-Tep, everyone knows Bubba Ho-Tep and now I'm beginning to think, maybe they haven't.
AdamMaybe this is something that's been left behind in the midst of time and I I think more people, you know, it should still be getting it should still be doing the rounds.
LeeDefinitely.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisAnd this would absolutely appeal to people not into horror as well, like it's just so well told.
AdamI mean the horror aspect is window dressing really. There's nothing.
AdamThe mummy is, I mean, the bit walking down the corridor is quite eerie and quite scary, but in essence, that's not what it's about, you know, I mean, it's yeah, it's more their story and their sort of like.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah, definitely.
AdamBuddy movie.
LeeYeah, the camaraderie between them rather than it being a straight up.
LeeYeah, we need to kill this. Like and that and that's I like that because as you say, you're definitely right, you could show this to somebody who doesn't like horror because as you say, even the scene in the hallway, the lighting and everything is so over the top.
ChrisYeah.
LeeIt's not scary to anyone but it's just brilliantly done and it's never going to be scary because it's not that movie. It's a it's a ridiculous movie. So like it's never going to be scary and that's why it's just.
LeeSo, did Claire watch this as well, Adam?
AdamClaire watched it. Unfortunately, Claire has had what can best be described as a fucking long week back at school. She's I mean, the other day, I mean, I presume obviously we had downpour to, you know, and she's taking Ted to school and got soaked to the skin and you know, it's just been it's been a long week.
ChrisOh, yeah.
AdamAnd it's quite a mellow movie.
LeeYes.
AdamAnd Claire basically tapped out like literally fell asleep about an hour in.
AdamAt which point I'm like.
AdamGo to bed.
AdamBut, and here's the telling thing.
AdamIs last night when we we watched it Friday.
AdamAnd we're recording on the Sunday if anyone's keeping track.
Adamand then yesterday, just before we went to bed.
AdamClaire just went to me.
AdamAre you going to sleep now?
AdamAnd I was like.
AdamWhy?
AdamAnd she said.
AdamWhat happens at the end of Bubba Ho-Tep?
LeeYeah.
AdamSo she still wanted to know, you know.
AdamAnd it was but I think bless her, yeah, just.
AdamBut I mean that was the thing the thing that Claire really enjoyed was the idea that once they've.
AdamOnce they have established there is a soul sucking mummy with sort of Texan influence wandering around this old folks home sucking people's souls out of their ass holes.
AdamThey've then got to they've got to try and tell that to people who are already going, oh of course, yeah, from the two guys, one of them's Elvis and one of them's JFK.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah, because you guys are like, you know.
AdamModel witnesses. And even even that sort of level of self-knowledge of like.
AdamWell, of course we couldn't tell them that. What would be the point? Is anything going to happen.
AdamAnd yeah, I think it's.
AdamI I love, I mean, that Interestingly enough cuz she she she tapped out and and it was just just before that bit.
AdamThat is the bit where your hair stand up on the back of your neck.
AdamWhere it's like they're going through their list, they've decided, right, fuck it, we're tackling this mummy. They're going through the list and it's check, check.
AdamAnd then it's like battle dress.
LeeYeah.
AdamA big check where he's got the he's got the white rhinestone jumpsuit.
AdamAnd JFK's got the fucking sharpest suit you've seen and you're like, you know, he looks the business.
AdamAnd just them going down the corridor despite the fact one of them's on a walker, one of them's on a on a wheelchair.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd the music's going and everything else like that.
AdamAnd it's like, yeah, you you really sort of it has that's when it feels a bit it's almost a bit western at that point because it feels like, you know.
AdamThat's a proper showdown entrance, you know, that they're going to. and but again, it's that lovely thing as well where just, you know, they're out there waiting for him and then Elvis is sort of thinking in his head.
AdamWhat the hell are we doing? You know, what all that's going to happen is he's going to turn around and he's is it?
AdamHe's going to shove that wheelchair up Jack's ass and then he's going to shove both of them up me.
AdamLike.
LeeIt's it's got to be said so Ossie Davis who plays Jack JFK.
LeeI haven't seen him in anything I don't think particularly.
AdamI will tell you the one place that you have definitely seen him.
AdamHe is Osmond Poitfoi from that first episode of Night Gallery. You know the one with Roddy McDowell where he's complete shit to him the whole way through.
LeeYes.
AdamAnd he keeps calling him Potfoi.
LeeYeah.
AdamOsmond Potfoi. Yeah.
AdamThat's Ossie Davis.
AdamBut I mean Ossie Davis is like fucking royalty, you know, I mean he was you know, like part of the civil rights movement, he gave the eulogy at JFK's at Malcolm X's funeral. you know, he is like and he is a name, you know, certainly in terms of like like black actors and stuff like that, you know, he was a serious contender.
Lee
AdamBut I mean he is so good in this.
LeeIncredible, absolutely incredible.
LeeLike he's he's got that seriousness down.
LeeBut he's he's just got such a lovely soft edge to it and he's he's comedy timing, like I was saying with the the line about waking up when Bubba Ho-Tep's over.
LeeIt's just impeccable, he is so funny.
AdamIt's it's lovely as well because him and Bruce Campbell compliment each other.
AdamBut like they're, you know, Ossie Davis is like sort of, you know, stage and screen and sort of, you know, real sort of heavyweight projects and stuff like that.
AdamAnd Bruce Campbell, you know, is a man who fought himself in a shed in a woods.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd has been doing so ever since, you know, but it's.
ChrisAnd they somehow they work so well together.
AdamTogether, they are so good. And actually, one of the thing, one of the touches I really love is the first is the one time he calls him Mr. President is when he phones him to say, right, I'm in.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYes, yes.
AdamYou know, because what is it your care home can do for you, not what you can do for your care.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisHe's like taking my lungs, taking my lungs.
AdamAnd it's just yeah.
AdamSo, oh yeah.
AdamI just.
AdamI think Bruce Campbell does play a very good not quite obvious.
ChrisAs well. I think Bruce Campbell does play a very good not quite Elvis.
ChrisBecause it's like he's not meant to be exactly Elvis, you know, as you said, this is a he's later on and.
ChrisSo he would be slightly more toned down.
ChrisSo he just captures that just right.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's not Elvis at his excessive peak.
AdamThis is Elvis who tapped out and basically ended up.
ChrisBut you can absolutely still still get a serious Elvis result from him. He's like, yeah, that's it's not a ridiculous one.
AdamI mean, the one thing I must say is I'd completely forgotten quite howological the film is, I'd forgotten quite how much he goes on about his dick rotting off.
ChrisYeah.
LeeHe's funny. I was chatting to my brother last night and he's doing so him and his son, he's showing him a lot of films at the moment like RoboCop and those type of things. And I and I mentioned to him and I said, oh, you should show him Bubba Ho-Tep and he said, I don't think he's ready for all that talk about what's wrong with his dick. And I was like, I thought I don't remember it being that much and then what I put it on, I was like, oh, it's we're five minutes in, he's mentioned his cock three times already.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd he and he has a singing detective moment of having to have himself greased and everything else.
LeeYeah.
LeeSorry to break your flow there, Adam, but.
AdamBut but no, I think I think that's the thing is I'd just forgotten that it was.
AdamBecause so obviously it's based on the story by Joe R. Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale's a great author and he does sci-fi and true crime, not true crime like crime, mystery sort of stuff, he does sci-fi and westerns and horror and things like that.
AdamAnd actually speaking of Dean, he he bought me.
AdamJoe R. Lansdale's book, I think it was Zeppelin, it's like Zeppelin's, Flaming Zeppelins, that was it, which was at two novellas to put together.
AdamWhich is basically like a steampunk western with Jules Verne and Dracula in it.
LeeWhat?
LeeWhy have I never heard of this?
AdamIt's it's brilliant.
AdamSeriously, yeah, Dean bought it for me like, we're talking 20 odd years ago, you know, like a Christmas present or something like that.
AdamBut it was just yeah, and it's a it's a great book, definitely, I recommend Joe R. Lansdale to as as an author to watch out for.
AdamAnd actually, him and Don Coscarelli you know, Masters of Horror, there's what is it, Incident on and off a mountain road, which is the very first episode. And that's Don Coscarelli again adapting a Joe R. Lansdale story.
LeeOh.
AdamSo.
AdamAnd I mean, I mean it's it's okay, I mean.
AdamIncident on and off a mountain road is not my first go-to of any of Masters of Horror.
LeeWhich one is that?
AdamIt's it's it's good, you know, it's pretty good.
LeeWhich one is that?
AdamIt's the very first one where it's a woman gets stuck like she it's a woman who's traveling alone in a car.
AdamAnd then it crashes and she ends up with this guy with a sort of like this giant bold.
AdamPossibly undead guy who takes her back to his cabin and he's got like he's basically going to kill her and then she turns it round and kills him.
AdamIt's it's it's not it's it's sort of, you know, it's a pretty sort of bog standard slasher almost as as it sounds.
AdamIt certainly is the least Don Coscarelli thing I've seen.
AdamIf you see what I mean, is that it doesn't so it's it's a fairly straightforward narrative rather than.
AdamOh this is popping up in it or this theory is coming to it or this narrative weirdness or whatever.
AdamSo but yeah, and but yeah, so he wrote Bubba Ho-Tep for an anthology called The King Is Dead, which was like a sort of I which is like a it was 1994 like an anthology of stories about Elvis Presley basically.
AdamAnd.
AdamLike Clive Barker wrote in there as well.
AdamAnd stuff like that, but this is where Bubba Ho-Tep comes from.
AdamAnd then.
AdamDon Coscarelli was like.
AdamWell, fuck me, I want this because that premise alone, I think it was almost like without reading.
AdamThat's much as I was with the film.
AdamIt was like, right, I need to see this, this is, you know, there's there's and then just things it was like I I read the I read about the premise, then I saw the director, then I saw Bruce Campbell, and I'm like, right, I'm in.
AdamYou don't have to keep it.
AdamAnd and unlike a lot of the time when that sort of thing happens, you know, where you're like, oh, this is going to be amazing because it's got this person in it, and they've brought that in, and they're doing this, and that musician's doing it, whatever like that.
AdamAnd then the end you're like, yeah, it was okay.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut your brain has told you it's going to be so much more. Whereas this, I think it was like, yeah, just there was a lot of there was a lot of expectation.
AdamBut I think it sort of it.
AdamIt it certainly works.
AdamYou know, it's so sort of.
Adam
AdamYeah, again, I just wonder that people should see it more.
AdamOr it should be spoken about more.
AdamBecause I think it's just one of those fun little gems that people might miss.
ChrisYeah, definitely.
LeeYeah, I don't I don't think it gets mentioned anywhere near as much as it should.
LeeAnd and obviously there was the talk of a sequel as well, a few years back, unfortunately, never came to fruition, but
LeeI I yeah, I I could have definitely done with the sequel to that.
AdamWell, apparently, because the sequel Bubba Nosferatu Curse of the She-vampires, which is mentioned at the end of the film, it's at the end credits, it says Elvis will return in.
Adamand that was.
AdamDon Coscarelli and Joe R. Lansdale were both up for it.
AdamAnd then.
AdamBut like you said, it's been that's basically been in development since this film came out.
LeeYeah, for 20.
AdamAnd still nothing's happened.
LeeYears.
AdamApparently Bruce Campbell said that he wasn't interested in doing the sequel at some point, and then at that point they were looking to get Ron Perlman to play Elvis maybe.
AdamWhich I couldn't quite see.
AdamBut I'm thinking, if you're still serious about doing this, while he's still around.
AdamGet fucking Nicolas Cage to play Elvis, because it's all he's wanted to do.
AdamSince he fucking grew pubes.
AdamYou know what I mean?
AdamThat's all he's wanted to do.
AdamSo and I think he would be the right guy to play especially because the the premise of it cuz obviously again, we're back to spoiler alert, but obviously Elvis dies at the end of this. Yes.
Adambut.
AdamSo Bubba Nosferatu is set before he shifted swap places and so it's Elvis back in the day with like Colonel Tom Parker his manager and everything.
AdamAnd they go to I think they're like touring and they go to Louisiana and meet a load of female vampires and Bubba Nosferatu and that's like, yeah.
AdamAnd there is there is a book of it, there is a book called called Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers.
LeeOh, is there?
AdamBecause I think basically Joe R. Lansdale was like, well, we've written the fucking thing, the film's never going to happen, I might as well, you know, I might as well actually release it.
AdamSo and it also got released as a comic.
Adamat some point.
Adambut that was when did he do, yeah, Bubba and the Cosmic Bloodsuckers came out in 2017, so I'm going to try and get hold of that, I think, because I need to know the rest.
LeeI have.
AdamApparently there's also an Army of Darkness Bubba Ho-Tep crossover that came out in the comics a few years back as well.
AdamBut I think that's just again, people were like, well, it's Bruce Campbell and Bruce Campbell, so we'll put that together at the you know, so.
AdamI'm not entirely sure how the evil dead Elvis thing would work, but there you go.
AdamAnd that might be interesting to see because it'd be like surely that would highlight the differences between Ash and Elvis.
AdamBecause he's not playing Ash in this, you know, this is a, you know, this is a this is a much different beast.
AdamAnd.
AdamYeah, just incredibly, incredibly, it has to be said.
LeeYeah, it's just so much fun.
LeeIt's it's it's a film I've seen yeah, several times, but I don't know what I think when it first came out, it was one of those films that was almost a fortnightly watch.
LeeSo I think I probably watched it six or seven times in the first year or so of it coming out and then sort of burnt out on it a bit, so yeah, it's just been sitting on the shelf and still in the cellophane.
LeeSitting on the shelf for the last 10 or 15 years and I hadn't quite got it down, but yeah, it's.
AdamWell, I had to dig out my I I had to dig out my multi-region DVD player, because my DVD was import, because obviously when it first came out, it was it wasn't coming over here anytime soon.
LeeNo.
AdamYou know, just either as a theatrical release or on fucking DVD.
AdamSo I yeah, I've imported it.
AdamI got an import DVD of it back like when it first came out.
AdamAnd
AdamThat the DVD, by the way, also has, I think yours would be the same, Lee, because I think they carried it across all the releases.
AdamBecause it did get a it did get a UK release in the end and so on.
Adambut there's two commentaries on there.
AdamThere's one which is Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell just doing a standard commentary.
AdamBut there's also Bruce Campbell in character as Elvis doing a commentary.
LeeOf course there is.
AdamBut.
AdamBut it's not Elvis as in watching himself in the film, this is Elvis has has survived, but he's watching this film that is a fictional account of his life.
AdamAnd he's like going, I will this guy Bruce Campbell who done he he can't get me, he can't do me.
AdamAnd so and it's it's beyond like textural at that point.
AdamIt's like a joke on a joke on a joke, it's really.
Adammad, I think I I I remember watching that at the time.
Adambut
AdamI had imagine I was in a very very elaborate mental state at that point.
AdamSo an enhanced state.
AdamSo I can't really I can't recall that much about it, but I do remember laughing my tiny little butt off at it.
LeeSo.
LeeI am definitely going to have to go back and rewatch it again soon and I think that is the tipping point for me. That will get it back off the shelf in the next few weeks maybe if I'm going to watch it with that that'd be great.
AdamWell, it's that lovely time as well where it was like, oh yeah, people actually gave a shit about DVD extras and things like that.
AdamAnd
AdamYou know, just a a small film.
AdamAnd it's packed with stuff, you've got you know, on there, you've got so many delete scenes and everything else like stuff that you would really unlikely to get on something this independent.
AdamBecause I mean that's the thing, this this that the publicity for this film was Bruce Campbell was doing a book tour for if Chins could Kill.
LeeRight.
AdamAnd he took the film with him as part of the as part of the tour.
AdamSo you've got to you've got to meet Bruce Campbell.
AdamHe'd signed the book, he'd do a Q&A and then you'd watch Bubba Ho-Tep, it's a pretty fucking good night out, you know.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeThat is amazing.
AdamBut that but that's weird that it's almost like, you know.
AdamIt's it's Bruce Campbell a Bruce Campbell film directed by the guy who did Phantasm and still it was like, can we pick you back on your book tour because we we need to get this out here.
AdamBut there's no.
AdamOddly enough.
AdamAgain, it's that thing of what why people don't want because I think people do want novelty, that's the key, whereas something like this, you know, if you if they'd have publicized this or or got it out there.
AdamI think far more people would have seen it, and like you say, it doesn't have to be it's not for a strictly horror audience, you know.
AdamIt's it.
AdamYou don't have to be hardcore horror or a Bruce Campbell fan or even a an Elvis fan or anything like that to enjoy this film, you know.
ChrisYeah, yeah, there's something there for you, whatever.
LeeYeah. And I think that's why I thought it was going to have a massive, so after it's initial, you know, release at the cinema, that's what I thought, well, obviously it was a long wait, as you say, for it to come out on DVD, and I thought, when it comes out on DVD, it's going to be one of those ones that doesn't do much at the box office, and then as soon as it lands on DVD, word's going to be out and it's going to go mental, and it didn't, it just kind of fizzled out a release.
LeeAnd.
LeeI know it's it has got a cult following, but it definitely deserves so much more than it's getting.
AdamI I think it's one of those films where all of us who were watching horror at the time or were sort of had our ears to the ground on sort of cult movie, weird movie or whatever like that.
AdamWe all saw it, but it never sort of ingrained into the consciousness of.
AdamYou you know, more people where it's not like one people have heard of Evil Dead even if they're not seen it.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, you could it's but this is like you know, if I said to someone I watched Bubba Ho-Tep at the weekend, that's probably that's probably 95% blank looks.
LeeYes.
AdamAnd a couple of but also a couple of people where you've made their fucking day.
LeeYeah, yeah, definitely.
AdamOh my God, I haven't seen that in years. It's a great film.
ChrisI I'm going to blame the title slightly because I remember when you both first mentioned it, I was like, I I don't I don't have any idea what that's going to be about.
ChrisBut also I didn't know what Ho-Tep meant at the time.
ChrisOnly really learned that, I think when we watched The Mummy.
AdamI think that's the thing.
AdamIs maybe they should have gone for a more like Kiss versus the Martians.
AdamThey should have just been Elvis and JFK fighting a mummy.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah, I yeah, I check that out.
LeeThat sells itself, wouldn't it? All day long.
AdamWell, there was that there was a slightly similar film a few years back.
AdamWhat was it the the man who killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot?
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's a it's kind of similar but just it's just not it's not in the same it's not in the same league as Bubba Ho-Tep as far as I'm concerned.
AdamIt just it was that film weirdly enough for what it was, felt like it was taking itself just a wee bit too seriously.
LeeYeah, that's what I.
AdamEven even with that title, you know.
AdamIt was it it's it's a good film, but I mean the trouble is now if you watched it, you've just watched Bubba Ho-Tep and you'll just go Bubba Ho-Tep did this better.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause it is the same thing, it's basically a guy recalling his youth where he was part of the assassination squad who killed Hitler.
AdamAnd then his old CIA buddies come round and he has to kill Bigfoot because Bigfoot's carrying a disease.
AdamAnd.
AdamIt's it's a similar sort of thing, you know, it's sort of a man in the woods with a guy who's had the skills but has no longer as able as he was or whatever like that.
AdamBut again, it just that weirdly enough is just a bit more.
AdamA bit more sort of genuinely depressing.
AdamWhereas it's like, yeah, but he also trapped a scarab beetle in a bedpan.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and and did the kung fu.
AdamAnd I love I love the fact that taking care of business, which obviously catchphrase keeps coming up as well.
AdamBecause because obviously on a budget level, they couldn't use any music.
AdamThey couldn't use anything like the bit where it's they're saying a marathon of Elvis films, none of those are clips from Elvis films because they couldn't fucking afford them.
AdamThey're just like off cut stock footage of like people from the 50s, you know.
AdamSo.
AdamBut but yeah, I I think that.
AdamI I mean, I don't know, I'm sure there's hardcore Elvis fans when they think it's a bit disrespectful to the king.
AdamBut I always just think of that bit from the day to day where it's like, is this disrespectful to the memory of the to the memory of Elvis Presley?
AdamNo ma'am, King did there himself by dying on the john in a big nappet.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, there is there is a certain amount of truth to that.
AdamSo.
ChrisYeah, if anything, this kind of redeems him if you.
AdamI think.
ChrisThink.
AdamI I think it does. I mean and curiously enough, I think that's the thing is also we're not really talking because there's not really it's basically a two-hander.
AdamBecause obviously Bubba Ho-Tep is a character but not.
Adamit's not a speaking part, he's a monster who's just there.
AdamAnd then you've got Ella Joyce who plays the nurse who's brilliant, I think she's so good in this, she really is for you know.
LeeShe's fantastic.
AdamAnd it's it's a she's basically the next major role.
AdamAnd she's not in it that much, you know.
AdamAnd then and then you've got Reggie Bannister who's the head of the care home who's obviously from Phantasm that we'll we'll probably get into Reggie Bannister at a subsequent date, shall we say.
Adambut yeah, I think that the, you know.
AdamIt's it's a very small film, but it's a small film with a real lot heart to it as well.
AdamBecause I think it's one of those things that just weirdly enough, like you said, it bypasses the cynicism at the end.
AdamYou know, because normally I'd be like, a man expires and sees a message in the sky, that's fucking shit.
AdamI'm fucking.
AdamOver the moon in this because it's like, thank fuck for that.
AdamElvis got to got his final Hurrah, you know. And I mean even down to that, that's a lovely bit where they're just sitting there going.
Adamwell, we could have both been better fathers to our children, couldn't we? stuff like that. And he like, yeah, probably JFK and Elvis certainly could have.
LeeYeah.
Leeyes, so on that note.
LeeAs Adam has just alluded to, we have decided that for our next episode in a fortnight's time, as we haven't yet covered it, we're going to stick with Don Coscarelli and we are going to cover Phantasm.
Lee
LeeA film that the poster is ingrained in my childhood.
LeeIt's just it was in you know, like the Elm Streets and everything that that poster was in every video shop window, every off license that had a video rail had that on it.
Leeand it's bat shit.
AdamYeah.
AdamThat is that that is one of those Phantasm is definitely one of those things.
AdamWhere it's like it's it's said it's uttered in those video shop lists or like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and all that.
AdamPhantasm, fuck me, Chris, you're in for a you're in for a trick.
AdamYou might because.
AdamBoy does this this has big ideas and they are presented in such a mad way.
LeeAnd they don't always line up with one another.
LeeBut we'll allow that to cuz it's it's a lovely film.
Leeoh and it's so 70s.
LeeIt makes me feel sick.
LeeBut.
LeeWe won't talk too much about that now.
LeeSo.
LeeThanks ever so much for listening, everybody.
Leego and check out Bubba Ho-Tep.
LeeYes, go and reassociate yourself with Phantasm and we will see you in a fortnight's time for that.
LeeThanks very much, good night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
UnknownGood everyone, thank you.
