Movie Review: Bubba Ho-Tep (2002 – Scream Factory 4K)

February 10, 2023

Written by DanXIII

Daniel XIII; the result of an arcane ritual involving a King Diamond album, a box of Count Chocula, and a copy of Swank magazine, is a screenwriter, director, producer, actor, artist, and reviewer of fright flicks…Who hates ya baby?

Bubba Ho-Tep is a straight up classic in our beloved horror biz, and I simply refuse to believe that any of you fine fiends haven’t seen this flick; but before I get down to brass tacks and tell you if this latest release of the film is worth your hard earned dough, I’ll do the standard sub-standard sinister synopsis for ya…

Elvis (Campbell) is alive and (un)well and residing in a nursing home (his “death” involved him changing places with an impersonator with a bad heart decades ago). While dealing with a life rapidly in decline and a defective pecker; ol’ E. also has to cope with soul eating, ancient Egyptian mummy that is stalking the halls of the facility he calls home. In order to end the menace, he teams up with a man that claims he is JFK (Davis), and together they embark on an epic, if arthritic, battle with evil incarnate in cowboy boots.

Funny, surreal, and packed with way more heart and sentiment than you would ever expect it to be; Bubba Ho-Tep is as fine a fright flick as you’ll ever see. Adding to the film’s irresistible appeal is the presence of major genre legends in front of and behind the camera…I mean come on; you have The Chin himself Bruce Campbell under the direction of Phantasm‘s Don Coscarelli in a tale loaded with mummies and madness, hell even Reggie Bannister briefly gets in on the fun!

Now the feature itself is well worth the price of admission; but I’m wagering most of you creeps already have ol’ Bubba sittin’ on your shelf. So why should you buy this new release of Bubba Ho-Tep?

Additionally, Scream Factory have loaded a sarcophagus load of bonus features on this 4K release!

First up you get a fun and engaging new commentary from the author of the short story that inspired the film, Joe R. Lansdale (the commentaries with Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell, as well as the one with “The King” from previous releases are included as well).

For starters, the new 4K transfer (sourced from the original camera negative) looks absoultely fan-fucking-tastic, with solid levels of film grain, eye-popping color, deep blacks (with no bleed), and warm skin tones… but the ral winner here is the detail level present that really showcases how superb both the make-up and costumes utilized for the production.

Also included on a separate Blu-ray version of the film are interviews with Coscarelli, Campbell (archival interviews with Bruce are included as well), and special effects artist Robert Kurtzman, and a bevy of archival features including; deleted scenes (with optional commentary), a “making of” featurette, featurettes on the films make-up, costumes, and music, a feature with Joe R. Lansdale reading from Bubba Ho-Tep, a music video, the film’s trailer and TV spot, and a still gallery… along with the aforementioned commentaries.

With the Graceland-sized amount of extras listed above, not to mention the sheer awesomeness of the flick itself, I think it’s safe to assume that you need to be on this release of Bubba Ho-Tep like The King would be on a peanut butter, bacon, and banana sammich! Highly recommended!

 

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