Of Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Bruce Campbell is genre royalty and has appeared in many films, but he is still best known to film lovers for Evil Dead franchise. If you’re like us, you find Campbell’s performances more addictive than a sugary soda from S-Mart and are always on the lookout for more movies featuring his handsome, slightly gummy face. If you’re ready to salute the king, here’s some good news: you can now stream Bubba Ho-TepCampbell’s weirdest movie, absolutely free on Tubi.
What the hell is that Bubba Ho-Tep If? Bruce Campbell plays an elderly man in a nursing home who claims to be the very much alive Elvis Presley. He teams up with Jack (played by Ossie Davis), a man who claims to be President John F. Kennedy, healed from the assassination attempt and turned into a black man. Together, they must stop a resurrected and rampaging Egyptian mummy, one that Campbell’s character playfully nicknames “Bubba Ho-Tep.”
Now, if you felt like you were having a stroke when you read that description, here’s fair warning: that’s pretty much what it feels like to watch it from start to finish. The film begins with a crazy premise about a long-dead celebrity and president teaming up to stop another kind evil dead. As a genre fan, I loved how this movie was weirder from beginning than most movies ever get, and it got delightfully weirder with each scene.
If you are a very literary geek, then the name Bubba Ho-Tep may sound familiar. That’s because it’s based on a short story of the same name written by Joe R. Lansdale. The movie is relatively faithful in its adaptation, so if you liked the novella, you’ll probably dig the movie (and vice versa). It’s a solid story made that much better by the inclusion of Bruce Campbell, who played against type as an older rock star despite being just 44 years old when the film came out.
Speaking of Bubba Ho-Teps fantastic story, it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Screenplay, a very prestigious horror award. That’s because the movie goes deeper than Bruce Campbell fighting the evil dead. It also addresses what it means to become old and irrelevant and the lengths people will go to feel they still matter. It’s a poignant meditation on age and aging, albeit in the form of a completely deranged horror comedy.
Bubba Ho-Tep wasn’t exactly a box office darling, grossing just $1.2 million against a $1 million budget. That was because it was mostly screened via film festivals rather than a traditional worldwide debut. Despite the very limited distribution, it didn’t take long for the film to win over critics and audiences alike.
On Rotten tomatoes, Bubba Ho-Tep has a critical score of 78 percent and an audience score of 79 percent. Critics generally praised how the film effortlessly combines bizarre and over-the-top comedy with sad and wistful nostalgia for lost youth and better days. You get the best of both worlds with this movie: it’s a Bruce Campbell horror comedy that might just make you cry when you least expect it.
Will Bubba Ho-Tep make you laugh, cry or maybe a bit of both? You won’t know until you stream it for free on Tubi. Afterwards, you may never look at Bruce Campbell the same way, and you’ll be able to take on all the so-called history experts in your orbit by reminding them that Elvis and JFK didn’t die decades ago and instead lived long enough to save the world of an evil mummy.
BUBBA HO-TEP REVIEW POLICE
