Bubba Ho-Tep

by | Dec 30, 2021 | Film, Fun | 156 comments

Bubba Ho-Tep

It’s Christmas Day, and I am writing about Bubba Ho-Tep on my phone in a room full of vets with a giant eggnog in my other hand. This might affect the quality of this post. Why did I pick Bubba Ho-Tep for New Years? Honestly this is a favorite film of mine and I am glad to have a chance to introduce it to any one who hasn’t heard of it. This is well written, well acted and enjoyable for almost anyone who qualifies as an adult.

The plot reads like a bar joke: Elvis and John F Kennedy meet and Egyptian mummy in an old folks’ home. As a punchline, the mummy sucks the soul out of your asshole.

Bubba Ho-Tep is based off of a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, a man who has written over 40 novels and won more than ten Bram Stoker awards. Joe is also a martial arts instructor, and he lives in Texas (*removes hat and salutes). If you enjoy this movie, seek out his other books.

Don Coscarelli directed and wrote the screen play. To me, this film one of his finest efforts. Don is also responsible for the very famous Phantasm series, as well as John Dies at the End and Beastmaster.
Note: I tried in vain to find the comedian who made this joke: “What does HBO stand for? Hey, Beastmaster is on!”

Bruce Campbell plays Elvis. He is a fantastic elderly Elvis. It’s clear watching this film that Bruce was dedicated to it, and he did indeed put in long hours promoting it. There were only 36 prints of this film circulating at the time of release, which made it an underground film.

There was an attempt to make a sequel: Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampires. Bruce Campbell (The Chin) declined to be in the sequel due to creative differences. GOOD! It would have only tarnished the reputation of the original. Much respect for The Chin for stopping the sequel.

JFK is black, because he was stained that color after the assassination attempt. His room is decorated exactly like the JFK oval office. Ossie Davis plays JFK. Ossie spent his late career working on Spike Lee films, although I personally remember him directing and doing the screenplay for Cotton Comes to Harlem.  Sidenote: Ossie Davis was featured star with Muhammad Ali on The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay 

To me, every actor and actress in this film did a great job and pulled off a wonderful film.  Nothing more to say about it. Mostly because a guy just handed me another red solo cup full of eggnog.  Watch this film! Or don’t! Everything is voluntary!

Next week will be… Another film. I have a week of vacation and that gives me time to formulate what I will inflict on everyone in 2022. Happy New Year!

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(h/t: The Hyperbole)

About The Author

R.J.

R.J.

Hello. My name is R.J. I am a Tulpa with extra cheese and sour cream.

156 Comments

  1. DEG

    The plot reads like a bar joke: Elvis and John F Kennedy meet and Egyptian mummy in an old folks’ home. As a punchline, the mummy sucks the soul out of your asshole.

    Yes.

    I’ve seen most of this movie, but not the whole thing. Oh yeah.

    • juris imprudent

      Excellent Bruce Campbell vehicle.

    • Nephilium

      I saw it in the theater. And there’s still intermittent rumblings about a prequel being made now.

      • R.J.

        Yes. Unless a different Elvis is found, it is DOA with a ghost listing on IMDB. It is surprising how many dead movies are on IMDB when you really start digging.

  2. R.J.

    Hope you enjoy. The family got the sniffles at Christmas so I will be in limited supply tonight.

    • DEG

      I have my usual 9 PM zoom, so I’ll be finishing this tomorrow. As usual.

  3. DEG

    Laying some knowledge down at the beginning.

  4. DEG

    The German is too fast, but I think the subtitles are correct.

  5. R.J.

    They should be. Also I researched the home used for this movie. I thought it was in Texas, it was in California.

  6. rhywun

    “What does HBO stand for? Hey, Beastmaster is on!”

    Young me remembers this well and fondly.

    • R.J.

      Yes! So who was the comedian? It appears lost to time. I wanted to provide a link to the joke.

      • rhywun

        I don’t mean the joke – I mean the film and its many appearances on HBO.

    • DEG

      I’m not certain all of those women are old enough to be in that gallery.

    • Jerms

      I like these girl next door ones. I look at some and think I might have had a chance back in the day.
      If they were drunk and on xtasy. And if I was rich. Maybe a full head of hair. Maybe.

  7. DEG

    I like his lack of concern for the thief.

    • TARDis

      The U.S. you say. Who is this mythical entity? The judge and prosecutors can DIAF.

  8. DEG

    “BBQ Accident”

    • R.J.

      Tragic loss of a recreational trailer. Jeremy Clarkson hardest hit.

  9. Count Potato

    I tried watching it a long time ago, but there was way too much narration.

  10. DEG

    Shishkebab!

  11. Count Potato

    So what NYE movies are there? Strange Days, 200 Cigarettes, Trading Places, what else?

    • rhywun

      Strange Days

      Nice… it’s high time I watched that again. A very enjoyable flick.

      • Nephilium

        I really think they hamstrung themselves by tying it so closely to the year 2000, Especially considering it came out in 1995.

      • rhywun

        Nah. It being very specific to its time is part of its charm.

    • Ted S.

      The Rat Pack “Ocean’s 11”.
      An Affair to Remember.
      The Apartment.
      Cavalcade
      The Divorcee has a New Year’s scene.
      Repeat Performance will by on TCM’s “Noir Alley” this weekend.

      • Count Potato

        Thanks 🙂

  12. DEG

    I’m not sure which is more depressing – this home or homes some relatives of mine have been in.

  13. rhywun

    This is on Pluto too.

    But I like the way Tubi handles commercials better, with their little countdown timers.

    • R.J.

      I have problems with Pluto links. They go down/change frequently which makes it hard to use as a review platform.

      • rhywun

        I only found it cuz that’s what my TV coughed up first. I didn’t even know they do on-demand.

      • R.J.

        Yes. There is a whole, disorganized view on demand section. It could be amazing if it was just organized and easily searchable.

      • Nephilium

        Their web page and mobile app are miles ahead of the app that my (Samsung) SmartTV has for Pluto.

      • R.J.

        Roku has the same app as Samsung I would imagine. Messy. They were bought a year or so ago so I would think improvements are coming.

  14. DEG

    “Toilet Water Decoration”

    Band name?

    • TARDis

      Even though she is the love of my life, I’m not sure if I should wait for her.

      Is Deidre even a real person?

  15. DEG

    Zoom time, I’ll finish this tomorrow.

    Thanks RJ!

    • R.J.

      Thanks DEG!

  16. TARDis

    mummy sucks the soul out of your asshole

    Party!

  17. rhywun

    “Would you like a ding-dong? Not mine.”

    LOL

    • Brochettaward

      It’s the same shit they’ve been printing for years. Trump is basically Hitler because he put some tariffs in place and made some weak efforts to actually enforce immigration laws. It makes note of even weaker movements on the right, particularly among actual policy makers, to do something about big tech’s complete disdain for right wing political views. Then it has this gem:

      As Kevin Vallier explained at The UnPopulist Substack, a few have begun embracing the doctrine of “Catholic integralism,” which includes ideas that “all political and legal authority comes from God” and that the Church can “call on the state to help advance its mission by directing the state to impose civil punishments for violating church law, such as punishing heretics, among other things.”

      While this development is alarming on its own, it carries an additional danger. As Shikha Dalmia and Arthur Melzer argued

      I stopped there. I’ve never heard of “Catholic integralism.” Has anyone here heard of it? It’s even less serious than the attempt to paint a scary picture of the Alt-Right years ago.

      • rhywun

        No.

        This strikes me as TOS trying to be “balanced” again, and coming off as ridiculously naive, again.

      • rhywun

        i.e. No, I have not heard of it.

      • cyto

        Yeah, my thought as well. Mentioning Catholic Integralism puts you firmly in the tinfoil hat crowd. This is the second article I have seen making this claim… So it is clearly some left wing think tank talking point. Nobody on the right talks about this. Not even a little bit.

      • one true athena

        oh wow, Shikha Dalmia, now there’s a name I’ve successfully avoided for a few years.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I was thinking “haven’t missed”. I used to think she was much younger (and understandably more naive) than she is.

      • KSuellington

        My three kids currently go to Catholic school, I read incessantly about politics and current events and I have never heard of this before. And the pope is basically a fucking commie. I’m ashamed I ever gave that place any money. They truly suck ass. (And not in a positive way, HM).

      • Brochettaward

        It’s really fucking odd. Like, the Catholics aren’t some big GOP constituency. They aren’t even conservative as a voting bloc. Most don’t even care about the abortion issue enough to actually cast a ballot for a Republican. They are, as you noted, led by commie pope. The current president is nominally a Catholic. But we are supposed to believe there is some grand movement to subject US policy to “the Church.”

      • KSuellington

        From what I’ve seen Catholics trend more Dem in general. This is even more fantastical than the white supremacy boogeyman that progressives are peddling. Even in the 80’s when the moral majority was actually a credible threat to liberty that was more of an evangelical movement than a Catholic one.

      • MikeS

        This. Here in bright red North Dakota, Catholics are the “liberal” Christians. There is nothing hard core conservative about the mainstream Catholic church.

        What they are describing isn’t even a thing in any of the mainstream Christian religions that I know of. I grew up Evangelical, and while they’d love to use the state to ban abortion, porn, swearing on TV, etc., they aren’t asking the State to “impose civil punishments for violating church law”. And if they aren’t, the Catholics sure as hell aren’t.

    • TARDis

      TOS That is all.

      • TARDis

        Oh, but I do recommend Babylon Bee. Plus small doses of Whatfinger and Powerlineblog.

  18. The Hyperbole

    If you enjoy this movie, seek out his other books.

    I was just preaching the gospel of Joe R Lansdale to I0b0t yesterday, Even if you don’t enjoy this movie check out his work, he writes much more than supernatural/horror/comedy, his westerns are great (The Thickets/ Paradise Sky) and even if he’s milked the series for about five books too many the ‘Hap and Leonard” novels are top notch crime/mystery/thriller stories.

    • R.J.

      I am going to check him out based on my research when I threw this together. Good authors must be supported.

  19. Brochettaward

    First out…with your…cock out.

    • Brochettaward

      I really haven’t spoken enough about my beautiful penis much lately. With the transformations my body is going through while carrying The First That Will Change Everything, I think it is important to keep my body positivity. Even The First Of All Firsters struggles with self-esteem.

      • MikeS

        Gay

      • Brochettaward

        I have slept with so many women with vaginas. You have no clue what you are talking about. You’re gay!

      • MikeS

        Be sure to get first support from whichever of those hussies knocked you up.

  20. Tulip

    Will definitely check this one out when I get back home

  21. commodious spittoon

    Dad came to dinner in mismatched shoes. We decided to call it Bidening. It’s like Reaganing, but you don’t end up shooting and killing a cinematographer.

  22. rhywun

    LOL someone mentioned that there are like a dozen actors in England.

    I flipped over to Britbox Pluto, some police show, and immediately recognized an actress from a Doctor Who episode.

    • Brochettaward

      A dozen actors, and an insane attempt to make sure half of them are black in a country where they are just 3% of the population and only 14% aren’t white.

      • cyto

        And lately they all play gay characters.

      • slumbrew

        Spent too much time at Torchwood, probably. The Rift apparently makes everyone gay.

    • l0b0t

      Yeah, but Bad Education is awesome. Who new that the school superintendent, the HR supervisor at the hospital on Green Wing, and Doctor Who’s mortal enemy The Master are all actually Michelle Gomez?

      • l0b0t

        i spel reel gud.

  23. slumbrew

    I own and love this movie.

  24. hayeksplosives

    I just re-watched some episodes of Psych.

    That show is a love letter to the 80s. Perfect for this Generation Xer.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That is on heavy rotation in our house.

      • hayeksplosives

        We just streamed it tonight, but I have the DVDs as well. I’m glad I do, because as innocuous and wholesome Psych is, there are things they wrote 10 years ago that would never fly today.

        In the spirit of moving to our new house I really want to purge some stuff we don’t need:want. But cancel culture makes me cling not to only my guns and religion but also to my DVDs and books. Who knew Harry Potter books would get burned?!?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Box it up and stick it in the attic if you must but don’t ever toss physical media, you’ll end up regretting it.

    • Sean

      ⬅ Huge fan

      • hayeksplosives

        The other day I was watching Andrew Siciliano host NFL “ Red Zone” channel.

        He has to juggle multiple NFL games at once and generally sounds like he’s on his 7th can of Red Bull at any given time.

        When he recently corrected himself live on air, he said “I’ve heard it both ways”. Yeah, it was a throwaway comment, but I and the rest of Psych nation smiled wryly to ourselves.

      • Sean

        ?

  25. Aloysious

    Good choice, RJ.

    Bruce Campbell always makes me smile.

    • hayeksplosives

      And in keeping with my previous comments, Bruce Campbell was in the penultimate Psych episode. He played a con man Dream Therapist named “Ashford Simpson.”

      Ash. Get it, haaaah?!?

      He also had the opportunity to say “Come get some”, and main character Shawn at one point said “It’s good to be the king.”

  26. Gustave Lytton

    Wife threw away the glasses I use for whisky. Because the patterns had worn off. Didn’t affect the contents!

    • hayeksplosives

      I don’t put on glasses to reach the whiskey; I just go by feel and the sound of the cork.

    • Sean

      If she didn’t get you replacements, she doesn’t love you.

  27. Gustave Lytton

    76 tromboned comments.

    • rhywun

      You’re just drinking the whisky out of the bottle now, aren’t you.

      • hayeksplosives

        Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  28. UnCivilServant

    Morning, Glibs.

    And aren’t you supposed to be referencing movies I haven’t seen?

    • Sean

      Morning.

      • UnCivilServant

        How goes it in your neck of the woods?

      • Sean

        Pretty good.

        I ran a contest at work this week. The person who pissed me off the least would get $50 cash yesterday morning.

        Everyone was so well behaved it was very hard to clearly pick a winner. Made for a lower stress work week. The guy I finally picked seemed really happy.

        Any NYE plans?

      • UnCivilServant

        I found the dried beef and pumpernickel round yesterday, so I’m going to try to make the nostalgic dip.

        Main hurdle now is that the recpie is “ratio to taste” between the four items in the dip.

      • Sean

        Neat.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve got it pretty close to what I think I remember, and it’s resting in the fridge. Letting the dill and beef flavor mingle with the sour cream and mayo is apparently a key part of the process.

        Yep, that’s the whole recipe – sour cream, mayo, dried beef, and dill. Ratio to taste and let sit in the fridge.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Well good, that sentence was ridiculous.

    • Fourscore

      Sure, easy for you to say. You have friends, even if they are a little quirky

    • UnCivilServant

      They’ve always had production and quality control problems. So I’m not surprised.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, they’re cutting edge vehicles but the fit and finish and general quality control is somewhere below Fiat. Now that they aren’t considered as a little bit of a novelty they’re going to need to improve on that.

  29. UnCivilServant

    Really, Post Office? You accepted the parcel at 4:44 AM at the local location, and are expecting to deliver it Tuesday? Today and monday are both normal delivery days.

  30. Gender Traitor

    Maybe they’ll deliver it sooner and just couldn’t be bothered to update the tracking. They seem to be particularly averse to doing that.

    Good morning, U, Stinky, & Sean! Are we the only ones who have to work today?

    • Gender Traitor

      …and I’m obviously channeling Brooks this morning. ::slurps more coffee::

    • UnCivilServant

      They just updated the tracking to indicate delivery today by 5:15pm. It’ll be closer to noon, since that’s when the mailman comes by my house.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      We get Monday off, all the better to nurse a multi day hangover I suppose.

      • Gender Traitor

        Monday I’ll have to post payroll. then start plugging in everyone’s new pay rates for the payroll after that. And with any luck, I’ll also have to calculate (almost) everyone’s semi-annual bonus (assuming we met our goals, which seems likely.) And all my usual month-end reports…

        I hate January, At least the bonus makes it a little more tolerable,

      • hayeksplosives

        Every day that starts with GT I know I am not the only mythical Libertarian Womsn. ?

        Happy day, GT!

      • Gender Traitor

        Happy NYE, hayek!

        I know you were watching some of the college football last night. Did you see Michigan State come from behind to beat Penn? I just have to gloat about it with someone! (Big sis’s alma mater – out-of-state tuition, so my family sent them a fair amount of money back in the day.)

      • hayeksplosives

        ?

      • Ted S.

        We got our princely 2% back in October, and no bonus for us. 🙁

        Worse, we also use Kronos….

    • Sean

      I’m off today. Neener, neener.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m working today because I get a floating holiday if I work the friday before a saturday holiday. That and I don’t have to spend any vacation leave, and it’ll be a quiet day since so many people are off work.

    • Tres Cool

      I just got home from work. And I go in tonight.
      Does that count ?

      • Gender Traitor

        Absolutely. Beware of the drunks on your way to and from work tonight,

      • Tres Cool

        Thats nearly any night, really.
        When I see traffic on my way home on Sunday around 0615 I always wonder, “Now did you just wake up? Or are you just getting home?”

      • Gender Traitor

        Tonight’s the night when a bunch of folks who aren’t used to driving drunk are out on the road – AKA “Amateur Night.”

      • Tres Cool

        Cute story- when ex Mrs Cool (2 DUIs) taught at a local school, around prom/graduation time our Sherriff’s Dept rolled out the “Dont Drink and Drive” campaign visiting area high schools. One of the hands-on demonstrations was navigating a golf cart through a maze of traffic cones wearing “beer goggles” which distorted the driver’s vision I suppose to show impairment. After a bunch of students tried and mowed through the cones, they asked for a faculty volunteer. The picked her. She performed flawlessly. The kids all cheered.
        According to her, the deputy that rode with her said “you’ve done this way too many times before”.

    • UnCivilServant

      Well, they certainly revealed psychopathic traits of the agents.

  31. Tres Cool

    suh’ fam
    yo whats goody

    • Festus

      Mornin’ All! What might not be goody is a pretty reliable rumor that my company has lost the Canada Post contracts at least locally and maybe even nationally… Usually when the contract changes hands the new vendor keeps the old staff to ease transition but this entity is under-bidding and over-selling. Their business model is much more bottom up rather than top down. A friend of mine recently signed on with them and I see red flags aplenty. I’ll try to keep an open mind about the situation but I’m an old dog and I’ve seen all of the tricks. Might be unemployed very soon.

      • Gender Traitor

        ?

      • Festus

        Funniest part is that the neurotic girl that I mentored will become my new boss. Put that in your coffee and stir it with a plastic spork! Festus no likey disruptive changes, especially ones of this magnitude. Everything is early days so I just need to calm my tits until things come into focus. I’m too damn old to start shopping resumes…

    • hayeksplosives

      Yo yo, Tres.

      We are on the correct side of the grass today. Does that count as Goody?

      • Tres Cool

        Jugsy is home for good, ostensibly. No more travel unless it is very limited in scope.
        Me & the dog’s evening(morning) schedule is already being stressed when she said, at 0700, “do you want to watch a movie with me?” followed by “are you going to make something for breakfast or what? Im hungry.”

        This is going to take some adjustment.

      • Fourscore

        At this time of the morning I start to wonder. Now with a cuppa joe all is well.

        Mornn’ to everyone, we can add another milestone tomorrow.

  32. UnCivilServant

    True crime show trying to talk up the difficulty of making a rifle shot from a prone position on a stationary man-sized target at the stunning distance of… 100 yards.

    That is not a hard shot.

    I’ve made that shot.

    I’ve made that shot with a weak .22 LR load that had awful drop at 100 yards.

    Making it with a .270 is not some fantastical achievement in marksmanship.

    • Sean

      That’s laughable.

    • R C Dean

      Blindfolded at night in a heavy fog and a strong crosswind?

      • UnCivilServant

        Broad daylight, calm weather.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      So they’ve narrowed down the suspect pool to everyone living who’s ever deer hunted?

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t think they’ve ruled out ghosts or undead.

        This is the same show where they don’t laugh at the polygraph and a previous set of cops consulted a medium.

      • Gender Traitor

        Lt. Joe would never do that!

      • Fourscore

        I’ve rarely had to shoot a deer out at a 100 yards, mainly because most of my hunting is rather brushy. I have done it though, sometimes in fading light. That’s why we have scopes.

    • Festus

      Heh! I picked up and shook my laptop in a fit of pique a couple of years ago. Lost a bunch of keys that I never use, anyway. The hard drive needed replacing. Had it back in a day or two, sans keys. Typing on it right now.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It was twenty years ago, a new Dell, and I still kick myself for it. In my defense, I was somewhere between buzzed and hammered. Still stupid on my part though…

      • Festus

        I ruined a new Moen faucet trying to hook it up to the existing lines. Bought a new one and a bunch of shark-bite. Expensive lessons are costly, especially when you are wont to drink and be the handyman.

    • Ted S.

      “Research data” probably ought to be in sneer quotes.

      More likely it was pixellated Japanese porn.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those big pixels take up a lot of space.

  33. robodruid

    Good Morning to the early AM crew.
    Let me wish upon you, a different year, not a new year.
    Shits getting old….

    • Festus

      This I hear and agree with, wholeheartedly! The old saw about opportunity being a door closed means a window opening has been proven a lie.

    • Tres Cool

      Im not a fan at all of ‘red flag’ laws, but someone in this kook’s family or circle of friends had to have an idea of what he intended. They could have intervened.
      And how does it take 5 days to get from Sacramento to Iowa ?

      • UnCivilServant

        I’d take five days, since I limit my driving day to 6-8 hours where feasible. Then again, I’m trying to see the land in between stops.

    • rhywun

      “The crazy person was said to have mentioned some nice guys in sunglasses and khakis who suggested the plan but was quickly disabused of this notion.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Parody? Satire? Serious? I can’t tell anymore.

    • UnCivilServant

      because they took lard out of the recipe and ruined the flavor?

      • l0b0t

        There was an interesting story on NPR, maybe a decade ago, about Oreo expanding into China and all the changes they had to make to their flavor profile to get the Chinee to buy them. IIRC, the recipe was modified to make the cookies less sweet and to give the cookies a roasted flavor. Anecdotally, I found the Oreo Egg Custard flavor at the grocers in Chinatown, and they are yummy.