A crazy look at the 'real' Elvis Presley

The plot of this film is varied and certainly very peculiar. At heart a horror comedy, with some memorable funny scenes such as that of Haff trying to prove that he really is the King and his elaborate story of how he got into his position and the dark humour of the paramedics wheeling out the dead bodies. However, this film does more than provide a few cheap laughs. There are some scenes that prove memorable because of their dark horror theme such as the image of large scarab beetles scurrying around.

A man called Sebastian Haff has spent the last 20 years of his life suffering from an infection from a hip injury. This leads to some great dialogue between him and the nurse. He is now in a nursing home. Sebastian believes that he is Elvis Presley and that he switched places with an impersonator to get out of the limelight. However, the contract that stated all this was destroyed in a freak BBQ accident so he has no sure way of proving this.

The nursing home has been experiencing some odd goings on with people found dead and graffiti over the toilets. Elvis meets up with Jack, who believes he was John F Kennedy, but had had his skin dyed in a Governmental cover up. They aim to find out about the strange goings on at the nursing home, and discover the secret of the graffiti, the deaths and the huge scarab beetles.

Ok, so the story sounds very much over the top and totally random, but Bruce Campbell's acting of Elvis is excellent, the mannerisms are perfect and never over the top and of course, he manages to slip in a few Elvis quotes! The story, although farfetched is played out well and almost spoofs other horror films whilst being a totally individual film of which nothing is comparable. The musical score is excellent and provides the horror sequences with tension and suspense. The ending of the film is particularly memorable with a great duel at the end to seal the fate of the nursing home.

Bubba Ho-Tep is an excellent film that has an original story, great acting and an excellent horror music score. The special edition DVD is packed with features to enhance the film including deleted scenes and commentary, however I have not got this as of yet, but will consider it in the future.

It was a shame that this film did not achieve its potential at cinemas and did not come to the UK, but fortunately, it is available on DVD. This is a cult classic and a very enjoyable film to watch with some great comedy and horror elements, along with extremely memorable characters. Some people may not appreciate the style of the film; you will either love it or hate it!