Bubba Ho-Tep is not really a comic horror movie. Oh it has its gags, and occasionally throws stuff at the screen to make you jump. But at its heart, it is actually a film about the way society relates to the older generation. Okay that older generation in this case is Elvis and someone who may or may not be JFK. And granted they are battling a mummy that sucks peoples souls out of their arseholes. But by far and away the strongest sensation garnered from this very strange movie is one of melancholy. The melancholy of a man who man never see his daughter again, may never have an erection again, may never live his life as well as he did. Like Shaun Of The Dead, this manages to smuggle in some really rather touching moments around its end of the world trappings to make you genuinely care about its characters.
The performance as Elvis of Bruce Campbell is nothing short of astounding. Playing a man twenty years older with some rudimentary ageing make-up, he manages to convince as someone who was the worlds prettiest man – once. Considering the film was not allowed to use any Elvis music at all, you can see how this could be a near impossible task. And yet the script, with its crude sadness allows Campbell just enough material to be both funny and deeply sad.
It is strange when two of the most emotionally affecting films of the year turn out to be low budget horror comedies.