Bubba Ho-Tep
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition)
Director: Don Coscarelli
Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Heidi Marnhout, Bob Ivy, Reggie Bannister, Daniel Roebuck
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated R | 93 Minutes
Release Date: November 8, 2016

“Even a big bitch cockroach like you should know… never, but never, fuck with the King.”

From writer-director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, John Dies At The End), 2002’s Bubba Ho-Tep is one of the craziest horror comedies you’ll ever see. When mysterious deaths plague a Texas retirement home, it’s up to Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and President John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) to battle a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy dressed like a cowboy.

An elderly man (Campbell) resides at the Shady Rest Retirement Home where he tells anyone that will listen that he’s “The King” himself, Elvis Presley. He explains that during the ’70s, he grew tired of fame and switched places with Sebastian Haff, an Elvis impersonator. It was Haff who died on the toilet in 1977, while he – the real Elvis – lived a quiet life pretending to be himself. Twenty years after a hip injury ended his impersonator career, Elvis is living in a retirement home with cancerous growth on his “pecker.”

Elvis’ only friend is an African American man named Jack (Davis) who insists that he is President John F. Kennedy, dyed black after a failed assassination attempt, and abandoned by Lyndon B. Johnson in a nursing home in East Texas. Meanwhile, an ancient Egyptian mummy is stolen during a museum tour and lost during a severe storm. The re-animated corpse makes its way to the rest home, where it feeds on the souls of senior citizens. Dubbed “Bubba Ho-Tep” by Elvis, the mummy has a penchant for cowboy boots and Stetson hats, making for one of cult cinema’s most unique monsters.

Based on the Bram Stoker Award-nominated short story by Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-Tep is a one-of-a-kind movie. Bruce Campbell gives one of the best performances of his career as Elvis and his chemistry with Davis’ JFK is great – it’s like some sort of Shane Black buddy comedy from Hell. Scream Factory’s release features a 1080p high-definition widescreen (1.85:1) transfer of a new 2K scan of the interpositive, which provides a clearer image while retaining a decent amount of grain structure. As for the audio, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track offers a lossless mix with good channel separation, making it the best Coscarelli’s low-budget film has ever looked and sounded.

This Collector’s Edition is packed with over five hours of bonus materials, including new interviews with Coscarelli, Campbell, and special effects artist Robert Kurtzman, and a new audio commentary with Joe R. Landsdale. If you’re a fan of Coscarelli’s film, the new 2K scan, along with these new bonus materials, will be enough to sell you on upgrading to the Blu-ray. In case you’re worried about losing content from the previous DVD release, all those extras have been included as well, which you can read more about below.

Bubba Ho-Tep (Collector’s Edition) is available on Amazon, along with Scream Factory’s other recent releases: Carrie (40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition), The Thing (Collector’s Edition), The Exorcist III (Collector’s Edition), and Child’s Play (Collector’s Edition).

Bonus Features

– NEW audio commentary with Joe R. Lansdale
– NEW All Is Well with Don Coscarelli
– NEW The King Lives! with Bruce Campbell
– NEW Mummies and Make-up with Robert Kurtzman
– Audio commentary by Coscarelli And Campbell
– Audio commentary by “The King”
– Deleted Scenes with optional commentary By Coscarelli and Campbell
– “The Making Of Bubba Ho-Tep” featurette
– “To Make A Mummy” make-up and effects featurette
– “Fit For A King” Elvis costuming featurette
– “Rock Like An Egyptian” featurette About the music of Bubba Ho-Tep
– Joe R. Lansdale Reads from Bubba Ho-Tep
– Archival Bruce Campbell interviews
– Music video
– Theatrical trailer and TV spot
– Still gallery

Trailer

Clip: “That Is One Big Cockroach!”

Cover Art

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