Bubba Ho-Tep (Collector’s Edition) [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Don Coscarelli

Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce

Release Date: February 7, 2023

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 9.5/10

Synopsis:

Bruce Campbell (Army Of Darkness) “gives his greatest and most entertaining performance to date” (Premiere) as an aging and cantankerous “Elvis” in this “zinger-filled crowd-pleaser” (The Hollywood Reporter) from writer-director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, John Dies At The End)! When mysterious deaths plague a Texas retirement home, it’s up to its most sequined senior citizen to take on a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy with a penchant for cowboy boots, bathroom graffiti and sucking the souls from the barely living!

Please Note: Shout! Factory provided me with a free copy of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ tells the tale of two aging men in a retirement home who believe they are celebrities hidden away but soon become the only hope of stopping a terrifying evil that has begun to feast on the souls of the aging folks living within. Now, a man who claims to be the real Elvis and another who believes that he is John F. Kennedy dyed black must put their trust in each other and band together as they uncover a dangerous mummy that has begun haunting the hallways of their retirement home after discovering that the barely living make easy meals. With no one else willing to believe their seemingly far-fetched tale, the pair starts to craft a plan to take matters into their own hands and stop this entity by any means necessary.

Beautifully directed by Don Coscarelli from his own screenplay which was based on the Short Story by Joe R. Lansdale, Coscarelli finds a perfect balance of gloomy darkness and light-hearted, goofy fun to make ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ perfectly click. Especially with the help of a stellar cast led by Bruce Campbell offering a truly marvelous and unforgettable portrayal of an aging “Elvis” and a great performance by Ossie Davis as an older John F. Kennedy who claims he was betrayed and dyed black. In addition to each providing stellar individual performances, the two also have some great chemistry together that only further helps this one to work as tremendously as it does. The film also stars Ella Joyce, Heidi Marnhout and Bob Ivy.

‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ was first unleashed on unsuspecting audiences in various film festivals prior to a theatrical release in 2003 and it still serves up all of the goofy, hilarious and thrilling fun and unique charm that it did twenty years ago. Director Don Coscarelli has a talent for making odd and seemingly un-filmable adaptations work better than we’d imagine and if this adaptation of the Joe R. Lansdale tale wasn’t proof enough, his film adaptation of Jason Pargin’s delightfully out of this world ‘John Dies at the End’ novel made it abundantly clear. ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ is brimming with style, heart and an engaging horror story that you’d never expect at its center, with brilliant performances by Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis sealing the deal and quickly helping this one to evolve into an unforgettable cult classic. If you’ve never had the pleasure of this splendidly silly and lovable film then I can’t possibly urge you strongly enough to finally give it a chance.

Scream Factory brings Don Coscarelli’s beloved cult-classic home once again, this time making its 4K Ultra HD debut. The new release features a full Ultra High Definition video presentation with Dolby Vision and HDR-10 from a new 2022 4K scan of the Original Negative with Color Correction Supervised and Approved by Director Don Coscarelli which looks pretty fantastic as a whole and is a noticeable upgrade over Scream Factory’s 2016 Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release (you can also read my review of that release Right Here). The notable new video presentation is only further complemented by a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack and loads of great extras including many previously released features along with some previously unreleased goodies. Fans of the film who are fully 4K capable will probably want to consider picking up a copy of this one for the new presentation alone which looks quite stellar. If you’re a fan of this off-beat horror-comedy gem and are already considering a purchase, then this one is definitely recommended!

VIDEO:

The Scream Factory Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with Dolby Vision and HDR-10, with the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio, from a new 2022 4K scan of the original negative – color correction supervised and approved by Director Don Coscarelli. The new video presentation looks great as a whole and the improvements in detail and coloring are apparent from the film’s opening title and even more so as we begin to see the green of the trees with the blue sky behind which looks far more natural and realistic than it did previously; while the interiors and hallways of the facility look more sharp and substantial. The character specifics such as the heavy makeup on Campbell throughout are also much more distinctive, along with our villain and nearly everything else within. The Dolby Vision addition only complements it all and offers a gorgeous color palette beautifully paired with some deep and seemingly endless darks. Overall, this is quite wonderful new Ultra High Definition video presentation that should have fans largely pleased with what it has to offer.

The included Blu-ray release also includes the feature film with the new transfer and color correction, not merely the same disc/transfer as the previous Scream Factory 2016 Blu-ray release.

AUDIO:

The Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack also does its job rather well and provides a clean, crisp and occasionally somewhat aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly utilizes all five available channels along its course to send bugs flying around the room, along with music booming and other action effects expanding into the surround channels, while always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that contributes its share of extra fun to the viewing experience and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Scream Factory Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ offers a nice wealth of bonus content, the majority of which can be found on the release’s included Blu-ray disc. The 4K Ultra HD disc itself features ‘3 Audio Commentary’ tracks including an ‘Audio Commentary with Author Joe R. Lansdale’, along with an ‘Audio Commentary with Director Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell,’ and lastly an ‘Audio Commentary with “The King”’.

The Blu-ray disc also features all three commentary tracks listed above, along with various previously released and previously unreleased Interviews/Featurettes and other fun videos. The previously unreleased Featurettes within include ‘Bubba Ho-Tep Filming Locations Then and Now’ (running approximately 14 minutes in length), ‘Bubba Ho-Tep Egyptian Theater Premiere’ (running approximately 3 minutes) and ‘Bubba Ho-Tep at Toronto Film Festival’ (approximately 31 minutes). The release also includes many previously released extras that were also on the 2016 Collector’s Edition release from Scream Factory including ‘The King Lives! with Bruce Campbell’ (running approximately 22 minutes in length), ‘All Is Well with Don Coscarelli’ (running approximately 24 minutes), ‘Mummies and Make-up with Robert Kurtzman’ (approximately 9 minutes), ‘2 Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell’ (approximately 3 minutes combined), ‘Footage From the Temple Room Floor’ (2 minutes), ‘The Making of Bubba Ho-Tep’ (24 minutes), ‘To Make a Mummy: Makeup and Effects’ (5 minutes), ‘Fit For a King: Dressing Bruce Campbell’ (7 minutes), ‘Rock Like An Egyptian: The Music of Bubba Ho-Tep’ (13 minutes), ‘Joe R. Lansdale Reads from Bubba Ho-Tep’ (8 minutes), and a collection of ‘Archival Bruce Campbell Interviews’ (approximately 35 minutes altogether). Also featured within are a ‘Music Video’ (approximately 2 minutes), along with the film’s ‘Theatrical Trailer’ (2 minutes), a ‘TV Spot’ (30 seconds) and a ‘Photo Gallery’.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Remastered Blu-Ray disc included in the release and resized. They do not represent the quality of the 4K Ultra HD disc itself and will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 9.5/10

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 ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ is Now Available to Own in a 2-Disc Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Set from Scream Factory!

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You can purchase your copy of the ‘Bubba Ho-Tep: 4K UHD Collector’s Edition’ by clicking on the Amazon icon below, or purchase it directly from Shout Factory HERE!

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