|
flerk
|
 |
« on: Wed, February 26, 2003, 06:25:49 » |
|
FROM THHE L.A.TIMES, FEB. 26
A spry old Elvis Presley meets an Egyptian mummy when Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell join cinematic forces.
By David Chute, Special to The Times
In the somewhat rarified world of fan-geek worship, writer-director Don Coscarelli and actor Bruce Campbell are superstars. They became cult heroes more than 20 years ago, when Coscarelli wrote and directed "Phantasm" (1979) and Campbell starred in Sam "Spider-Man" Raimi's shoestring debut "The Evil Dead" (1982).
Now in their mid-40s, they still enjoy untarnished credibility with a hard-core fan base that seems to get younger every year.
One reason, Coscarelli says, is that "we both still have a genuine enthusiasm for the kind of weird genre material that teenagers like." But the oddness of the situation has struck them both, as Campbell notes in his cheerfully self-deprecating memoir "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor." The book, a hot seller on the cult film circuit, both confirmed and extended his popularity in certain circles.
Coscarelli's first film starring Campbell involves, among others, Elvis Presley and Egyptian mummies; "Bubba Ho-Tep," arrives at the American Cinematheque on Thursday already festooned with raves from bellwether fan sites like Dark Horizons and Ain't It Cool News. As well it might. "I just loved the idea of Elvis' fighting a mummy," Coscarelli says of the short story by mystery novelist Joe R. Lansdale that inspired the film. But the story had more to offer than a gonzo premise: It was a project in which both actor and director could act their age (and then some) without betraying their B movie roots.
The film they've made is a surprisingly touching genre send-up in which the King (Campbell), now a cranky elderly patient in a Texas nursing home, teams up with his neighbor down the hall (Ossie Davis), a blissfully goofy 83-year-old convinced that he is JFK. Shoulder to shoulder they battle supernatural evil (and a very dangerous scarab beetle the size of a fat pigeon), armed only with their walkers and the fastest bedpan in the West.
At this point, there is no American distributor for the movie.
The gonzo premise generates more thrills than one might expect, even though the action is mostly confined to the rest home and the movie's only "high-speed chase" involves a battery-powered wheelchair. "But what kept me coming back to the story," Coscarelli says, "was that Joe Lansdale also gave it a deeper level, about what happens to people as they get older, the loss of dignity. People of my generation are getting to the age now where the rest home is staring them in the face, and it is not a pretty picture. What I like best about the movie is that the sensitive stuff really seems to work."
Campbell and Coscarelli admit that they may have been spoiled by their early experiences making shoestring low-budget genre movies like "Phantasm" and "The Evil Dead" with groups of close friends. Physically those wing-and-a-prayer shoots were often grueling, Campbell recalls, "but there was also a zone of mental comfort there. Those were totally hand-made movies, and they were exactly what we wanted them to be. I've been trying to crawl back into that womb ever since."
Both films became instant cult favorites because fans recognized them as the work of kindred spirits. "One of the things I have aspired to ever since," Coscarelli says, "is make another movie that resonates with an audience that way. And we're beginning to get the feeling that 'Bubba Ho-Tep' might be it."
|
