don coscarelli Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you haven't seen Bubba Ho-Tep, then stop reading this post immediately and go to your movie renting outlet of choice. If you have (and I imagine everyone on Cinematical has) then you may continue.

There has been talk of a sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep for I don't know how long. I would venture to say that we were all pretty favorable to the idea, because more Bruce Campbell is always a good thing. But then came word that Campbell wouldn't be reprising his role as Elvis Presely in Bubba Nosferatu ... and well, who wants that?

Everyone associated with Bubba Nosferatu, apparently. Last year, director Don Coscarelli said he would replace Campbell with someone equally lovable. Word has it, according to an interview Ain't It Cool News held with Paul Giamatti, that the new Elvis is none other than Ron Perlman. Says Giamatti: "Our thinking was kind of like, "Well who the hell do we find who is a really good actor and a guy who is going to fit right?" You know what I mean? It was sort of like, for a while we let the thing sit and then all of a sudden we were like 'Well, maybe we should go to Ron Perlman,' which just seemed like a great idea and he was up for it." The plan is to start shooting Bubba Nosferatu in the spring, with Giamatti still attached as Col. Parker.

Call me a Debbie Downer, but my interest in Bubba Nosferatu died when Campbell dropped out. It kills me to say it, because the plot sounds terrific and I'd love to see Giamatti as Col. Parker. But I can't see Perlman, talented as he is, as this particular Elvis. It might just be me, though, and everyone else will be happy enough to see Elvis ride again.

Well over a year ago I covered a Bloody-Disgusting report that said Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti might be playing Colonel Parker in Don Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-tep sequel. And then I pretty much forgot about the whole thing. But those non-stop movie freaks over at Rotten Tomatoes recently spoke with the actor during his Shoot 'Em Up press tour -- and he actually had something to say about status of Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires.

Well, first Mr. G expresses some affection for Coscarelli's earlier films (you go, Paul!) but then he sort of blames the delays on the most unlikely of people: Is Bruce Campbell the one holding up Bubba 2? Say it ain't so! But here's what Giamatti had to say: "Bruce Campbell was waffling around about whether he wants to play Elvis or not again. So that's the problem ... I'm playing Colonel Parker, which will be great, but you gotta have Elvis and you really want him playing Elvis, so hopefully we can get him to do it. If not, I'm sure they will try and find somebody else but I think it's contingent on whether he'll do it or not. It's a great script, a completely insane script. I would love to do that because I love [Bubba Ho-Tep]. It's a great movie."

The first Bubba flick earned a lot of praise on the genre festival circuit before hitting DVD and becoming an overnight cult favorite. Based on the short story by Joe Lansdale, it's the story of a forgotten old Elvis Presley (Campbell) who teams up with John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) to rid their nursing home of an evil soul-sucking mummy. Very weird, very fun. And if this is true about Mr. Campbell weighing his options, I'd like to offer one piece of advice to the square-jawed cult hero: Bruce, do the flick!

For a while you couldn't find it on DVD at all. And then MGM released a pretty solid (albeit annoyingly non-anamorphic) Phantasm DVD that sold for about ten bucks -- and then that DVD went out of print. So for a while there the horror freaks couldn't find a copy of Don Coscarelli's trippy horror masterpiece at ALL! But as Jeff Anderson told us a few weeks ago, Anchor Bay is coming to the rescue!

Arriving in DVD shoppes on April 10 is a full-bore (and, yes, anamorphic) "Anchor Bay Collection" Phantasm DVD, and while the extras sure do look pretty slick ... they also look like they were ported directly from the old MGM release! I could be mistaken, but it sure seems like if you already own the MGM version, the only upgrade this new platter offers is the new anamorphic transfer. Otherwise you already own the deleted scenes, the feature-length Phantasmagoria documentary, the promotional interviews and featurettes, the trailers and TV spots and the rather amusing audio commentary with Don Coscarelli, Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury and Angus "The Tall Man" Scrimm. But if you don't have that MGM disc, this one's an absolute keeper -- provided you enjoy movies with murderous spiky-balls, hulking morticians, undead fly-finger creatures, and pint-sized mutant slaves imprisoned in alternate dimensions. (Hmm, I might actually spin Phantasm again tonight...)

At one of my very first film festivals I got to meet Don Coscarelli, the man who directed Survival Quest, The Beastmaster and all four of the freakishly weird Phantasm flicks. Since I grew up wonderfully mortified by the original Phantasm, it was obviously a big thrill to shake the guy's hand. And then we sat down for his latest creation, Bubba Ho-tep, and the night got even loopier.

Well-admired by just about every genre freak who sees it, Bubba Ho-tep is about the ways in which Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and JFK (Ossie Davis) go about ridding an old age home of a horrible soul-sucking mummy. Based on a story by Joe Lansdale, Bubba Ho-tep is, at the very least, a fairly original tale. And yes, I said Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK.

So you can probably see where I'm headed with this: According to the BD.com horror loons (and to follow up on our previous story), Bruce Campbell had to cancel on an upcoming convention appearance because he'd be too busy shooting Bubba Ho-tep 2, aka Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires. Sounds good to me, especially considering the beloved Mr. Campbell's more recent cinematic output. Ahem.

I love funny horror movies -- movies that manage to scare me a little, or creep me out, but also make me laugh. Sure, there are lots of spoofs of horror movies, from Young Frankenstein to the Scary Movie series, that might be hilarious at times but don't keep the audience on the edge of their seats. And straight-forward frightfests are everywhere these days. However, it's a rare movie that can hit both ends of the spectrum with skill. The criteria for my seven funniest horror movies were that they had to actually be horror movies -- in other words, I had to jump or hide my eyes at least once, and laugh out loud at least once.

In compiling this list, I left off some horror comedies I like a lot because they're not yet widely available: for example, I saw Frostbite and Severance at Fantastic Fest this year, but they haven't been released in American theaters yet. I also left off horror movies that weren't intended as comedy, but that some people laugh at today for camp value or even sheer awfulness. At least one film isn't included because I haven't seen it, but I'm not saying which one(s) because my little brother mocked me mercilessly for not watching it and I don't need further abuse. Feel free to comment on which movies you think I should have included, though.

Genre demi-god Don Coscarelli, director of one Beastmaster, four Phantasms, and one particularly popular episode of Masters of Horror, has been dropping hopeful little hints about a sequel to his cult fave Bubba Ho-tep for quite some time, but a few of the astute horror sites now bring word that Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires may become a reality more sooner than later.

Of course it's a given that Bruce Campbell will return to play Elvis Presley (you really have to seen Bubba Ho-tep for any of this to make sense), but BD.com just caught wind of a rather colorful little rumor: Could Paul Giamatti be lined up to play Col. Parker in Bubba 2? I'm sure stranger things have happened in the realm of cult horror sequeldom ... even if I can't think of one right now.

Not much regarding BH-t: CotS-V is set in stone just yet; Mr. Coscarelli has his script finished and cast a few lines in the water, but as far as funding, casting, and all that important stuff are concerned, we're still waiting for the good news. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and rent Bubba Ho-tep. Based on a wonderfully offbeat story by Joe Lansdale, it's a flick that (somehow) wedges chills, giggles, wit, and warmth into one irresistible little B-movie.

A lot of people have taken to calling the Masters of Horror series a Showtime production, but the truth is that the experiment was born over at Anchor Bay. Series creator Mick Garris had the idea to snag a bunch of the finest horror-makers under the sun, have each one direct an hour-long mini-movie, and then let the Gorehounds devour the goods through the magic of DVD. But then Showtime got involved, and they aired 12 of the 13 episodes between last December and March of this year. (The 13th episode, Takashi Miike's Imprint, was deemed too harsh by the Showtime folks, which means you won't be able to see it till the DVD hits shelves.)

Unfortunately, Anchor Bay has taken a fairly money-hungry approach to releasing Masters on DVD: Two episodes hit stores yesterday, available individually or as part of a 2-pack. But with a list price of $16.98 apiece (which means a retail cost of about 11 bucks each), it seems that the horror faithful are expected to dole out about $150 if they want the entire season. (By comparison, my 13-episode collection of the brilliant Firefly set me back only about 40 bucks!) But hey, nobody's saying you have to buy 'em all, right? We horror geeks aren't ravenous completists and ferocious collectors ... are we? (To be fair, if the first 2 DVDs are any indication, each release promises to come stocked with loads of extra goodies, so at least we're getting some value for our money.)

Anyway, to commemorate the DVD debut of the series (well, the first two episodes) I thought it might be helpful to give our readers a Masters Guide -- despite the fact that I've seen precisely ONE episode of the show so far! Click below for a list of all the actors, the Masters, the release dates, all 13 plot synopses, and a variety of trivial hoo-hah intended mainly for the hardcore horror freaks.