(2002)
Dir - Don Coscarelli
Overall: GOOD
On basis alone, Don Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep is rather exemplary. Based off the novella of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale, the combination of all of its core plot elements, (Elvis, JFK, mummies, an old folks home, and dick jokes), seem like they were randomly thrown into a blender and the fact that a coherent script and entertaining movie overall was produced out of them could be seen as somewhat of a miracle. Wildly different than Coscarelli's most lauded Phantasm franchise, most of the gratification in Bubba Ho-Tep comes from its hilarious premise and Bruce Cambell's superb performance, which could be the best in his entire career. What is really the kicker is how much surprising depth it has as a sincere and heartfelt look into growing old and lamenting past mistakes. As solid as the movie is, the pacing does drag a bit, the score while good does get overused, the action scenes could have been handled a little more cleverly, and the juvenile, gross-out humor misses its mark from time to time. All that said, it is still certainly a commendable, highly unique work, warts and all.
(2004)
Dir - Jeff Lieberman
Overall: WOOF
If you were to make a list of the worst things that humanity has to offer, (Hitler, puppy cancer, Fred Durst's birthday, etc), Satan's Little Helper would earn a well deserved place amongst them. Bad horror movies are fine. Bad horror movies that are so bad they are hilarious are even better. Yet bad horror movies that are knowingly insulting to their audience are neither fine nor better. Jeff Lieberman went sixteen years without directing a movie before this and why he chose to reemerge with such a mind-meltingly awful venture is anybody's guess. The tradition of terrible kids in horror films who you want to beat over the head with a stick is as solidified as any other genre trope for some reason, but if this does not have the absolute worst kid, it easily has the stupidest. His family does not fare any better in the brains department either though. The universe this movie presents can only possibly work under these circumstances if we are genuinely sold on the fact that the entire town that they live is exclusively made up of legitimately mentally challenged people. When the movie is not letting its killer effortlessly convince everyone he meets that he is not a killer even when he murders people and displays them proudly in front of them, then it is following as many moronic slasher cliches as it can muster up while looking like the cheapest of Goosebumps episodes. Watch under the heaviest drug influence or not at all.
(2008)
Dir - Mark Duplass/Jay Duplass
Overall: MEH
While Mark Duplas is half responsible for arguably the most disgraceful horror movie ever made, (Creep), he was also in the The League so he gets a pass. He and brother Jay's Baghead is a super low-budget, mumblecore product reminiscent of many not just in its presentation, but also in its premise. There is another isolated cabin in the woods here where people get trapped while someone is after them and it really is remarkable how many filmmakers keep scrapping the barrel with this exact set up trying to find some untapped gold with it. Baghead does not go through the uninspired motions as countless others, but it is also not really a horror movie and the entire shtick seems to be in pretending that it is, which is certainly fine. The performances are genuine and the way everything twists around is fun for awhile and though it is definitely more interesting than yet another slasher killer picking people off trainwreck, it is also kind of empty by the end when you realize it was all just what it was. Meeting the film on its own turf which is fair, it does a good job as a human relationships study, but it may not hold up to repeated viewings once its other elements are pre-exposed to the viewer. Still, it certainly beats the ever loving hell out of Creep.
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