The mummy, happily, is pretty cool looking, too. Created by the FX crew at KNB EFX Group, he strides down the halls in an unexplained cowboy outfit: just the kind of creature you'd expect to see in one of Lansdale's outlandish horror westerns. When he opens up his maw to attack one of our heroes, it's a moment horror fans'll treasure.

Coscarelli couldn't have pulled it all off without Campbell, of course, who inhabits his role with hard-bitten believability. It's too bad more folks won't be seeing this quirky little flick, if only to get a glimpse of what a damn fine actor Bruce Campbell can be when he's not attaching chainsaws to his arm and fending off the walking dead. At one point in Bubba Ho-Tep, our hero comes upon a 24 Hour Elvis Marathon on television and sadly considers the King's film legacy: "Shitty pictures - every one of 'em," he pronounces. You get the sense in that moment Coscarelli would've loved to write and direct a movie for the real Elvis Presley. If only he could've.

When you're old, Elvis/Sebastian states early in the proceedings, "Everything you do is either worthless or sadly amusing." On the whole, Bubba Ho-Tep is the latter - and all the better for it.

BLOGGISH POSTSCRIPT: I like it when a director remains loyal to the actors who were present when s/he started out (as with Joe Dante's ongoing use of Roger Corman regular Dick Miller), so I was pleased to note the presence of Reggie Bannister, the balding hippie-ish brother from the Phantasm movies, in this pic as an officious nursing home administrator. Way to go, Don!