Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk

Bubba Ho-Tep was an interesting flick, a nice imaginative idea, well-cast and acted, but given what could have been, a little lacking in the plain old fun department. Made for about a million bucks (with thanks to Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis for working cheaply), it's become a mild hit on DVD.

There's some talk going around that Campbell won't be in the upcoming Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires. Folks are acting surprised, but the project is more of a distant prequel; with Davis' death two years ago, it wasn't likely to be closely related to Bubba Ho-Tep. The given premise is Elvis shooting a film in Louisiana and stumbling upon some vampires, which makes this sound more like an Elseworlds Elvis and less like it has anything to do with the pleasantly questionable derangement of the leads in the original. Paul Giamatti will join such luminaries as Pat Hingle and Randy Quaid in the ranks of actors playing Colonel Tom Parker.

While Don Coscarelli gave up control of the Beastmaster franchise, taking only character-creation credit on the second, third, and TV series, he's much admired among horror fans for keeping Phantasm his own, writing and directing all four films. It's largely unheard of in sequeldom - perhaps a rare moment of appreciation from this blog is in order.