Based on the Bram Stoker Award nominee short story by cult author Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis (Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death", then missed his chance to switch back. Elvis teams up with Jack (Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two valiant old codgers sally forth to battle an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds.

Only 32 prints of the film were originally made as part of a limited platform release. The Soul of Southern Film Festival, in Memphis, Tennessee, paid for a thirty-third print, so that they wouldn't have to wait any longer to show the film. Several other festivals and theaters paid advances in order to secure prints.

Elvis:
Ask not what your rest home can do for you. Ask what you can do for your rest home.


JFK:
Hey, you're copying my best lines!


Elvis:
Then let me paraphrase one of my own. Let's take care of business.


JFK:
Just what are you getting at, Elvis?


Elvis:
I think you know what I'm gettin' at Mr. President. We're gonna kill us a mummy.

Boom mic visible: In the bathroom the boom mic is visible in the mirror behind JFK. It is most noticeable when he turns his head and the boom moves to follow.