Elegiac Masculinity in Bubba Ho-Tep and Late Phases

Abstract

Traditional visions of masculinity are inextricably linked to some tropes believed as ‘essential’ in men such as valour or strength. If a man fails in comply with these ‘essences’, then he fits into a form of deviant masculinity that transforms him into an Other.

Now, what happens with the issues of ageing in masculinity? The ageing man slowly but naturally loses all the aspects that made him ‘manly’ enough, becoming instead a double of himself. Men are doomed to fail as their bodies start to malfunction.

Two horror films highlight ageing and failed masculinity as a way to engage with these new concerns. Bubba Ho-Tep (Don Coscarelli, 2012) and Late Phases (Adrián García Bogliano, 2014) revolves around two aged heroes (Elvis Presley in the former, an ageing war veteran in the latter) who live within retirement communities. There, in the last years of their life, both men must face supernatural menaces: a walking mummy and a werewolf respectively. Facing supernatural horror, the ageing heroes must compensate their failing masculinity – a body that does not work as well as it used to do – with new forms of empathy and manliness.

Uniting film studies with investigations on masculinity and ageing, we propose to read these two films to point the ways in which both stories engage with the cultural politics of ageing masculinity.

Citation

Berns, F.G.P. and Foronda, D. (2019), "Elegiac Masculinity in Bubba Ho-Tep and Late Phases ", Holland, S., Shail, R. and Gerrard, S. (Ed.) Gender and Contemporary Horror in Film (Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 23-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-897-020191003