HE MAY BE DEAD BUT HE'S STILL ELVIS
A film review by Thomas E. Billings
Copyright 1989 Thomas E. Billings
"He May Be Dead, But He's Still Elvis"
Directed by: John Myrhe Distributed by: Offensive Films Length: 10-15 minutes (approx); color
Reviewed by: Thomas E. Billings; Dept. of Statistics; University of California, Berkeley Reviewer contact: teb@bizet.Berkeley.EDU
This gem of a short film is a biting satire of the music business, and the exploitation of dead rock stars. The film begins with a commercial for the new album recorded by the dead Elvis Presley, a double album that is silent [no music; remember - he's dead!]. It's titled "Presley Comes Alive," and we are exhorted to buy, buy, buy now, now, now! There follows a press conference where it is announced that, to counteract the drop in sales of Elvis memorabilia, the promotion company, Elvis Exploitation, Inc., has dug up his corpse. The decomposing (blue, zombie-like) corpse of Elvis Presley is then unceremoniously dumped on a table at the press conference. The corpse is then sent around the country on various money-making schemes. All this happens in the first 3 minutes of this film!
There follows more humor in the same vein. We see scenes from a new movie starring the dead Elvis, "Necrophilia, Hawaiian-Style." There's more to the film than just the above points, and the ending is grotesque, but extremely funny. I will not spoil the film by revealing any more details.
The basic premise of this film is really sick. It is a low budget film, and it looks low budget. The humor is sophomoric and sick at times. Now forget what I just said and go see it! This is an outrageously funny satire; one of the funniest short films that I have ever seen!
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