Monday, October 9, 2023

October Horror Challenge 2023 #37: "The Mummy (1932)"

I read Anne Rice's novel "The Mummy" when I was 11. My mom wouldn't let me read Stephen King novels yet, but she figured this book was ok because she'd never heard of the author. If she knew how racy this novel was, there's no way she would have let me read it. But I've been interested in mummies ever-increasing then. I know I've seen this movie before, because it's a classic, but I don't remember much about it. I know it's about a cursed Mummy that comes to life and starts killing people, but it will be nice to see it again and see if any more details stick in my head this time.

A group of archeologists dig up a cursed Mummy (way to go, idiots) snd it comes to life and starts killing people. There's a scroll that they find buried with the Mummy that tells them to stop and put the mummy back because there's a deadly curse and they're in grave danger. They of course don't listen, and the Mummy comes to life and the first guy to see it goes mad with terror. Even this doesn't deter the scientists though, and, acting on a tip from an Egyptian man, they go dig somewhere else that's ALSO cursed, and they try to see what they can find there. You'd think the fact that the Mummy disappeared and some guy went mad would alert them to the danger of their mission, but they're not that bright. What they find is a mummified princess (oh look, a girlfriend for the first Mummy they let wander off). Now its several years later, and a mysterious wealthy man wants the scroll of Toth that they found, but they begin to suspect that the man is not who he says he is. Will they be able to stop the Mummy and end the curse before it's too late and the Mummy kills them too?

The Mummy in this movie is named Imhotep, and there's a woman who knows more about the Mummy than all the men, and they can't stand that. Well, the one guy just wants to bang her, and he'srefreshingly up front about that. I wasn'texpecting a hookup in the first fifteen minutes of the movie? but here we are. There's also a guard that gets killed under mysteriouscircumstances, and even that doesn't make them realize that the ancient Egyptians were serious about that "curse" business. They think the Mummy in the beginning of this movie was stolen (like someone just picked it up and ran off with it) so they don't believe in the curse, even when someone else warns them that the curse was dangerous and they needed to burn the scroll to end the mummy's curse. People in these movies never listen.

This movie spawned five sequels, so you know it was well received by the audiences at the time of its release. It's creepy and atmospheric, maybe the characters are a little racist. it's a product of its time. There's a really long flashback sequence where the villain actually explains his evil plot. Movies don'treally do that anymore like they did in the old days. The newest movie i rememberit happening in is "Silent Hill." I'll say that this movie is short so it never overstays its welcome. Overall I liked this movie, but not as well as I liked "The Wolf Man."

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