Monday, December 11, 2006



The Mummy

Note: This is a review for the classic Hammer release from 1959

Synopsis: An archaeological team made up of a father, brother, and son locates the elusive tomb of an Egyptian priestess long buried and forgotten, or so they think. Before they are able to break the seal on the tomb a priest of the same ancient religion as the buried priestess appears and pleads with them not to desecrate the tomb. In their arrogance they ignore him and soon after the father is found babbling incoherently after being left inside the tomb alone. The action then moves back to England where the priest has followed the three men, intent on carrying out the curse with the aid of the priestess’ guardian, the titular mummy. The remainder of the film is the mummy wandering the English countryside taking his revenge.

The Good: To begin with the cast is top notch. First we have Christopher Lee, who does a fantastic job as the mummy, as well as playing the character as a priest in flashbacks. Peter Cushing in the lead role as the son is also very entertaining. The sets are very good, including the Egyptian sets, which were created from scratch at the studio in England. The script and direction both are crisp and move the movie along at a brisk pace. Again there is no wasted scenes or dialogue to drag the film’s pace down.

The Bad: I really like this movie a great deal. The one caveat that I will give is that it may seem a bit dated to today’s audience. This is a film from the late 50’s and feels like it.

The Score: 4 out of 4

Great film that horror film fans should really enjoy. Plus you get Cushing and Lee in their prime. Doesn’t get any better than this!

Feel free to contact me at horrorfanreview@aol.com

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home