The Mummy [PG]

During an archaeological dig, the mummified remains of the Egyptian high priest Imhotep were uncovered and then mysteriously disappeared. During a dig a decade later a strange man directs British archaeologists where to dig for the tomb of a Princess. Unbeknownst to the British father and son on both digs, the two exhibitions are intertwined, as the strange man who directed them to the Princess’s tomb is the mummy Imhotep that vanished a decade ago. He walks amongst them with a plan to resurrect the soul of his true love, currently residing in the love interest of one of the archeologists. 

Remade in the ‘90s into that classic Brendan Fraser action movie where he says that great line “looks to me like you’re on the wrong side of the ri-ver!”, The Mummy is another classic in Universal’s monster movie canon, depicting the story of yet another monster who is haunted and tormented by love. 

The idea of the walking dead is something that recurs within the horror genre time and time again, namely in the form of vampires or zombies. Very rarely do we see a ‘horror’ movie about mummies, which is a shame because a lot of the practices of the ancient Egyptians, as well as the fantastic and terrible stories of their gods and goddesses, lay the foundations for some really good scares. 

Whilst this movie focuses on the horror of something dead that has managed to walk about amongst living men for over a decade with a purpose to leech the soul of his love out of the body of a living woman, it’s not so much about the scares as the romance. 

Imhotep is a character that can arguably sit amongst cinematic icons that have suffered for love: Romeo, Jack from Titanic, Christian from Moulin Rouge!, and even Jareth the Goblin King. This guy goes through being buried alive and the resurrection, using copious amounts of hypnotism and ancient murdering powers that sap away his strength, and the horror of having to kill his love in order to free her soul. That’s a hell of an endurance trial, making Imhotep one of the most romantic guys in cinema…to some degree. 

Boris Karloff stars as the Mummy himself and he’s pretty damned wonderful. A step up from the droning and sadness of Frankenstein’s monster, Karloff delivers a performance that is romantic, eloquent, hypnotizing, and eerie as hell. His lines are all spoken in a very dark and oddly dreamy way, but it’s the hypnotizing sequences where he really shines. 

Of course, this effect goes hand in hand with the wonderful job that the makeup department did in making his skin the texture of paper and sand and sinking the eyes so much that when the lights hits them for the hypnotizing scenes, it’s really creepy. 

And then hand in hand with makeup are the wizards in the costume department who created some truly beautiful pieces that Karloff and Zita Johann get to wear. Seriously, beautiful! 

Starring David Manners, Arthur Byron, Edward Van Sloan, Bramwell Feltcher, Noble Johnson, Kathryn Byron, Leonard Mudie, and James Crane, The Mummy is another mesmerizing black and white monster movie of sophistication and suavity. 

Filled with action, hypnosis, drama, murder, suspense, and romance, it’s really very lovely.