Dawn of the Mummy is a 1981 Italian/American/Egyptian production that reimagines mummies as … well, as zombies rising from underground then running around eating people’s flesh and entrails.
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They’re also Jason Voorhees-esque slashers now, murdering people with machetes, because why not. And their hands acid-burn people? This visceral reimagining is both a bold take and a complete misunderstanding of what makes mummies, y’know, mummies.
Directed by Frank Agrama – the same guy who would soon executive produce a bunch of different anime programs into one and bring Robotech to America – the movie’s gory as hell and was even briefly banned in England. That’s about all it has got going for it, though. Well, that, and the fact that the mummies do kind of look like actual IRL mummies, which is a nice touch given how absolutely stupid every other part of Dawn of the Mummy is.
The plot revolves around a group of fashion models disturbing a tomb and activating an ancient curse. The fashion models, by the way, are the third set of people shown disturbing the tomb, but despite dynamiting and plundering, it’s the photographer’s heat lamps that raise the dead. The mummy/zombies don’t show up until halfway through. Also, there’s a witch who just kind of comes and goes.
Dawn of the Mummy seems to crib from, conservatively, every movie ever. There’s a scene with a woman in a lake that’s very clearly meant to invoke Jaws and a guy who looks spookily like Flash Gordon. The movie also gets a lot of mileage out of recreating Night of the Living Dead’s entrail munching and generally failing to imitate Lucio Fulci’s Zombi films.
Also, the movie cuts between horror and, like, a fashion documentary? Especially early on. There are long scenes about putting on make-up and getting the lighting right because this mummy movie is remarkably thin on actual mummy attacks. That is until the last 15 minutes, which is apparently where their entire budget went. It’s also possible that’s when Agrama took over from the porno director who had originally been behind the camera.
However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight the most amazing 30 seconds ever put to film. Despite guns not so much as damaging the rampaging horde, at one point, our hero karate kicks a pair of mummies away, only to get knocked out by a door.
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The movie’s not a comedy, and the actor’s just not that good at pretending. He absolutely tripped over an extra, injured himself, and no one cared enough to redo the scene. Because even the most festering pile of filth can have a silver lining. Usually, it’s, like, a used needle or something, catching the sun … but, sometimes, it’s goddamn art.
Eirik Gumeny is the author of the Exponential Apocalypse series, a five-book saga of slacker superheroes, fart jokes, and assorted B-movie monsters. Recently, he recently added werewolves and assassins to The Great Gatsby. He’s also on Twitter a bunch.
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Source: Pinoy Daily News
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