Director: Dennis Vincent
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Title: N/A
Genre: Mummy
Plot:
After gathering a collection of sacred relics, a group of occultists gathers together to distribute the relics into their own personal collection, only to discover that the intrusion of the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh who was robbed has brought his mummy back to life to carry out a bloodsoaked rampage of revenge against them.
Review:
This was a rather enjoyable genre effort. One of the strongest aspects on display is the fun way this goes about showcasing the setup and need for revenge that the mummy carries out. With the typical setup involving the usual desecration of the tomb and pilfering the goods from its crypt that produces the series of trinkets that falls into their hands and providing the list of victims to stalk and kill off, the film falls right in line with the numerous other exploits in the genre with a believable setup that works quite nicely overall.
That, naturally, leads into the highly enjoyable series of encounters throughout here of the mummy rampaging around the city killing off all those who have the sacred objects with them. Resorting to some generally fun if brief encounters showing his strength and cruelty in just barging into a location and chopping them to pieces or wrapping them up in mummified gauze before killing them, the attacks are rather fun and cheesy with a far more lively pace than expected given the high number of confrontations throughout here. Getting some decent gore and a solid look for the titular mummy, these generate a lot to like overall.
There are a few minor issues to be had here. One of the most obvious issues here is that there’s some getting used to the film’s habit of scene transitions using the comic book panel pages tactic. This comes off rather flimsy and cheaply with the way this occurs as it keeps flashing up after several minutes on-screen to go to a new shot or section of the city which comes off rather distracting at first before you realize the technique is going to be more common throughout the rest of the film. Given that some of these are quite avant-garde and overly weird for no reason that makes it even harder to get into these scenes and makes for an odd time getting into the format.
As well, there’s also a rather weird issue with the way the police investigation is handled in that it doesn’t seem logical for actual cops in this instance to go through the steps they do here. The fact that it takes them nearly an hour and multiple murders of the same method to even think that there’s a connection to everything is entirely ludicrous for people in this situation as they’re both considered rather prominent detectives with a lot of experience. The supernatural and telekinetic prowess here is obviously glossed over but to still not notice the connection about the rampage is the key factor, which along with the overall cheap look and feel are what holds this one back.
Overview: ***/5
A fun and generally enjoyable effort that manages to pay respectful homage to the genre greats of the past even though it's slightly hampered by its budget, that's no reason not to realize that there's plenty to like with this one. Fans of the indie style or old-school genre fans willing to give it a look could check it out, while those who don't go into this style of film should heed caution with this one.
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