Director: John Gilling
Year: 1967
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Mummy
Plot:
Returning home from an excavation, an archeologist's daughter finds that her resemblance to a recently-unearthed Egyptian queen's tomb allows her soul to possess her in an effort to be unleashed in the world again, and must race to stop the ceremony from being completed.
Review:
This is probably one of Hammer's most underrated features. One of its better features is that this effectively uses shadow and suggestion among the best that the studio ever tried and manages to bridge the gap between its Gothic start and the more exploitative side that was coming to the forefront. The first one is clearly the highlight, as a victim inside an insane asylum, straight-jacketed and held down when a vicious wind begins to howl and starts blowing things around the room. He notices a snake sculpture on the wall is missing and he goes over to try to get out, but he is trapped inside when the snake sculpture's shadow on the side of the wall slowly approaches him and gets even more frantic and hysterical, and the wind picks up to hide the brutal murder that follows quite effectively.
All of the shadows and other images in the film are nice uses of suspense to give the film a little something extra, just to spice up the action. The attacks at the end are the most fun with the full powers of the possessed queen put to display in a variety of locations against the attackers which allows for some frenetic action scenes to occur as the wild fight in the library, a further attack at her home and the finale which is just plain fun. The amazing sets are so eerie and striking that it really catches your eye. It also adds to the suspense of the scenes since their realism plays out incredibly well as they are so intricately made that it almost looks like they used ancient Egyptian props straight from a tomb and put them directly in front of the camera.
The tomb is the most impressive, with the beautiful sarcophagus in the middle as the best example of this with the decorated head filled with colored jewels, the elaborate headdress, and the overall design is simply marvelous with the large hieroglyphics on the walls and looks very nice. It really does look like an actual Egyptian tomb inside up to Hammer's usual high standards. Even the kills were pretty good as always going for the jugular is a nice adaptation to give the killer, making for some nasty kills along the way even if it doesn't provide for any creativity. However, it allows for a lot of blood to flow, as this is one of the bloodier films from Hammer. There weren't a lot of kills in the beginning, but once this got rolling, they came fast and furious.
Finally, Valerie Leon is one of the better and busty heroines of the Hammer staple, spending a lot of time in the film wearing a negligee, and sometimes less, so this is something many red-blooded males will want to see. There's not a lot to dislike from this one, though it is probably one of the slower entries in the series so it takes a while to get going. Once it gets going, it's not that bad, but for a mummy film, we don't see the mummy in the film all that often. Even more so, it isn't a mummy in the traditional sense that we know of, covered in layers of moldy bandages and shuffling about. Here, not only is it rarely seen, but it isn't the traditional mummy, so fans may be disappointed with it if it's a blind buy based on the title.
Overview: ****/5
An underrated effort with some great moments, this one manages to get quite a lot to like which manages to make for a solid conclusion to the franchise over its few minor drawbacks. Those who are fans of this style of genre fare, enjoyed the other entries in the series, or are curious about it will have the most to look while those turned off by these issues will want to heed caution.
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