Dawn of the Mummy (1981)

Annoying fashion models and their equally annoying photographers stumble across a recently opened Egyptian tomb which they find to be perfect for their latest “fashion shoot”. To bad for them the tomb is cursed (of course) and they eventually pay for themselves being so damn annoying and whiny at the hands of the King Mummy and his minions.

I really wanted to like this flick; I mean the concept sounds great. Cannibal mummy zombies? When was the last time you saw a mummy styled gore film? I guess my hopes were a little too high though because after watching this one I was really disappointed. My first gripe is that the whole thing is so damn dark; you can’t make anything out, especially in the pitch-black night scenes. I realize this Thorn/EMI print is old and everything, but jeez was this transfer bad. Real bad. In terms of pacing, it takes what seems like forever for anything to happen. You are forced to sit through an hour of piss ass “acting” and the like before anything really major happens. And once the mummy mayhem does ensue, it’s nothing terrific. The gore f/x is really bad, and that’s if you can even make anything out through the darkness. And what the hell was with that Rick character? I mean, after every damn word he would start laughing uncontrollably like some mad scientist, you know, the “I’ll rule the world” type laugh that just goes on and on. He does score with one of the models though, so what do I know? I will say that things picked up somewhat at the end, what with the mummies chowing down on the folks at the local village, but it’s much to little and comes way to late. Damn was I disappointed with this one. Skip it, unless you are a mummy film fanatic or something, and if you are one of those people...what the hell is wrong with you?