For what is supposed to be a classic monster movie, The Mummy sure doesn’t look much like your typical horror flick. The beginning sequences of the film, where a bunch of scientist types dig around in ancient Egyptian tombs opening up cursed boxes that they shouldn’t be touching and unleashing unspeakable evil, they’re what you want from a mummy movie. You’ve got pyramids, bandaged wrapped corpses coming to life, and overeager men making stupid decisions and dooming everyone around them in the name of science. But then the mummy puts on clothes and starts going to parties, speaking perfect English, and manipulating everyone like some sort of Gatsby. I wasn’t prepared for this approach, and I didn’t much like it. Most of the movie boils down to a bunch of snooty socialites standing around dryly talking about science and history in downtown Cair, with the now well quaffed mummy showing up every once in a while to try and hit on a girl. Really, it’s only Boris Karloff’s super creepy and majorly weighty performance as the mummy that kept this one afloat for me. I needed more tombs, more curses, more bodies coming to life and attacking people from behind. This one just gives you one transformation scene that’s pretty cool at the beginning, a knife attack at the very end, and a complete dearth of horror in between. It’s famous more for historical value than anything else.
