Theme: Mummies

The mummy originates from funerary practices in which the body of the deceased is ritually wrapped in bandages and the organs removed for preservation. The mummy is almost always associated with Ancient Egyptian history and there has been great fascination with mummies following the unearthing of the tombs of pharaohs. Though fictional depictions usually centre on Egyptian mummies, mummification also appears in other cultures.

The mummy gained a fascination on screen not long after the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. There were a couple of silent films but the genre was popularised by Universal’s The Mummy (1932). The Universal mummy we know emerged from the series of sequels that followed, which typified it as a slow, shuffling creature wrapped in bandages risen from the dead, usually come to look for the reincarnation of its lost love.

There have been numerous B mummy movies, while Mexico has produced their own films about Aztec mummies. Hammer remade the Universal film with The Mummy (1959) and made several mummy films of their own but little changed from a slow shuffling creature wrapped in bandages. There have been a number of mummy comedies, even erotic films.

The 1980s began a move towards revising the genre, including the first mummy films to be actually shot on location in Egypt. The genre was revived in the late 1990s with the big-budget The Mummy (1999), which mounted it as an Adventure Film with CGI effects. This produced several sequels and imitators.