Nobody's ever gotten it right.
In the 90's, we were getting to see the Universal Monsters reimagined with big name directors at the helm. Francis Ford Coppola did Bram Stoker's Dracula. Kenneth Branagh did Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Mike Nichols did Wolf. Stephen Sommers did The Mummy. Carpenter would take on The Invisible Man in 1991 and Verhoeven would make Hollow Man in 2000. The Creature was glaringly absent.
Dracula has had a rich history over the decades. We've seen them as traveling nomads, eternal beings who contemplate their immortality and glittering high school students. Hammer, Jean Rollin, Jess Franco, Francis Ford Coppola, Katherine Bigelow, George Romero, Tony Scott, Jim Jarmusch have all took a crack at it. Many brushes have been used to paint many mythologies. The vampire mythos is still being bled dry and sees no signs of stopping.
Frankenstein's monster is a story that could be interpreted as a fairytale. Tim Burton did so in 1990 with Edward Scissorhands when he married it with suburban Americana. Mel Brooks took the comedy route and created another winning concoction of the story. Proving how malleable Mary Shelley's text can be when it comes to genre.
Then we have The Wolf Man. Werewolves have been used as a metaphor for female puberty in Ginger Snaps. Neil Marshall used the action genre and funnels in werewolves with Dog Soldiers. Angela Carter's gothic fairytale take on the wolves in her classic 1979 work The Bloody Chamber was adapted by Neil Jordan when he made The Company of Wolves.
All three of these creatures have a diverse mythology which allows them to become a part of multiple genres and subgenres. We are then left with the other tier: The Invisible Man, the Mummy and the Creature From the Black Lagoon.
The original 1933 James Whale film of The Invisible Man is among the best of that whole group of classics. Certainly better than Dracula or The Wolf Man. I'm not a huge fan of The Creature. The original is good but it didn't want me to see more iterations of it. The mythology is self contained within the space of one film. It's a humanoid monster that attacks people. Nothing really interesting was done with it until Guillermo Del Toro took on the story in 2017's The Shape of Water.
This preamble allows us to finally open the sarcophagus and take a look at what this is all about: the mummy.
If I ever made a horror film, this would be the first subject I'd tackle. The argument against a proper mummy movie would probably sound like this: It's basically a lumbering zombie with bandages wrapped around it. I blame it more and the near absence of an effective film. When it does show up, I'm left with the feeling of disappointment.
It all began with Universal's 1932 film. Director Karl Freund employs techniques Val Lewton would use a decade later. The power of suggestion through sound and shadow. During the time of pre code horror, directors often used the influence of German expressionism on their films. Karl Freund was a direct link to this influence, having worked as a cameraman on Friz Lang's Metropolis and FW Murnaus's The Last Laugh. There is a creepy, effective sequence in which we watch the mummy coming to life and moving his hand as a character is reading Egyptian text. Summoning it from it's eternal sleep. The Jack Pierce makeup effects called for Boris Karloff to be wrapped up in bandages. His skin resilience from this film alone had to have been tremendous. The entire movie hinges on these effects and Karloff. The love story over centuries of time narrative doesn't do much for me and was done so much better by Coppola in his take on Dracula.
Hammer Studios gave it a shot in 1959. Paul Naschy wrestled it to the ground in The Mummy's Revenge. At the tail end of the 90's we were given The Mummy. Or as I like to call it Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Mummy's Tomb. There are certain aspects of it I enjoy. The scarabs that burrow underneath the skin for one. Brendan Fraser's comedic timing for another. When I saw it in the theater in 1999 I left underwhelmed. I had seen an enjoyable adventure movie. But it used the material of what could be an effective horror movie as a vehicle.
Future sequels would be made. None of which grabbed my attention. By the time 2017 rolled around, Universal dusted off the rights and made an updated installment. This time with Tom Cruise. Yet again, it was an action adventure movie. Expecting Universal to do something unique with this property was naive at this point.
No, the places I would find the closest representation of the bandaged cadaver were scarce but gave me hope that something could be done. There are three examples I have come across.
The opening of Nosferatu the Vampyre is exactly the type of mood this hypothetical mummy movie calls for. I'd say it's in contention for creepiest opening to any horror movie. The Popol Vuh score overlaying mummies frozen in a state of shock all the while we hear a sound of a slow, flapping wing. The rhythm imitating that of a heartbeat.
In the fifth season of Tales From the Crypt, Creep Course. Some of the more disturbing elements of Egyptian mythology are used. A tool used to pull the brain out from the nose. Another being a drink that liquifies the insides and has them ooze out of your anus and mouth. Both methods sick and twisted. Both sign posts pointing me to a giant sign saying "How the hell are you horror directors missing the potential here?"
Finally, we have my favorite story from Tales From the Darkside: The Movie. Lot 249. The closest anyone has come. It brings the mummy out into the modern world. Only what is built around it isn't as hokey as some of the other 'modern takes'.
Outside of film, the death metal band Nile has offered plenty of inspiration through the Egyptology themed lyrics and instrumentation. Lead singer Karl Sanders' being a huge nerd for this and Lovecraft helps a great amount. Albums like In Their Darkened Shrins, Annihilation of the Wicked and Ithyphallic remain in heavy rotation for inspiration. A dream mummy project would probably involve Karl Sanders scoring it.
These are mere pieces of a puzzle with the rest of them missing. When I sit down and watch a horror movie with potential to be great and the movie doesn't utilize said potential, the first thing I say to myself is "well here's what I would've done." With The Mummy, maybe I'll just go full bore and write my own script or book.
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