Dawn
of the Mummy
Egypt/USA 1981. Director:
Frank Agrama
Cast: Brenda King, Barry Sattels, George Peck, John Salvo
"Egypt. Land of the pyramids. A nice place
to visit. But do you want to die there?"
A couple of Egyptian graverobbers are digging up the supposedly lost tomb of evil and wicked Pharaoh Safiraman. A tomb which is said to contain immense treasures. An old witch warns them, everyone who desecrates the tomb will awake a reign of terror. "He will rise and kill! Safiraman!". But the graverobbers, lead by a guy in white hair, do not listen and instead they continue their dirty deed. Meanwhile a team of photographers and fashion models from New York are arriving to the place, thinking that it must be a hoot to shoot inside some of them pyramids, better yet a real tomb. And those nice guys who are digging over there must be archaeologists. The team are allowed inside, as the graverobbers don't want to leave yet. Unfortunately no one thinks about Safiraman who doesn't like people shooting pictures in his tomb. And he will rise and kill.
It's always nice to see a personal favorite in a new and shiny condition and Dawn of the Mummy is a treat to watch again. No, I won't say it's an overlooked masterpiece. It may not be. But as Dawn of the Dead rip-offs goes, this ragged and odd Egyptian/American offering is not so bad. Sure, it's essentially hack-work, but it's an awesome hack-work. And it has great production value too. At least considering almost all indoor scenes were built in a studio. Though the location footage is used to great advantage too, often beautifully captured by Italian cinematographer Sergio Rubini. The acting is hillarious, especially the Egyptian actors are really funny and overly excited, and the mummies themselves are great (wonderful make-up created by Italian Maurizio Trani). For my money the film also has some of the more effective scenes ever in a mummy/zombie movie, where Safiraman and his league of living dead all slowly rise from beneath the desert sand and head into town and a wedding party. Then they immediately start chewing on the bride. Director Frank Agrama apparently replaced Armand Weston (The Nesting) some day into shooting and he seem to have a refreshingly relaxed attitude and an obvious love for the old Hammer movies as well as the contemporary zombie movies by Lucio Fulci, George Romero etc. Of course, Dawn of the Mummy isn't nearly as good as either of those sources for inspiration, but it still delivers the joy and the gore. Or something like that.
© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.