Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971)

Years after leading an expedition to find the tomb of an unnamed sorceress Egyptologist Julian Fuchs is in a bit of a dilemma.  His young daughter, who was born at the very moment he looked upon the sorceress’ face, is having nightmares.  This is because she shares a soul with the long dead woman and now that the stars are aligned it is time for her to be reincarnated.  As the members of his expedition, all of whom were protecting talismans, begin to die Fuchs struggles to find a way to stop the ceremony and save his daughter.

Not sure where I want to start with this one.  This is pretty standard Mummy movie fare with a beautiful young woman being put in danger because she is a reincarnation of some ancient princess, priestess, or sorceress.  Then again this movie is based on the same stories that many of the other Mummy movies, so that should be expected and I’ll cut the movie some slack.  I do have some issues with the pacing of Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, as well as the narrative.  First up the movie is very slow at spots.  It takes far too long to introduce the characters and setup the plot.  While the actress playing the woman in danger is very beautiful, I don’t really need to see her frolicking around with her boyfriend and being all sweet and kind.  Now when the killings get rolling and we get to the main storyline things do get more interesting. 

My second big issue with the movie is how the narrative unfolds.  We start off with a dream sequence as the girl is having a nightmare about the sorceress being entombed.  I’m not a big fan of the dream sequence being used to fill in blanks or set the story line up.  We also get characters of those who were on the expedition with Fuchs being introduced without the movie explaining any connection to the story until much later on.  This kind of thing can be fun when executed correctly, but with Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb it was just annoying and made the movie hard to follow. 

So this is another of those Hammer horror flicks.  As one would expect the production values are pretty good.  The sets are beautiful and the movie is shot nicely.  I love how the filmmakers used some brilliant colors and lighting to create shadows.  This gives the movie a fun and familiar visual style that lets the viewer know they are watching a Hammer movie.  Even though there were many directors and creative people working with the studio most Hammer flicks have that unique visual style that sets them apart.  At least I think so.  There is also a bit of gore, though we only get to see it after the deed has been done.  There is a severed hand that creeps about some and many shredded throats.  And while we don’t get to see the attacks they are shot in a creative way that I found entertaining. 

To sum things up I wasn’t a huge fan of the story and how it was presented.  But there is some fun to be had with the effects and style.  And I guess some parts of the story did actually work for me (the ending was cool).  Then again I was sort of annoyed that there isn’t a mummy in a movie called Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb.  I just can’t recommend this one.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer