Dawn of the mummy (1981)

 

Here is a movie that tends to get generally bad review everywhere and I cannot for the love of Burial ground understand why. Sure, it is far from a perfect movie but it has that certain something and most importantly, never gets boring which is more than I can say of all the bigbudget slashers that pop up on the moviescreens on a regular basis. I mean, it is just pure exploitation. Dawn of the mummy is a fairly typical zombiemovie with obvious references to Fulci & co, with the only difference being the fact that there are mummies instead of zombies. It adds nothing new to the genre but is just so much fun!

The plot is simple: An american group of models are on a photosession in the Egyptian desert. They meet a trio of looters who have just found the tomb of Safirman and barge in to use the place as a setting for their flashy photos. The looters let them go on with their business, afraid of being reported to the police. But when the crew set up really strong lights some sort of process is set in motion, resurrecting the evil Safirman who proceeds to raise his slaves from the dead and soon an orgy of fleasheatings starts as they set upon a wedding in a nearby village.

Dawn of the mummy is an American/Egyptian/Italian coproduction with amongst others Maurizio Trani on gore sfx duty which makes it feel a lot like your average Italian goremovie. It was shot in Egypt which makes for a nice change in scenery even though the cinematography is a bit dull (I attribute this to the fact that DOTM has never had a good dvdrelease, all of them have pretty mediocre transfers) it still feels slightly exotic with fleasheating mummies running around in the desert. The acting isn't one of the movies strong points, ranging from amateurish to overacting like your life depended on it but it still fits the movie. Frank Agramas direction is what saves the movie and he creates a number of nicely staged scenarios that end up with a bit of gore, apart from some rather obvious day for night scenes. Other than those little nitpicks we do have a fine goremovie full of split heads, eyegougings and a lot of feasting on human flesh, all made with above average sfx and cool zombie makeup that look like it's straight out of a Fulciflick. All of this adds up perfectly into a cozy little zombiemovie that deserves more respect than it's getting. Guilty pleasure at its finest!

The Anchor bay dvd isn't a very good one, the transfer is ugly and muddy but it does have one great extra: a commentary track with Frank Agrama, the director. Not very scene specific, Agrama talks a lot about making a low budget horror movie in Egypt, distribution and dubbing. In short, extremely interesting stuff.

Here is the cool trailer and a nice gorescene. For the swedish readers, doesnt it sound like the victim is humming the theme from Boktipset? :)