Karloff_mummyIs it just me or do mummies seem to be lacking in representation in the horror genre?  In quality work, I mean, not in the SyFy Original Movie vein.  The only good mummy movies are The Mummy, with Karloff, Bubba Ho-tep, and The Monster Squad.  I guess I could include Hammer’s The Mummy, but, really, should I?  And in the world of literature there is only…actually, to think on it, I’ve never read a horror novel starring a mummy, or a short story for that matter.  I know they must exist, but I’ve never read them, at least I don’t remember reading one (help me out here).

When I say “mummy”, I mean the wrapped up, decaying, shuffling-walk, type of mummy.  I do not, let me stress NOT, mean that Stephen Sommers crap that’s been splattered onto theater screens like mad monkeys machine gun-throwing their doo.  Hell, they don’t even have to shuffle for me to like them.  They do, at least, have to walk a little slow.

The Mummy, which was (lets face it) just a retread of the earlier Dracula, though better than that vampire film (again, lets face it), only has Karloff in what is considered traditional mummy garb for just a brief few scenes.  Even in The Monster Squad we get short-changed; the Mummy pops in and out so quick, and seen so little, it’s easy to forget he’s in the movie at all.

There are a ton of mummy movies out there…really, there are, I’ve seen the DVD covers on the video store shelves over the years.  The majority of these movies come and go fast, though, because they fall well below what would be considered “good”.  Some fall below the margin of what is considered “entertainment”.

mummy-propI suppose there is a fine line between mummies and zombies, and it seems zombies have pretty much won out over the years.  Nothing against zombies.  Mummies, according to what I’ve seen in the movies (and this is the only research I’ve done on them), are capable of an intelligence beyond the basic need, or craving, to feast on the flesh of the living, and most are beyond wandering aimless through the world.  They can be cunning and conniving as well as murderous and horrific.

Mummies are one of the great untapped sources in horror.  Maybe someday, not too distant from today, the mummy, bandages and all, will see a renaissance.  Maybe once teen vampires and shapeshifters go out of fashion and zombies are indicted for Ponzi schemes, maybe the mummy will stalk the shadows of the silver screen and lurk the caverns of the written word.

Of course it will all probably have something to do with Stephenie Meyer, and then I’ll just have to shoot myself.

J.
the_novacula