Dawn of the Mummy (1981)

The Mummy genre is not unique but it's time tested. This low budget loser from the 1980's is just awful and that's being kind. It takes forever to get going and when it does it doesn't make any sense. Hot lights re-animates the dead, I think not. I can't call the characters two dimensional, because that would be considered an improvement. The gooey mummy sucks the big time, and what's up with the man eating mummy. Zombies eat human flesh, Mummies crush people. The effects are pretty good but that alone cannot save this waste of film. The ending is typical of the time period, but I can't stand the movie has a whole. I must give it THE CRAP-O-LANTERN.

One of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. During the first few minutes everybody who didn't read the credits and rather smooched with his girlfriend would recognize this movie as Italian-made. Poor atmosphere, poor effects, and lots of talking. Despite other Italian horror movies there are no scenes of nudity, the beautiful actresses even get to take a moonlight bath clad with bikinis - maybe the director didn't want to shock the mummy with the view of naked girls? Well, as soon as the mummy awakes and goes on a rampage strangling its victims to death, its long-dead servants awake as well and go on a rampage eating people in a zombie-style manner. Now, why would they feast on their victims and the mummy wouldn't? The special effects are poor, the showdown is poor (a burning shed and a mummy that wouldn't burn...) and the acting is poor. Shy away from it, folks, as you would from an ancient Egyptian tomb! This movie gives you nightmares - but not about the mummy but about the money you wasted renting or buying it and the time you wasted watching it. Jasper P. Morgan

"Dawn of the Mummy" is easily the goriest Mummy movie ever made.**SPOILERS**An ancient Egyptian king is locked inside a sacred tomb and it's protected by an evil curse, which Rick, (John Salvo) ignores and opens it anyway. Later on, Gary, (Barry Sattels) and his photography group, photographer Bill (George Peck) and models Lisa, (Brenda King) Jenny, (Joan Levy) Melinda, (Ellen Faison) and Joan, (Dianne Betty) arrive at the burial ground to perform a fashion shoot. While wandering around the pyramids, they stumble upon Rick and his excavation site. Exploring the tomb, they find the Mummies burial ground and Gary decides it's the best place to shoot his series of photos. Being inside the tomb sparks the curse, and the mummy is revived to seek revenge for his burial. The revived Mummy stalks the group one by one, who is unaware and continues the photo shoot.The Good News: As far as Mummy movies go, this one takes the cake as far as goriest one made. We get a large amount of blood and gore in here, so much more than any other mummy movie. We get a meat-cleaver to the head, a decapitation, and tons of people are killed by zombified mummies. This also brings up the fact that it's one of the cleverest Mummy movies out there by incorporating the traditional Mummy mythology with zombies. That's a pretty great idea by mixing the two genres the way this one does. It's a great way to up the value of the film by having two different genres mixed together into one cohesive unit. Neither storyline is really put above the other one, so it's pretty easy to follow along and not get confused over what it happening. It's a pretty sweet idea that really takes some creative thought to hold those two from coming up with a cliché-ridden storyline and combines the best aspects of both genres into one great story. Almost as impressive is the look of the mummies/zombies in this film. They look accurately decayed and rotten, dirty bandages dripping off their bodies and Mummified looks from behind their rotten faces, and this makes for a grand monster which captures and frightens your imaginations. It's quite effective.The Bad News: This one takes a while to get going, so it can be a boring beginning if you're not prepared to sit through some character and situation set-up before the action kicks in. Granted, this has happened before, but it's a bit longer than normal before the action starts up, and since none of the characters are all that spectacular to begin with, it makes for a hard opening to sit trough. Beyond that, it's not all that bad.The Final Verdict: I liked this one a lot, but if you can forgive a slow opening, you'll like this one as well. It's pretty gory, so it's not for the weak-stomach. Gorehounds, check it out, those who love Mummy movies will also find a lot to love in this one. Be careful, others, as this one is pretty cheesy.Rated R: Graphic Violence and some mild drug use

Believe it or not but, strictly seen from a marketing-point-of-view, this "Dawn of the Mummy" actually is a rather clever movie! The DVD-cover just screams out "the first mummy gore movie ever!" (at least, mine does) and even the title is clearly inspired by the 1978 cult-hit. It's obvious that the makers carefully observed the zombie-gore successes of both George A. Romero and Lucio Fulci and they wanted to do exactly the same…only with mummies! You can't really blame anyone for exploiting something that's profitable, right? The movie itself, however, is every bit as bad as you expect it to be: no plot, few tension, unlikable characters, laughable dialogues and – of course – atrocious 80's acting. It's about a couple of greedy treasure-hunters, dressed up like archaeologists, who perpetrate an ancient Egyptian pyramid in search of gold. All of a sudden, a group of young and idiotic fashion models and photographers join in and their noise and heavy lighting equipment cause the mummy to awake. Irritated as he is, the mummy and his servants go on a killing spree. The first hour of this film is tame, incredibly sophomoric and hardly endurable because of its cheapness. There are a few lame attempts to throw in some sleaze (because it sells, I guess) and eerie music but nothing helps. If you are a persistent horror fan and make it to the last 20 minutes, you'll be rewarded with an explosively gore climax in which nearly all the irritating characters you hated so much will die a violent and nasty death! Amen for that! Other mildly entertaining elements include an atmospheric resurrection of desert-zombies (shamelessly copied from Fulci's repertoire, but still…) and the (stereotypical) old witch who wanders around nagging about the curse! Unless you want to see every horror movie made, I'd advise you to skip "Dawn of the Mummy" as it is almost too stupid for words. For example: this movie teaches us that mummies can be brought to life rather easily! You don't need no complex hieroglyphs or boring parchments…all you got to do is hatch the mummy out!