Before there was ’’The Scorpion King’’, or ’’The Mummy Returns’’, there was the Mummy.
The Mummy by Universal Pictures, is probably the best remake of an original horror film I have seen. It’s not just a remake, but it’s a completely new story that is scary, entertaining, fun and suspenseful. Now this great movie has been released on a DVD and it comes with a couple of nice features and presents this film in great form.
The movie stars Brendan Frasier as a French soldier fighting in the Middle East who is captured and about to be executed by enemy forces.
Rachel Weis plays Evelyn Carnahan, an archelogist who accidently saves Frasier from
execution. Evelyn loves studying and learning about Mummy Tombs, pharoas and Egyptian people. Eventually Evelyn learns of a special book called the Book of The Dead, which is all about mummies, resurrection andthe afterlife.
Evelyn and a group of other explorers, start digging into the tomb and treasures
of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), an evil and vicious king who is killed with his
mistress in Hamunaptra, the city of the Dead.
Basically this guy and his mistress committed violent crimes and eventually got the
same punishment they inflicted on their victims. Evelyn and the other nieve explorers, eventually resurrect the dead king which leads to a chain reaction of violence, death, and imminent death to anyone who comes into his path.
The King/Mummy isn’t at full strength, and so uses his magical and deadly powers, starts absorbing his victims, until he gets full power. Once he gets full power, the Mummy not only plans to resurrect his evil mistress but plans to conquer everthing in it’s path.
Richard Occonel (Frasier) and the others must not only find a way to stay alive but find a way to kill the mummy before his power becomes to great
and powerful to be stop.
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Visual Effects
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Before the movie, horror films had used a couple of visual effects mixed in with
horror. ’’A NightMare On Elm Street’’ for example but ’’The Mummy’’ raises the bar for visual effects in a horror film to an all time high.
When you are not getting scared to death by the suspense and horror of the film,
you are dazzled by the amazing special effects which an all new area to the film.
For instance, the visual effects that show The Mummy metamorphorsing to it’s
true form is not only scary, but fantastic!!!
Also the many scenes in the film, like the quicksand scene, and the many scenes
where the dead warriors of the mummy come to life are absolute chilling, because
they brought to life by the special effects.
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The Mummy’s Success
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The Mummy released in 1999, was a great box office smash which had horror fans going to the movie in great numbers. The film’s success lay in combing a good story, along with great effects, and graphic , suspenseful scenes that leave on the edge of youre seat.
Eventually, the creators of the Mummy would smell it’s success and create a sequel
called ’’The Mummy Returns’’.
The Mummy Returns is a great sequel in which the Mummy is again being revived, along with a strong warrior known as ’’The Scorpion King’’ All these sequels, couldn’t have done been done without this one. The Mummy by Steven Soderbergh is a great horror film full of great suspense and visual effects. The DVD is very well done and is highly recommended.
It comes with a featurette, commentary , interviews and a couple of deleted
scenes so check out the dvd and the movie.