Looking up from the now silent phone you are surprised to see something normal…people.
Since leaving the relative normality of the town of Summerisle you’ve not seen anything that could really be described as normal. I mean, you’re fairly sure that the people weren’t there before the phonecall, but right now you’re just happy to see anybody.
You approach a young couple who look like they’re dressed for a formal occasion, the man in a suit with a hat and the lady in a vintage dress, perhaps a 40’s themed event.
“This? Well this is Ubiquity, premiere seaside resort on Summerisle and proud of it! You’re staying in Summerisle itself you say? Well yes it IS the capital I suppose, but not half as big or grand as this place.”
After a short conversation in which you learn that Ubiquity is the second largest settlement on the island, you follow the couple’s directions to the recently opened Elm Street Cineplex. On the way you pass various people of all ages and all…styles. There really must be some kind of event on, so far you’ve passed a punk rocker, a Victorian lady and a group of children looking like they’d come straight out of a medieval fair.
Reaching Elm Street you are confronted by a Cinema that looks far from new. The neon sign has more letters missing than on and graffiti adorns the façade. A man is stood in front of the cinema, he looks familiar…it’s Steven Banner, from The Green Man back in Summerisle.
“I asked you to come soon! It’s been…oh never mind, this must be fate. I started without you, I was right, they did bring the princess here! I was making good progress but then strange things started happening, the men I hired, not locals mind, started to go missing. It was then that I received a note, telling me to come to this location…was that you? Did you…”
There’s a loud crash as a heavily bandaged figure smashes through the paint daubed glass of the cinema’s façade, his hands clasping about Steven’s neck, embedded shards of broken glass slicing the flesh of his throat even as the bandaged man’s horrific strength crushes the flesh to pulp.
Hello again, welcome to another review, I’m afraid it’s not as good as the first, but then sequels rarely are…
This time we have our first sequel to review! It was bound to happen at some point, and to be honest with the way the films are picked then the more sequels a film has, the more likely it is to come up. It’s another one from the 1940’s, Kharis the Mummy is back for some sweet, sweet revenge, it’s 1942’s The Mummy’s Tomb.
Set 30 years after the events of The Mummy’s Hand, the film continues the story of Steve and Babe and their run in with the Priests of Karnak. This time however we’ve moved from Egypt to the US and the two friends have to contend with a Mummy on their home soil.
Something I want to get out of the way first is the time setting of the film. As I said it’s set 30 years after the previous film, but when was that set? If we’re being very generous we could say that the film was set in 1920, so this film takes place in 1950, ok, believable, 1942 and 1950 aren’t a world away in how they looked. That however is being extremely generous, as there’s nothing in the previous film to imply that it’s set in anything other than the year it was made, 1940. Now THAT would make this film set in 1970! It absolutely doesn’t look like 1970, I mean why would it, that would be amazing guesswork on the film maker’s part, but there’s no effort made to make the film look like 30 years has passed, other than the age of some characters. To be fair, they may have just assumed 1970 wouldn’t look all that different to 1942, the pace of change really ramped up a little time after this. There is a scene where a reporter mentions the ‘Russian Front’ which would again imply that this is the 1940’s…or maybe a future war…either way the timeline is all sorts of confusing.
This film marks the first of Lon Chaney Jr’s three appearances as a Mummy in Universal’s 1940’s Mummy movies and you really don’t get anything from it being him in the role. Unlike the Wolfman films where he plays Larry Talbot, here he mostly shambles around and gets very little to do, and nothing to say, he seems to be in it mostly so his name can appear on the poster. That’s not to say he does a bad job at the role, it just seems a little pointless him being cast in it.
The Mummy itself isn’t as creepy as in the previous outing, we’re missing those dead black eyes of the Tom Tyler version. It IS a 1940’s film so I’m not expecting anything that’s going to scare me but what would be nice is some creepy atmosphere and that’s absent here. Whether that’s intentional so as to make the film appeal to the widest audience or just the nature of churning out films as quickly as Universal were in the 40’s I’m not sure but the end result is the same.
Moving the location of the film from the tombs of Egypt to small town USA seems like something that would switch things up a bit and add interest, but it really doesn’t. At least when we were roaming through the Bazaars and uncovering ancient tombs it felt like an adventure, this is anything but, it’s slow paced, incredibly short (Especially when the first 15 minutes is a re-cap of the previous film) and honestly dull.
Ultimately The Mummy’s Tomb is a step down from its predecessor. The setting isn’t as exciting, the characters aren’t as engaging, the story isn’t as intriguing and even the Mummy isn’t as scary. There’s very little to recommend in this unless you’re a Mummy fanatic, in which case you’ve likely seen it already. I’m going to give The Mummy’s Tomb 2 flaming torches out of 5, it’s not the absolute worst thing you’ll ever watch but at best this is something you might just decide to leave on while channel surfing on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
**WARNING** SPOILERS BELOW **WARNING**
Welcome to the spoiler section. This is the part where I can bring up some specific parts of the film which I’d like to talk about more, whether they be good, or bad.
I mean…what WOULD I like to talk more about? There really isn’t a huge amount to this film. Sure I gave it a low score, but mostly because it’s bland, not because it’s committed any heinous crimes or has any stand out bad moments, and I’ve already talked about the oddity of the time it’s set in.
OK, let’s look at our two returning protagonists from The Mummy’s Hand, Steve and Babe. Well they at least look as though it’s some number of years later and to be honest it’s done fairly well, unlike the super old man thing happening with George Zucco as the surprisingly alive high priest Andoheb who was shot by Babe in the previous film and then fell down ALL of the stairs. So yes Steve and Babe are still our main guys and…oh wait no, they’re dead. Steve spends about 15 minutes at the start of the film recapping the entire previous entry before getting killed by Kharis 10 minutes later. We don’t see Babe till a little later on but he only lasts about 10 minutes as well from first to last appearance.
It’s a shame because these two don’t even get any screen time together, the film is intent on passing the torch over to Steve’s son and we don’t get any of the chemistry that the two of them had in The Mummy’s Hand, in fact there’s no chemistry at all in this film, unless you count brewing tana leaves.
The deaths in the film are mundane affairs, with the one armed, shuffling Kharis somehow able to grab people, two of whom could see him coming for them, and then strangle them or whatever is happening, he looks a bit like he’s performing Spock’s Vulcan nerve pinch, but either way, they’re dead.
By the way, what is it with these horny priests of Karnak? Again we have a situation where the priest, this time Andoheb’s protégé Mehemet Bey, can’t help but order Kharis to kidnap the film’s leading lady. Honestly they can’t control themselves!
That’s all I can think of to talk about! Time for me to shuffle off myself!
Summerisle 