Legend of the Mummy starts in Egypt 1947, the Vally of the Sorcerer where a young John Corbeck carries out a bit of tomb robbing... Jump forward to the Present Day, Marin County California where Egyptian artifact collector Abel Trelawny (Lloyd Bochner) reads some ancient incantations from a stone tablet, he is attacked shortly after & found in a coma by his daughter Margaret (Amy Locane). Worried & unsure what to do she contacts her ex-boyfriend Robert Wyatt (Eric Lutes) to, well I'm not sure really but he goes round her house to be with her anyway. There Robert finds Abel in a coma & a set of bizarre instructions he left behind to be followed to the letter, Robert soon realises that something odd is going on & seeks the advice of John Corbeck (Louis Gossett Jr.) who tells a tale about Queen Tera (Rachel Naples) who is using magical influences & Abel to reincarnate herself...
Co-written, executive produced & directed by Jeffrey Obrow one has to say that Legend of the Mummy is rubbish & that's all there is to it. The script by Obrow & John Penney is an adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars' which had been previously adapted to film as the Hammer horror film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) & the big budget The Awakening (1980) both of which are much, much better than Legend of the Mummy which takes itself far too seriously, everything is played with a straight face & it doesn't work. The character's are awful, the dialogue is so dry & tedious it becomes a chore to listen to, the story is a mess with all sorts of dull plot strands going on all of which come to nothing & a criminal lack of blood, gore or Mummy activity. At almost 100 minutes Legend of the Mummy is far too long & if it doesn't put you to sleep you will lose interest well before the painfully obvious twist ending. The main problem is the story which is so fragmented & slow going I lost all interest in it, there's confusing sub plots about a Mummy that hides behind an old mattress in Abel's basement (!) & is then forgotten about, lots of spiritual nonsense spouted by Corbeck which amounts to nothing, chopped up Mummy's buried in Abel's garden (!), the number seven is a recurring motif for no reason including the fact Queen Tera had seven fingers (!), several boring flashbacks as well as some rubbish about a red jewel. Add this to the total lack of gore or horror elements & we've got a turkey on our hands which is best avoided.
Director Obrow films this in the most static, boring & unadventurous way imaginable & it has all the pace, style & energy of a fishing instruction video. There's no gore apart from someone having their fingers pulled off during a dream sequence so forget about any. Since the film is so lethargic & dull it's not scary & there's no tension or atmosphere. I will admit though that the production design is quite nice, set during the present but set in a hose full of antiques & period furniture Legend of the Mummy does look like a 20 or 30's period piece in keeping with the traditional Mummy films. To be honest if you want to watch a decent Mummy flick then go for the big budget The Mummy (1999) or it's sequel The Mummy Returns (2001) which are far superior to this in every way.
With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 Legend of the Mummy had a pretty decent budget which is probably why it looks quite nice, it's a shame there isn't more Mummy action, more gore, more style & a better more straight forward story. The acting is very stilted & no-one seems to put much effort in, Lou Gossett Jr. was winning an Oscar for his role in An Officer an a Gentleman (1982) not so long ago, needless to say he won't be getting one for Legend of the Mummy.
Legend of the Mummy, or Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy as it's also known is a tepid, dull, bland, boring none event of a horror film with a confused plot, no gore & minimum Mummy action. When I watch a Mummy film I don't want it to spend most of the film hiding behind an old mattress in a basement!
Co-written, executive produced & directed by Jeffrey Obrow one has to say that Legend of the Mummy is rubbish & that's all there is to it. The script by Obrow & John Penney is an adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars' which had been previously adapted to film as the Hammer horror film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) & the big budget The Awakening (1980) both of which are much, much better than Legend of the Mummy which takes itself far too seriously, everything is played with a straight face & it doesn't work. The character's are awful, the dialogue is so dry & tedious it becomes a chore to listen to, the story is a mess with all sorts of dull plot strands going on all of which come to nothing & a criminal lack of blood, gore or Mummy activity. At almost 100 minutes Legend of the Mummy is far too long & if it doesn't put you to sleep you will lose interest well before the painfully obvious twist ending. The main problem is the story which is so fragmented & slow going I lost all interest in it, there's confusing sub plots about a Mummy that hides behind an old mattress in Abel's basement (!) & is then forgotten about, lots of spiritual nonsense spouted by Corbeck which amounts to nothing, chopped up Mummy's buried in Abel's garden (!), the number seven is a recurring motif for no reason including the fact Queen Tera had seven fingers (!), several boring flashbacks as well as some rubbish about a red jewel. Add this to the total lack of gore or horror elements & we've got a turkey on our hands which is best avoided.
Director Obrow films this in the most static, boring & unadventurous way imaginable & it has all the pace, style & energy of a fishing instruction video. There's no gore apart from someone having their fingers pulled off during a dream sequence so forget about any. Since the film is so lethargic & dull it's not scary & there's no tension or atmosphere. I will admit though that the production design is quite nice, set during the present but set in a hose full of antiques & period furniture Legend of the Mummy does look like a 20 or 30's period piece in keeping with the traditional Mummy films. To be honest if you want to watch a decent Mummy flick then go for the big budget The Mummy (1999) or it's sequel The Mummy Returns (2001) which are far superior to this in every way.
With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 Legend of the Mummy had a pretty decent budget which is probably why it looks quite nice, it's a shame there isn't more Mummy action, more gore, more style & a better more straight forward story. The acting is very stilted & no-one seems to put much effort in, Lou Gossett Jr. was winning an Oscar for his role in An Officer an a Gentleman (1982) not so long ago, needless to say he won't be getting one for Legend of the Mummy.
Legend of the Mummy, or Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy as it's also known is a tepid, dull, bland, boring none event of a horror film with a confused plot, no gore & minimum Mummy action. When I watch a Mummy film I don't want it to spend most of the film hiding behind an old mattress in a basement!