Dawn of the Mummy (1981) User Reviews

Disco Mummy

[GroovyDoom · 5/10 · 20 November 2001]

You might actually get into this grade-z cannibal mummy movie. I know I did. The plot concerns the desecration of a centuries-old tomb, with the standard curse on it (an obligatory pre-credit sequence establishes that anybody who desecrates the tomb will be folded, spindled, and mutilated). The moron who unearths the tomb centuries later allows an equally moronic crew of fashion models and photographers to conduct a photo shoot amid the ruins, despite the fact that a priceless collection of spray-painted flowerpots and dollar-store statues is reportedly stashed somewhere in the tomb's two or three corridors. OK, there wasn't much of a budget.

So guess what? There is a mummy that comes back to life, but more importantly the mummy brings with him a whole bunch of zombies in rotting leisure suits (not very fashionable at all, really). They don't really do anything for a while except hide in the shadows and stare at people, but they do manage to kill off one or two dumb bunnies, like in one outrageously stupid set piece that takes place in an oasis. Yeah...these two models leave camp and ride their horses to the oasis to do a little skinny dipping, then one of them gets out of the water and discovers that the horses have bolted. So what does she do? Heads back to camp on her own, leaving the other one behind. Enter mummy and cohorts, stage left.

A lot of inspiration is drawn from Fulci's "Zombi 2", particularly one sequence involving a zombie attack during a wedding party. The groom unveils the room where his bride is preparing herself, only to discover mummy zombies eating her corpse, just like Mrs. Menard in "Zombi 2". Some of the makeup even resembles that film, only Fulci obviously had a lot more to work with than this director did.

The attack of these mummy-zombies has to be seen to be believed, especially the climactic village raid following the wedding party. I don't know how many of these undead assailants there are supposed to be, since they only really show about four or five of them on screen at the same time, but they are pretty nimble for being zombies and all. They are able to pluck people out of moving vehicles, chase running people down, and more importantly, they are able to strangle their victims in mere seconds. Oh yeah, they are able to make flesh rot with just a single touch, too, a concept that gains some points for originality. Watch for the two zombies who fight over the dead bride's severed forearm, proving that social problems continue on after death.

'He Will Rise And KEEEIIILLL!!!'

[EVOL666 · 5/10 · 14 February 2010]

I had heard about DAWN OF THE MUMMY quite a while back-both in terms of it's supposedly extremely gory ending-and also how bad the rest of the film is supposed to be. I've had this one laying around for years but was never real interested in watching it. But I've been on a bit of a kick for weird '80s horror films-and I figured this one would fit the bill-so I gave it a shot.  

A tomb-raider named Rick and his two assistants find the burial-ground of a mummy called Surferman (or some such sh!t...)-but their grave-robbing is interrupted by a group of fashion-models and photogs who stumble across the tomb and consider it to be the perfect spot for their shoot. Of course the tomb is cursed, and the photo crew's bright lights awaken the mummy and his zombie-like minions who eventually go on a feeding- frenzy at a wedding...

The good points: I personally liked the gooey-looking mummy. I liked that they went with something a little different than the standard wrapped-in-gauze look. The ending-though ridiculous-is fun, if not nearly as gory as some have made it out to be. The bad points: everything else. The acting is terrible-especially from grave-robber Rick. He over-acts so horribly that I almost have to rank it under the good points because his performance is so ridiculous that its actually one of the highlights of the film.  The pacing is snail-paced until the end. The plot is stupid and uninteresting, and there's no nudity from any of the attractive females in the cast. DAWN OF THE MUMMY has a few amusing moments-and those who are fans of super-low budget schlock films may get a kick out of it. Others will be bored stupid. I tend to usually at least somewhat enjoy these kinds of films-and this one I found to be slightly worthwhile. 5/10

Ultra gory mummy/zombies from the golden days of gut munching cinema

[Bogey Man · 5/10 · 6 April 2003]

Farouk (Frank) Agrama's Dawn of the Mummy (1981) tells the traditional story of an old mummy's grave being violated by greedy present day scientists and some other people as they're after a huge gold treasure that was left for the mummy as he was supposed to enter the beyond after his death. The film opens with the embalming (greetings to Poland!) scene which shows how they removed the intestines and left the dead one to rest forever. Then we jump to the present day Egypt in which a fashion photographer group is planning to take pictures for three days, as well as a group of men who are only after the gold. Of course they soon go to the tomb and mess with the mummies waking the "protagonist mummy" and his guards up resulting some vengeful carnage.

The film has not plenty of interesting cinematic elements or merits like photography (some nice angles, though) or atmosphere and it concentrates mostly on the gore. The film ends in a hilarious gore carnage finale as the present day Egyptians and foreigners that caused it all learn that they really should have left the mummies in peace! The end scene is surprisingly gory but also in a cheesy way as can be expected. Still it is far from the kind of film that could be shown for the "unexperienced" with plenty of scenes of gut munching, flesh ripping and the usual meat cleaver to the head ultra gore found in these films from the seventies and eighties. The zombified mummies themselves are pretty gruesome and look convincing, and really angry.

The film looks otherwise pretty believable as it was shot in Egypt for real. There are no stages or other artificial deserts but the real one with many pyramids and beautiful locations in real Egypt. There is, however, one thing that really irritates me in this film and it is how everyone screams so much and just seems to be unable to stop it once something horrible happens. I don't know is it the dubbing and so not in the screenplay but still it is the worst and the most painful thing in this film. Also some of the scenes are pretty unnecessary only prolonging the film with characters and dialogue that don't develop anything and so have no real reason to be there. Still the film manages to maintain the interest with rather good balance between the action/horror scenes and the more restful ones.

Dawn of the Mummy is a noteworthy example of the B level gore cinema of the early eighties with beautiful locations, some quite creepy and effective scenes and monsters, a universal theme about man's greediness and of course the "key thing", the graphic horror. A film like this could be so much more painful to watch and so Agrama's effort will have its place in the book of the no-less-than-mediocre zombie/mummy horrors of the golden days of the genre! 5/10

The Ancor Bay version is not the "uncut" one.

[gletzes · 2 January 2006]

O.K,i am just writing this to clear up the misinformation that the Anchor Bay DVD release is the "uncut" one.It isn't.In fact it is missing most of the gore.I have watched the true uncut version,a Greek VHS copy,a long time ago and i can still remember this film being much gorier that what Anchor Bay has released.

Let me explain that in the mid-eighties ,Greece was a paradise for every gorehound cause the arrival of VHS had brought a ton of small Greek distributors that were releasing every piece of horror "video nasty" totally uncut including movies like cannibal holocaust,cannibal ferrox,every Fulci movie and many more, "Dawn of the Mummy" included.

Anyway the movie is horrible but it has a few laughs due to the hilarious "acting" and the music is kind of neat.Other than that i was disappointed to find out that most of the gore is missing from the Anchor Bay version...

When you clean out the pyramid, you have to kill the mummy!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 11 March 2023]

The same year of the notorious Joan Crawford biography "Mommie Dearest" came "Mummy Deadliest", a cheaply made zombie horror film with a no name cast, silly but enjoyable. There's a short prologue in the ancient Egypt days and an old woman who pops up in the following scene has the same exact voice as the young woman who placed the curse several milleniums before. But nobody listens to her, believing that she will soon be dust, but the opposite is true. A role in the sand for a young woman means an encounter with a severed head, and that's nothing compared to what the people involved in this will encounter as they travel deeper into the valley of the kings. The situation takes a more serious turn when a group of American tourists show up, basically taking over (as American tourists do), further upsetting the risen undead who could care less about a bunch of vapid models using this opportunity to get some exotic photos.

I'll give this film credit for being better than the 1980 high budget, starry "The Awakening", the "Mummy Dumbest" of all ancient curse movies. The horror is much modevastating than just being stalked by a dead person in gauze as all those who enter the tomb have side effects caused by their visit. Then there's the greedy buffoonish local who finds his treasure, unaware that he will end up with it for eternity where the monetary value has no use. I found this enjoyable, funny, spooky and fast moving, even if it utilizes every single cliche in the book that has been used in movies ever since the silent era. The mummys are made up to be very scary looking and deadly, and fortunately the gore is minimal, that is until the intense conclusion. In spite of being cast with all amateurs, it's pretty decently acted, and production values are also impressive In spite of the obvious low budget. No "Indiana Jones", but worth the 90 minutes it takes to unfold.

It's Mummies, it's Zombies...and it's boredom!

[Justin-Fog · 2/10 · 2 April 2006]

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

Battle of the six extras

[unbrokenmetal · 2/10 · 16 February 2003]

Another version of the same old story: people open a mummy's tomb, mummy is awakened and walks the earth to kill the annoying strangers, assisted by `an army of zombies' (backcover text). In fact this `army' consists of six extras. The first half of the movie is rather tame, wouldn't scare 6-year-old boys, but the second half surprisingly turns into a gorefest! Very, very low budget obviously, and despite the violent finale, nobody will remember it tomorrow. Worst film I have seen about Egypt so far.

"I know what's on the other side of those dunes, sand." Tedious Mummy film.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 30 August 2005]

Dawn of the Mummy starts in 'Egypt 3000 B.C.' where we witness the mummification of evil warlord Pharaoh Safiraman & a curse placed upon his tomb by a high priestess (Laila Nasr). Cut to 'Egypt, Present Day' where American treasure hunter Rick (John Salvo) & his two bumbling assistant's Karib (Ibrahim Khan) & Tarik uncover Safiraman's tomb in search of gold. Meanwhile some fashion models Lisa (Brenda King), Jenny (Joan Levy), Melinda (Ellen Faison), Joan (Dianne Beatty) & Gary (Barry Sattels) are in Egypt for a magazine shoot for an important client. Along with the photographer Bill (George Peck) they all end up at the site of Safiraman's tomb & decide to shoot some pictures in there. Eventually the Mummy of Safiraman comes to life & together with his armies of the undead he sets about killing everyone in sight.

This American, Egyptian & Italian co-production was co-written, produced & directed by Farouk Agrama as Frank Agrama & Dawn of the Mummy is quite simply a tedious film from beginning to end. The script by Agrama, Ronald Dobrin & Daria Price is painfully slow & poorly paced. The film is almost half way through before the action proper begins & it's a real chore to get up to this point. Even when the 'good' stuff arrives it's all so dull, uninteresting & filmed with no sense of pace or purpose. The characters are poorly written clichés who all deserve to die horribly, they have no development & are annoying. More or less every Mummy film ever made has the same basic premise & Dawn of the Mummy is no exception, unsuspecting adventurers ignore local warnings & desecrate sacred tomb, Mummy comes to life & kills member's of expedition & that's it, it's as simple as that. Dawn of the Mummy only adds some over-the-top gore scenes & a few zombies to cash-in on the success of Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) & Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979), & I'm sure the similarities between the title of this & Romero's masterpiece is not a coincidence. Technically Dawn of the Mummy is a really cheap & nasty looking film throughout, amazingly it was indeed partly shot in Egypt although looking at it you could barely tell except for one scene set against some pyramids at the start as it spends most of it's running time in a extremely fake looking tomb complete with foam sarcophagus, items spray painted gold to use as treasure & painted by a five year old hieroglyphics's, a market street that is obviously a set & an indifferent looking oasis which probably counts for the location shooting. Most of the running time seems to consist of the characters travelling back & forth between these locations. The cinematography is bland & forgettable apart from one scene when a group of zombies rise from the sand against a setting sun. The make-up effects vary from impressive to very poor, the main Mummy is maybe the best looking ever but the zombies pale by comparison, there are some scenes as the zombies eat intestines, someone has their neck bitten, eyes are poked out, there are some decapitated heads, a great bit when someone has a meat cleaver stuck in their head & various guts & blood being spilt at the climax but somehow it has little or no impact. Speaking of the climax where did all the zombies go? You'll know what I mean if you have seen it... The acting is bad, the models aren't even good looking let alone beautiful & there is no nudity whatsoever. Director Agrama fails to bring any sort of excitement, atmosphere or tension to any of what's going on & he completely wastes the shooting opportunities the Egyptian locations could have provided. Dawn of the Mummy is a pretty uneventful, boring & poorly made film but if you can stick it out there are some decent gore scenes & I love the main Mummy bad dude. Probably below average & not really worth tracking down.

Mumbies on the rampage

[rmeador · 2/10 · 1 September 2006]

An attempt to merge mummy movies and living dead zombies into a gore/bore fest. The acting is just awful, with hardly a shred of unchewed scenery by the end. For instance, one of the leading ladies finds a severed head in the desert, and begins to screetch and whoop while running in a circle around the head (as opposed to running away from it) until she finally launches herself at one of the guys and slides down his body like a cheap party dress. The story and effects are pretty threadbare. The wacky gang of thieves keeps talking insanely about the gold they are looking for until they finally pull out two or three small gilded thingies from the mummy's body. The thieves are so thrilled to find three little pieces of gold they whoop, they beat the lid, they dance, they laugh. Oh yeah, they're in the money now. Why, those three little pieces of gold might bring as much as $50! Good times, good times… The mummy itself is kind of gooey, and doesn't seem to eat much flesh, but as legend would have it, when the mummy arose, his buried minions also arose. The minions were not in the tomb however—they apparently spent the last 3,000 years buried in 3 inches of sand. Once they sit up, they immediately shamble around like extras from one of the Living Dead movies. Are they mummies? Zombies? Mumbies? Pretty soon, things finally get icky. Classic scenarios abound, like opening the door to the room where a bride is getting ready for her wedding and finding three or four mumbies chowing down on her. Finally, a building burns, a group of bad actors limp away, and a cloth-covered hand rises in the foreground. The end?

The last 15 minutes are insanely gory fun!

[Logan-22 · 6/10 · 30 October 2004]

This film is a bit of a clunker, slow-paced until the mummy and his flesh-eating zombies go on a rampage near the end. Then the movie turns into one of the most entertaining, enjoyable bloodbaths ever filmed! The real trick is sitting through the rest of the film to get there, though I just watched it again TWICE! Once with audio commentary, which explained a lot about what the director went through trying to sneak in gore and nudity while shooting in an uptight Arabic country with a Government Film Censor standing over his shoulder. The film is not quite as bad or boring as I remember it being from watching it cut on cable back in the 1980s. Now that it's finally out on DVD (in a nice remastered, uncut print with cool audio commentary by the director), we can skip past the wafer-thin plot about fashion models in the desert entering a cursed Pharaoh's tomb and get right to the good stuff... the last 15 minutes of the movie, which I guarantee you'll watch over and over again in amazement. A great Arabic horror soundtrack by Shuki Levy (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers) adds immeasurably to the fun. This is one of only a few mummy gorefests ever made. The other big one (which is often badly censored on video if you can find it at all) is Paul Naschy's "The Mummy's Revenge," which is a slightly better and more consistently gory film, IMO, though still no great prize. What makes Dawn of the Mummy so special is that it has a small army of diseased flesh-eating zombies IN ADDITION to the killer mummy, ultra-gory intestine-ripping violence, a great soundtrack, a hilariously cheesy rip-off title (George Romero's Dawn of the Dead had come out a few years earlier), and---surprise--it is actually shot in Egypt, unlike just about every other mummy movie ever made. Dawn of the Mummy is cheap enough on DVD that die-hard splatter fans and/or zombie completist (when aren't they the same?) won't feel guilty for adding this moldy oldie to their horror collection.

Hey, it worked well enough with zombies! Why not make a "Dawn" with mummies??

[Coventry · 2/10 · 17 June 2005]

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!

Give him a break - he's been dead 3000 years!

[dmc102 · 8/10 · 3 May 2005]

Dawn of the Mummy (1980) represents one of the only Egyptian produced films to feature Egypt's most famous character. Filmed on actual Egyptian locations, director Farouk (Frank) Agrama directs his cast of Calender models as they shoot in an ancient tomb! Man, they're just asking for it!

Sure, Dawn of the Mummy draws many of it's themes from the popular Zombie films of the 70's/80's. The title is more than a tad similar to George Romero's 1978 classic, and the film itself more than borrows from the Italian films being produced on the Zombie subject. But, I must say that I can't help but like this film. It is ludicrous, boring and unavoidably bad - but so what? It's a Mummy film!

This was one of the films to suffer cuts in the UK at that hands of Margaret Thatcher and the BBFC (hate...so...much!) and remained butchered in the UK until the good folks at Anchor Bay re-visited it with a cleaned up picture and all of the gratuitous scenes back in. Or so I thought.

Where is the gore? Where is the violence? Not here. This film is in no way worthy of it's "video nasty" trophy. In fact, I can't say this film isn't suitable for a five year old. The only gore scene I can remember is when a guy is decapitate. Yuck, I hear you say. Not really. You hear a scream and then see a Papier Mache ball roll down the sand dune.

So what is my conclusion? I like it. It's good, clean, hokey fun which you will keep going back to. Want a white knuckle video nasty? Buy Cannibal Holocaust. I really doubt that anyone from the BBFC actually watched this film during the onslaught of the video nasties in 1980 - I expect they looked at the genre; Zombie film. This is a funny film suitable for the entire family - take it for what it is!

Bad but entertaingly so

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 30 September 2018]

Usual plot of an ancient Egyptian prince having his tomb broken into - this time by gold hunters AND a group of American models on a fashion shoot - and wreaking his revenge. The good points are that this was actually shot in Egypt, the sight of the Prince's zombie servants rising out of the sand is really good and there is, eventually, a fair smattering of gore. The soundtrack is pretty groovy too. Bad points are - terrible acting/dialogue, it's quite slow for it's first half & the gore is pretty cheap looking, not a patch on say Dawn of the Dead or Zombie Flesh Eaters. The film was seized by police under Section 3 in Britain during the Video Nasties era, before being passed with cuts. Now uncut. It is pretty tame by today's gore standards. No question, this is a bad movie but for those of us who enjoy an Italian gorefest then it makes fun viewing. I watched it uncut on pre cert VHS which adds to the experience.

Despite the title, this is no Romero clone and the fashion models show disappointingly little flesh.

[Wilbur-10 · 3/10 · 19 July 2000]

Cheap, badly acted, poorly made Mummy/Zombie film, that plays like the soft version of a porn film - no plot drive or narrative, inconsistent editing and a dire script with non-actors delivering the lines.

The story has American fashion models in Egypt for a fashion shoot - the location promises flimsy see-through dresses but their is little on show for the dirty mac brigade.

Climax of the film introduces the zombie theme, with the Mummy's dead followers wrecking havoc on a nearby town in revenge for the desecration of their master's tomb. These scenes manage to be reasonably effective, but overall the film is flawed and seems to have been thrown together in unequal proportions.

Dawn of the Dead meets The Mummy? Hardly,but passable trashy fun if you lower your expectations considerably

[DrLenera · 2 August 2006]

The title of this very low budget Egypt/US co-production suggests a melding of the mummy movie with the zombie movie that was extremely popular around the time of the film's release. Dawn Of The Mummy only partially fulfills this expectation. After a gory flashback opening to ancient Egypt and a somewhat amusing scene where people stagger out of the mummy's tomb with gored-out faces {and who exactly committed this dastardly act is left unexplained,because the mummy has yet to be awoken},very little happens for nearly an hour. The dialog and acting is pretty poor and it's obvious that much of is to to pad out the running time,although there is a little bit of tension at times.

Then at last the mummy and his zombie followers are awoken and it's mayhem typical of Italian horror potboilers of the early 80s-eye gougings,flesh eating,etc,although nothing that would probably shock today's viewer. The mummy,who looks a lot like the one Christopher Lee played,seems to show up all over the place so much that one wonders if he teleports himself,and the film's geography is really screwy. Still,there is a little bit of {intentional} humour,such as somebody asking why do some clothes on a market stall possess Made In Hong Kong stickers, and the climactic bloody rampage through a village is well staged,after which the film abruptly stops,as it they ran out of film.

Director Frank Agrama doesn't show much skill and fails to make the most of some scenes,like the zombies rising out of the sand as the sun sets-just think how good some other directors of zombie movies like Lucio Fulci would have made this scene. Dawn of the Mummy is not a very good film,even on a fun trash level,and it really show how good something such as Fulci's Zombie really is. Still,there is some fun to be had....if you're patient.

At least there was some mummies, as the title promises...

[Battledragon · 3/10 · 2 January 2009]

I've watched 2 DVD versions of this, first one was Anchor bay UK's version, that I've now lost god knows where (maybe I broke or sold it, can't remember, it was years back now) and the Macady's version, which I think is open matte. Correct if I'm wrong.

But get to the point. The movie is quite awful (well, not as awful as many Bruno Mattei stuff, but we're getting pretty close to that. There's some grave-robbers, who violate the sacred tomb of (what-ever the name was) and gets curse upon them. Also there's annoying filming group, pretty much lack of nudity, they didn't offer much to this already crappy movie.

However, there's a turning point at the ending of the movie, where the ancient legend became truth, and the ending is full of nice-nice splatter (by no-one else but Maurizio Trani). So, if you can bear all the stupidness of the movie about 70 minutes, the ending is definitely worth to seen. Overall, I'll give this movie just a 3/10, reasons I mentioned above.

Pretty dreadful low budget mummy gore flick!

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 29 August 2006]

A photographer and his models decide to hold their latest fashion shoot in an Egyptian tomb, recently unearthed by unscrupulous treasure hunters. In doing so, they unwittingly awaken an ancient mummy and his slaves, who proceed to kill those who disturb their slumber.

Dawn of the Mummy, a US/Egypt co-production, is a pretty poor gore flick obviously inspired by the success of Romero's Dawn of the Dead and subsequent Italian rip-offs (most notably Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2). After the best part of an hour spent following the futile attempts of the treasure hunters to find hidden gold and watching the models posing badly for the photographer, the mummy eventually rises from his sarcophagus to kill, closely followed by his shuffling zombie-like assistants. Director Frank Agrama manages a couple of workmanlike scares, there are plenty of unintentional laughs to be had, and the movie eventually dishes up plenty of cheapo splatter towards the end, but it really isn't really worth sitting through the tedious stuff to get to the juicy bits.

Not much better than "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

[gridoon · 2/10 · 9 February 2002]

Grade-Z in all departments, "Dawn of the Mummy" is a film to watch only if you're desperate. Cinematography (it looks like a home movie), acting (complete with ear-piercing screaming), script (incomprehensible), directing (incompetent)....just about everything here is unbelievably bad. Except perhaps for the makeup effects, which are sometimes decent, particularly in the finale. But will you still be watching the movie by then? Doubtful. (*)

Bad. But good bad....

[nickgodfrey · 2/10 · 29 October 2020]

I don't have much to say in this movie's favour apart from you have to see it for George Peck's astonishing performance as Rick, a kind of Z-list Indiana Jones.

This is scenery-chewing acting at its finest. Where they found this guy, I have no idea. He must have been cheap. His facial expressions and mannerisms are unbelievable. I guarantee you have never seen a performance like this.

The story is pretty standard: grave robbers make the mistake of trying to rob ancient Egyptian mummy's tomb and live to regret it.

The end gore effects are not half bad but it's not that you will be amazed at: it's George Peck.

" No-one must enter. "

[lost-in-limbo · 3/10 · 25 December 2016]

With a title like this, you know what market they were aiming at. Does it pull it off? Yes, if you're looking for a gory zombie feature, but as for a mummy presentation it's disappointing. Mummy horror, there's just not enough of it... well at least, not recommendable. "Dawn of the Mummy" falls into that category.

A photographer and his models unknowingly come across a newly excavated Egyptian burial tomb when encountering some grave robbers. Despite the warnings, they decide to do the shoot in the tomb, but this begins the slow progress of reviving the tombed dead pharaoh and unleashing the ancient curse of him coming back from the death for revenge.

The problem mainly lies on its sloppy direction, flat pace and downright tedious story. It takes too long to get going, making the padded out sequences a chore. Though if you stick it out, you're given a hectic and grisly payoff. The gory make-up effects are pretty well-done with some nasty scenes involving the zombies (not the mummy). However there's no suspense to these build-ups, making the nauseating shocks measurably boring and cheap. Performances are really woeful and insufferable, but you do get a good laugh from a few eccentrics. George Peck is a standout. For all the wrong reasons. Also you got to deal with constant deafening screams from the beauties; Brenda Siemer Scheider, Joan Levy, Ellen Faison and Diane Beatty. A big plus is that it's shot-on- location in Cario, which does add the atmosphere. But in the end, visually it's quite limited and clunky. The monster of the piece is not your traditional looking mummy dressed up in white bandages, but its towering 7 foot frame, dark oozing figure and black tar face still was rather effective design. Just wished it did a bit more, as even the climax involving it is lacklustre, despite literally going out with a bang.

YAWN OF THE MUMMY

[johnmorghen · 6/10 · 24 November 2002]

Since HBO/Thorn EMI's domestic video release has long since been retired, the film itself has become a rarity and sought after by many a horror fan. And, I was no exception. Even when the film was in print, I still had trouble. When I was a kid, all the "cool looking" horror films I wanted to see where never available at the video store my family went to, but rather at video stores in other cities and such. This was the case with "DAWN OF THE MUMMY" and I finally secured a copy after all these years. Less than one hour later, my unknowing plight with insomnia had been cured.

First of all, I don't care what anyone says, this is NOT an Italian horror film. This common rumor is not only inaccurate but inappropriate to an established style of filmmaking. What we have here is an American and Arabian co-production, and it shows.

The pacing is absolutely horrible. After spending 40 minutes of ridiculous padding, we finally see the resurrection of an actual mummy. This particular shot is edited quite nicely and stands as one of the two interesting sequences throughout the film. The other, takes place several minutes later, when a horde of flesh hungry mummified zombies rise from the sands of the desert. And, there you have it. That's it. Back to the slo-mo carnage.

If you want blood, you've got it... Sloppy Joe style. Most fans of zombie films crave the gore sequences, and I suppose I do as well to some extent. If it is handled in the right way, it can add to the film, but if it maintains the inept "BURIAL GROUND" approach, as this film does, I soon lose interest.

All in all, I can only recommend the film for it's terrific poster artwork (which lured me to watching it in the first place), a great score and the two sequences mentioned earlier.

That's all for now.

Frank from The Hellraiser

[saint_brett · 2/10 · 21 August 2021]

I have a slew of horror movies in my DVD collection I've neglected to watch over the years and tonight it's kind of an eenie, meeny, miny, moe selection between the House of 7 Corpses, House of the Devil or Dark Harvest 3. But we'll go with this mummy one.

The video cover always fascinated me as a kid but I've never seen the actual movie itself.

Claims it's from 81 but it looks more like something from the Boris Karloff era.

Is that a ramped-up Jaws theme at the start?

Some people are being lashed with a cat of 9 tails by out of control marauding forces.

If they're Egyptian why is Cleopatra here speaking in English?

This crazy woman has ate too much licorice.

Is that Gilligan wielding the handgun?

The 3 wise men make an appearance on noisy beasts with the intentions of looting the spoils but are in need of some Fabreeze and are choked to death on stale air.

How'd we go from Egypt to New York all of a sudden?

Love the swanky music.

So the Hulk jaywalks across 5th Avenue.

TWA? Up up and away with TWA? I remember that commercial.

Now were back in Egypt - make up your mind!

Did anyone ever think that perhaps pyramids were built from the ground down?

The Hulk and Fonda's Workout encounter a head with no body in a Wally World similarity.

This Desert Island Classics DVD has an annoying hissing distortion which is breaking my concentration - it's really distracting and annoying.

Genghis Khan has made a special guest appearance as well. Probably just to add to the victim tally - who knows?

Come on, where are all the mummies and mayhem?

The mummy looks like the Michelin Man.

A cat jump scare? Really?

Is that Mathew McConaughy?

These actors are actually tomb raiders.

Was this where they filmed Killer Bulldozer?

Is that Fonzy?

No wait, It's the Hulk guy. He's turned into either Fonzie or Patrick Bateman.

Oh man, I'm 40-minutes into this movie and nothing's happened.

Mommy has gangrene or predator blood?

Lots of unnecessary over-the-top screaming. Some random generic guy with his face melted off.

The psycho woman with the licorice teeth is back sacrificing herself to something from hellraiser.

It is, it's Frank from Hellraiser. "Don't look at me!"

Remind me, how many Academy Awards did this movie win again?

Guy from La Bamba threatens hysterical woman into further Madness.

Mummy goes to town and shops at the discount rug store. (Shopper dockets and super savers rule.)

"Oh god, help me! Somebody help me." Is this your best Texas Chainsaw impression, lady?

This mummy looks like Barada from Return of the Jedi and this guy sounds like Ash chainsawing his hand off only he's won the pot of gold and drowning in riches.

Talk about overkill on the screaming front. (Are you trying to outdo TX Chainsaw in the screaming department?)

Mummy rips out McConaughey's innards.

There's Egyptian carpet dancing at a wedding.

Would this hurry up and end already! I've got better things to do, like cut my nose hairs.

The mummy eats the bride at the wedding.

People scream. Guy suddenly stops carpet dancing. Now it's turned into Cannibal Holocaust.

I was expecting a little Halloween 2 walk out of the fire at the end there.

I'll give this 2 out of 10.

1 for the video cover art which is better than the movie itself.

And 2 for the - I dunno?

Decent gory Mummy movie

[slayrrr666 · 9/10 · 23 March 2006]

"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

Pretty gory and graphic low-budget horror film.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 20 October 2005]

Some fashion models and their photographers decide to shoot a fashion spread in Egypt for the fashion magazine.At the same time,three bandits are excavating the burial site of the Mummy, who was introduced during the film's opening.The two groups cross paths and the fashion photographer decides that the Mummy's tomb would make a really great backdrop.Unbeknowst for them the place is cursed and the ten foot Mummy comes back to life,bringing an army of zombies with him.A flesh-eating rampage ensues!But before that occurs,an hour of film passes by and actors act very badly.Frank Agrama's "Dawn of the Mummy" is often regarded as the goriest mummy flick ever made.It is surely loaded with lots of gore and gut munching,especially during its last 30 minutes,so fans of splatter should be pleased.Still the action is rather dull and the film offers nothing fresh or new.However if you are a gore-hound you may give it a try.7 out of 10.

It has value, but not enough to overcome weak & overwrought writing, direction, and acting.

[I_Ailurophile · 3/10 · 9 September 2023]

How in the world did this come into existence? The first minutes are extraordinarily overwrought, with writing, acting, and direction that defy belief and all good sense. These impressions will not change. I don't know whose decision it was that archaeologist Rick should look like Fred from 'Scooby-Doo,' and I don't know whether the fault lies more with director Frank Agrama or performer George Peck that his portrayal is astonishingly overcooked. Seeing as Agrama was also behind 1976's baffling 'Queen Kong,' maybe we have our answer. On the other hand, supporting cast members like Laila Nasr. Ibrahim Khan, Ali Gohar, and Joan Levy all illustrate skills on par with Peck's, and either Agrama wielded a force of personality that was insurmountable, or his co-writers Ronald Dobrin and Daria Price are equally to blame for a script that's mind-numbingly vapid. Every actor is ensured at least one line of wild, pronounced exclamation; characters are written with no intelligence, and the dialogue generally is blocky and unreal. Even if we accept that models might be contracted for a photo shoot in Egypt, and that they might come across a team excavating a tomb, the scene writing is all-around preposterous, and never more so when the two sets of characters meet and the models enter the tomb. With that, it's safe to say as well that the story suffers in turn, and the fun that can be extracted from 'Dawn of the mummy' is, well, not much.

Shuki Levy's music consists of themes that are solid in their root ideas, but which are often achingly repetitive and subsequently bland. At least the crew behind the scenes turned in work that's broadly commendable, if unremarkable, including filming locations, sets, and special makeup. Some effects are better than others but mostly they're pretty terrific, including blood and gore - although the way that some are employed is sometimes less than great. Meanwhile, the fundamental narrative flow comes across as scattered, kind of halfhearted, and just plain troubled. Why, there's not even much story to speak of: people enter a tomb, people start to die, cut to credits. By all means, there were serviceable ideas here, but the way they're put together is confounding. And as if all this weren't enough, this picture has one enormous obstacle that keeps it in check: the fact that 'Dawn of the mummy' isn't the only "mummy movie" ever made. The world is full of titles about ancient tombs, curses placed to protect them, and the return of the dead, especially in the context of Egypt and the Great Pyramids. Universal's 1932 classic 'The mummy,' with Boris Karloff, absolutely holds up; for modern audiences wanting more flair, Stephen Sommers' 1999 reimagined rendition is just as fantastic in its own right. And there are plenty of other similar titles, too, nevermind the unending ocean of other horror cinema that viewers can explore. So why suffer through the worst qualities of 'Dawn of the mummy' to see what we can get elsewhere?

It's not utterly rotten, but it makes a poor impression in the first place, and those faults that first greet us never go away. I won't say that this 1981 flick is entirely without value, because that's simply not true. What I will say is that whatever one might want out of it, there's sadly just not enough to help it stand particularly tall or stand out in a crowd, and ninety-three minutes ultimately rather drag - and that's maybe never more true than at the climax, which is the last part of a feature that should ever strain one's attention and enthusiasm. I appreciate the hard work that went into this, and I think everyone made a sincere effort, yet between weak writing and direction above all, and surely as well unconvincing acting, there's just all too little entertainment to be had. I'm glad for those who like 'Dawn of the mummy' more than I do, but all the plain truth of the matter is that your time is probably best spent watching something else.