Horrorfest 2012: The Mummy's Curse

Now we skip to the last real entry in the Universal MUMMY series (not counting the Abbot and Costello flick) for THE MUMMY'S CURSE. This time, monster-master Lon Chaney, Jr. takes on the part of the mummy. Unfortunately, the movie's not very good.

First of all, like Jason from FRIDAY THE 13th or Michael Myers from HALLOWEEN, the Mummy could be played by just about anyone and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  Lon Chaney, Jr. was used to great effect in a lot of the Universal flicks, usually as the Wolf-Man and his put-upon alter ego, Larry Talbot (the poor bastard), but whenever he had to jump into other monster makeup, it was usually a waste. And that's a shame, because although Lon Chaney, Jr. is not the legend his father was, he was a great actor in his own right.

In this installment, we have more of the business with the magic leaves, and more of the business with Egyptian high priests using the Mummy as their thug, and more of the stuff about the dead princess and guarding her tomb, etc. Somehow between the previous MUMMY flick and this one, the action has moved to the swamps of Louisiana. Granted, it's a locale ripe with atmosphere and superstition that has been exploited to great effect in other horror flicks, but it's not the first place that springs to mind when you think of mummies.

In THE MUMMY'S CURSE, we actually get two mummies, as the dead princess (Virginia Christine) and object of Chaney's desire also rises from the dead. The best segments of the movie involve her, especially one genuinely creepy sequence in which she slowly lowers herself into a swamp to clean off the dust and decay of thousands of years.

We also get another look at the flashback footage of Boris Karloff from the original Mummy flick. It seems even more out of place in this movie than it did in THE MUMMY'S HAND, and served once again to highlight the flaws of this flick by showing some key scenes from a much better. You also have to wonder what exactly the filmmaker's are up to when their movie runs less than an hour and contains about 10 minutes of flashbacks.

As an Ed Wood fan, I was interested to note that Peter Coe plays the villainous Egyptian high priest in this flick. In his later years, Coe was one of director Ed Wood's last friends who was there right up until the day Wood died.

In any case, this is not one of Universal's best, and it is not a great showcase for Lon Chaney, Jr. Still, I've gone years without seeing any of these MUMMY sequels, so it's about time I had a brief overview.  They just keep making me want to watch the original Boris Karloff MUMMY more and more.