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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Hammer Studio’s The Mummy (1959)

Posted in Genres, horror, monsters, movies, mummy, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Halloween, Hammer Studios, holiday, monsters, movies, The Mummy on October 14, 2016 by Paxton

Okay, I’m doing a more popular monster, so I get to visit a Hammer film this year! In 1959, one of the more prolific Hammer directors, Terence Fisher, as well as one of the more prominent writers, Jimmy Sangster, tackled Hammer’s version of The Mummy.

The-Mummy

It starred the usual Hammer all stars, Peter Cushing as John Banning and Christopher Lee as the mummy. As in the other Hammer monster movies, their mummy movie was based on Universal’s version, but maybe not the one you’d think. Instead of re-adapting Universal’s 1932 The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff, this movie takes it’s story from two of the later Universal mummy sequels; The Mummy’s Hand (1940) and The Mummy’s Tomb (1942). With a little bit of the climax from The Mummy’s Ghost (1944). And while the Karloff version is held in higher regard, I feel the sequels have a bit more fun with the subject.

So, how did Hammer do? I love the Hammer aesthetic. Check out my reviews for Horror of Dracula or Curse of Frankenstein. When Hammer works, it’s dynamite. When it doesn’t, you get well meaning missteps like Curse of the Werewolf.

I won’t say this particular movie was a misstep. But it wasn’t a favorite. It just seemed to drag a lot, especially in the middle. But while the story was lacking, the other Hammer touches where there. The set design is GREAT.

The tombs look great and are set designed in that spectacular way that Hammer usually does. I mean check out the above picture of the recently opened tomb. It’s not been opened in thousands of years but the green lights apparently still work. Amazing.

Also, Cushing and Lee are great as always. I just love watching Cushing be gentlemanly and awesome.

And Lee’s mummy looks just incredible as well. Especially when he’s getting shotgunned in the chest by Peter Cushing.

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And check out this “ancient scroll” that is the basis for much of the plot of this movie.

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Looks like it was printed last Thursday at Kinkos. That being said, it’s beautiful looking. Take a look at the inscriptions on the left picture (click it). That’s some wonderfully detailed imagery for just a few seconds of on screen footage. That’s Hammer for you.

Here’s where I think the problem lies. The mummy, as a monster, is essentially boring. He’s too passive. Much like my issues with traditional zombies, I don’t really enjoy watching mummy movies. And that’s my main problem with this movie. The mummy is used as “muscle”, the second banana if you will. It’s probably why I like the Brendan Fraser mummy movies a bit more because I feel like that mummy was in charge. He actually felt dangerous. While it was fun to watch Cushing and Lee, the overall story was a bit boring, but that’s a problem with most mummy movies for me and not necessarily a problem with Hammer’s movie.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Scooby-Doo and a Mummy Too! (1969)

Posted in Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Fangoria, Halloween, holiday, horror, magazines, monsters, mummy, pop culture, reviews on October 11, 2016 by Paxton

During the very first season of Scooby Doo Where Are You!, the gang met up with a mummy. It was in episode 12 which aired in late 1969 and it was called Scooby-Doo and a Mummy, Too!

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As most Scooby-Doo episodes are, this is a pretty fun little episode with all the regular Scooby tropes you’d expect.

The show starts off with the gang at the local college’s Department of Archaeology. They are unveiling a new mummy exhibit and the gang has offered to help set up.
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The gang is talking to “The Professor”, who is the white bread dude in the middle. I have to assume “The Professor” is his name as he’s never called anything else. Next to “The Professor” is…

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Dr Najib who, I presume, is the Egyptian expert. I have to presume because the show never directly says just who he is. The show also implies that he actually found the mummy, who is identified as “the mummy of Ankha” at first then as just “Ankha” later. With Najib’s ascot and red fez I believe they’re trying to invoke Boris Karloff in Universal’s The Mummy.

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This is Scooby Doo so we get Shaggy and Scooby eating food that’s inedible for normal humans. For example, this is a liver a la mode sandwich. With an olive garnish. Classy.

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The mummy eventually disappears from his sarcophagus and the gang begin pursuit. They almost catch the mummy but he escapes through the museum’s glass door leaving only a mummy shapped outline in the glass. I love that this is how glass works in Scooby-Doo Land.

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Here’s the mummy stalking the gang all mummy-like. Scooby actually picks a fight with him and changes into his Hong Kong Phooey outfit to do battle. Scoob’s a black belt?!

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While being chased by the mummy, Velma has time to go to the lab and carbon date a piece of the mummy’s rags in order to reveal a clue to the mystery.

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Scooby and Shaggy, on the run from the mummy, duck into an old tool shed. Shaggy doesn’t hear the mummy in pursuit so he opens the door to see if he’s still there and sees that the mummy has started to BRICK UP THE ENTRANCE TO THE SHED. Did he mix his own cement? Surely already mixed cement wasn’t just lying around? I love that he’s holding a spade too. Amazing.

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The mummy chases the gang around the museum and eventually gets thrown up into the basketball hoop where Fred climbs up on a ladder and unmasks him. Scoob celebrates by finding the actual mummy hiding in some bushes. And the actual mummy looks a lot like the Boris Karloff wrapped mummy (see my AWESOME-tober-fest banner).

That’s the episode. Like I said, it’s a pretty fun episode.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: The Mummy: Dark Resurrection (2007)

Posted in books, Genres, horror, monsters, movies, mummy, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, The Mummy, Universal Studios on October 5, 2016 by Paxton

Back in 2006-2007, Universal Studios commissioned a series of novels that would update their classic monsters in a series of more adult horror tales that also worked as sequels to the classic movies. I discussed one of these books back in 2010 for my werewolf AWESOME-tober-fest (The Wolf Man: Hunter’s Moon by Michael Jan Friedman). Today, I’ll talk about another one, The Mummy: Dark Resurrection by Michael Paine.

The Mummy -Dark Resurrection

While I didn’t like The Wolf Man novel, I thought it had potential, so I picked up this Mummy book hoping it would do a little more with the subject. Did it? Let’s see.

First of all, it’s really tough to place the book in the mummy movie timeline. I assume it is a sequel to the very first movie from 1932 with Boris Karloff as Karloff’s character, Ardath Bey, is the main antagonist. But no other characters from any of the Mummy movies either show up or are even mentioned in any way. Plus, many of the characters that do appear in this book are given a backstory that sound similar to people in the original mummy franchise which just confuses the entire issue.

The book’s protagonist is Josh Brandt, a rich guy from a rich family who funds an archaeological dig that is trying to find the tomb of Ankh-es-en-Amun, the betrothed of Imhotep. It is revealed that Brandt’s father and grandfather both funded digs for the exact same tomb and both men were lost and presumed dead while at the dig site. When the current dig seemingly discovers the tomb’s entrance, strange things start happening to the Brandt family and a mysterious stranger, Ardath Bey, seems to be at the center of it all.

Like I said, Brandt’s father and grandfather’s disappearance is a big part of the back story. And the way it’s written, it feels like those two men’s stories would have been told previously, like in a mummy movie. But there are no Brandts in any of the previous movies, which confuses me. Plus there’s no mention of any previous dealings with Ardath Bey by characters in the book. I guess this story is just continuing many years later with no other links to the movies except Ardath Bey.

The book is written competently, but antagonist Ardath Bey isn’t utilized enough. Josh, his crazy family and the supernatural events that happen to that family’s members are the focus of the book with Ardath Bey showing up once or twice menacingly and then again at the end to wrap things up.

Honestly, it was kind of a struggle to finish the book. Part of my problem could be that I’m not a huge fan of “the mummy” as a monster since it’s so similar to zombies (which we know I don’t like). Also, for a “mummy book”, there’s a surprising lack of mummies in it. Bey seems to possess the power to make recently dead bodies come to life and kill, which he does throughout the book, but those are zombies, not mummies. Ancient Egyptian mummies are practically non-existent in this story.

Put all of that together and I can’t say I really recommend this book unless you are already a fan of mummies.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Universal’s The Mummy (1932)

Posted in Genres, horror, monsters, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, The Mummy, Universal Studios on October 4, 2016 by Paxton

In 1932, just one year after starring in his breakout role in Frankenstein, Karloff would don the bandages for another of Universal’s monster movies, The Mummy.

Also starring Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Arthur Byron.

The movie isn’t bad, if a bit slow in parts. It’s said that this is essentially a remake of Dracula but just set in Egypt instead of Transylvania. I can definitely see that what with the parallels in all the characters and how the story is driven forward. And that story is mostly interesting. Karloff is great as usual as Imhotep. His female lead, Zita Johann, isn’t great. Even by these 30s monster movies standards. However, for the most part, she gets done what needs to be done.

The sets and lighting are pretty awesome. I was constantly impressed by certain props and set pieces that seem to envelope the majority of scenes in the movie. Particularly the scenes with Karloff and Johann at the end of the film.

Unlike Dracula (Stoker’s book) and Frankenstein (Shelley’s book), The Mummy joins The Wolf Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon as the only Universal Monster movies not based on a previous work of fiction. However, there are things the script is clearly influenced by like the excavation of King Tut’s tomb in 1922 and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story The Ring of Thoth.

While I liked Dracula a little better, and Frankenstein and the Wolf Man a lot better, this is still a fun monster movie to watch.

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The movie begins during a dig in an ancient Egyptian tomb. The story makes heavy use of the Scroll of Thoth, which, as I just mentioned, is similar to an artifact in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle short story, The Ring of Thoth.

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Of course, the young, impulsive character opens up AND READS FROM the creepy, old scroll that he was told not to touch just five minutes before. And, of course, it awakens The Mummy.

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Karloff’s makeup, by industry great Jack Pierce, is photographed brilliantly in this movie. Check out Karloff’s crazy undead stare. I just got chills.

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More awesomely lit Karloff images. He really is pretty great in this movie. Hands down the best thing about it. Followed closely by the lighting, sets and costumes.

So that’s Universal’s The Mummy. I enjoyed it, but maybe not as much as I was hoping.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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Krush Groove the novel now exists. FINALLY.

Posted in Beastie Boys, books, movies, music, nostalgia, pop culture, rap, Run-DMC with tags books, Movie Novelizations, nostalgia, Photoshop, rap, Run-DMC, The Fat Boys on September 21, 2016 by Paxton

In the latest episode of the Cult Film Club podcast, we are talking about one of my favorite movies, Krush Groove, from 1985. It’s a fun discussion and a great look back at essentially the genesis of my interest in rap, which was around early 1985 when the first Fat Boys album and Run-DMC’s second album, King of Rock, was released.

Later that year, in October 1985, the movie Krush Groove was released. I did a small review of the movie back in 2010 for the 25th anniversary. Check out episode #36 of the Cult Film Club podcast for my more in depth thoughts on the movie.

What I really want to talk about is, why wasn’t there a Krush Groove novelization? The obvious answer is that it was a movie focusing on the music industry and it may have been hard to translate that since there are at least 3 music video sized interludes in the movie. But that shouldn’t have stopped them. I just finished reading the novelization to Jason X and that book expands the sparse 1 hour and 20 minute movie into a 400+ page novel. You telling me something couldn’t be done with Krush Groove?

So, to correct this rather EGREGIOUS oversight, I created my own Krush Groove novelization based mostly on the design of the soundtrack album cover.