Dawn of the Mummy (1981)

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

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

"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

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...

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.