BRAM STOKER'S THE MUMMY

(1997)


Notes: Goldbar Entertainment.
John Corbeck: Louis Gossett, Jr.
Margaret Trelawney: Amy Locane
Robert Wyatt: Eric Lutes
Sergeant Daw: Mark Lindsay-Chapman
Bryce Renard: Richard Karn
Abel Trelawney: Lloyd Buchner
Mary: Victoria Tennant

Produced: Harel Goldstein and Bill Barnett
Directed: Jeffrey Obrow
Written: Jeffrey Obrow
Music: Rick Cox.


Summary: "Egypt 1947. Valley of the Sorcerer." A boy in an ancient tomb witnesses a jewel thief scream and burn. "Marin County -- Present Day." Abel Trelawney pieces together stone fragments and a mummy wakes. Trelawney becomes comatose. Art historian / hobbyist Robert Wyatt meets Trelawney's estranged daughter Margaret and an inspector, Sergeant Daw. Robert plays a tape in Trelawney's study on which the old man has given explicit instructions about the small key on his wrist remaining there and two people being in the room with him at all times.

A maid begins to confess fears to Robert later, a cat acts weird, and the maid has a bloody doorknob illusion. Robert discovers an artifact and is conked. He speaks to Bryce Renard, a museum curator, but is skeptical about curses: ""Don't give me that King Tut bullshit." Bryce's old professor insisted that two eye gems were stolen and the thief burnt to a crisp.

Margaret dreams of her girlhood peek at daddy's mummy and has flashes of an ancient Egyptian ritual. She was born at the Cairo Hilton, but her mother died a couple days later. A pious Christian housekeeper left alone in the room with Trelawney is mutilated, and a would-be journal thief is killed in the basement.

Robert tracks down John Corbeck, the deep know-it-all former expedition leader and partner of Trelawney. We flash back to the late 1960s and the forbidden entry into the tomb of Queen Tara, who was unpopular with the high priests but knew of the plot to kill her. She had herself mummified but swore she'd be back.

Bryce tells Robert that Corbeck, after this expedition, went crackers and started trying to mummify people. A mummy attacks Bryce and snaps off his fingers. Bryce burns. Robert tries to wake Margaret but he rolls over a corpse. Then he wakes up, having dreamt this. Bryce brings a scarab artifact and is partly hypnotized by Margaret. Later he tries to warn the household and is electrocuted in a phone booth. A sleazy guy named Jimmy has a key to Trelawney's secret safe and steals a gem. He is later strangled in the cellar with a bandage and dragged off. The house trembles and bleeds, and Corbeck claims Tara is holding Trelawney ransom so that she might come back to life.

Margaret has an episode of possession and attacks Sergeant Daw. Corbeck and Robert dig up pieces of mummies, looking for a key to the tomb where they subsequently move everything necessary for a ritual. They also bring a seven-sided ruby which reflects seven stars. There are seven fingers on the slowly unwrapped hand of the mummy. Margaret is possessed. Sergeant Daw is scratched and dies in bug-swarmed quicksand in the basement.

Tara, partially unwrapped, is still fresh. The jewels and heavens align. Robert tries to stop the proceedings, but Corbeck is power-crazy. Tara strangles him. A strobe illuminates an incomprehensible scene of Margaret.

Margaret and Robert are now bidding a cheery good-bye to a revived Abel. On their honeymoon, Robert notices seven scratches and Margaret starts acting weird.


Commentary: There is no such thing as Bram Stoker's The Mummy. This is a loose adaptation of Stoker's The Jewel of the Seven Stars, with lots of "mummy" added in order to come up with a title to capitalize on the trend to attribute films to nineteenth-century authors.

The Stoker original is no great shakes, and neither is this film, despite the bandaged one's cameos. There's no real focus here whatsoever and no reason to care what happens. So once again we have themes of forbidden tomb entry, curses, ritualistic revivification, and possession, but all aswirl in what is finally another fairly incoherent mummy text.


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