Il terrore viene d'oltretomba

Yet another K. Gordon Murray import from Mexico aimed mainly at kids, but actually fun for anyone who fancies humanoid robots controlled by mad scientists, or ambulatory mummies. It entertains on about the same level as those old movie serials. Great black and white photography, nice ominous atmosphere. All the actors offer sincere performances, but deserving of special honourable mention is Luis Aceves Castaneda as the gleefully wicked Dr. Krupp; rarely has an actor enjoyed a mad scientist role so much! The English dubbing is another matter, but if you enjoy old-fashioned mummy/musty crypt horror films, you could do worse.

It's hard not to laugh at this movie. It's hard not to laugh knowing that somewhere, someone sat down and thought that having a robot fight a mummy would make for a good picture. And it might have been if the two title characters combined for more than 5 min of screen time. Unfortunately, most of the film consists of flashback scenes and some scientist's encounters with "The Bat". The robot, built out of sturdy cardboard and headlights, isn't even introduced till the movie is practically over and their monumental confrontation (the premise the movie is supposedly centered around) lasts about 30 sec.

I have a lot of questions for this movie. Why is the bad guy referred to as "The Bat"? Why does the mummy sound like a gorilla? Why did the robot need to have a human head? Why was there an endless Aztec dance scene? Why?

I am a big fan of bad horrors, cheap horrors, b movies, and all that bottom 100 movies, and I do not deny those are the worst stuff ever to enter the big screen, or even your home video for that matter. Some of them, e.g. the infamous Manos The Hands of Fate, are truly bad, and watching them, especially on your own without any friends and beer around, is a torture for a good cinema taste.

La Momia Azteca Contra El Roboto Humano, however, was not that bad. Well, of course it's BAD - it's silly, dated, corny, cheap, etc., there's an Aztec mummy, a tin robot, a fat masked villain, a mad scientist, Mexican mobsters, etc. the montage is poor, the lines, well, let's say the lines are not theatrical, the FX and SFX are the best what the Mexican low budget production could've offered, etc. etc. Still, the movie is FUN. it's so bad it makes you laugh cheerfully for an hour time. Sure it depends on one's sense of humor, however I'm pretty sure La Momia should teach any newcomers to this kind of cinema how to enjoy it. Please note: the movie lasts for about an hour, and I think it's just enough time of silliness one is able to easily digest.

There's also another thing - watching La Momia can give you a clue what was the whole SF/Horror genre concept back in the fifties, when you compare it to the present day Matrix era of cinema entertainment. I think it also shows how both the industry and the audience evolved, due to the fact the watches like La Momia still attract full house in the theaters for some special shows (movies like this are special alright), and very often receive a standing ovation.

Got this DVD because I remembered watching these flicks as a kid on late night spookfests in the 60s. Usually I fell asleep, now I know why. Pretty slow moving and lacking in action. Generally a rehash of the 1st two Aztec Mummy films with a little addition of the Robot creation. Looks like a really poor interpretation of a Universal monster compilation. The sequences pulled from the original AZTEC MUMMY look pretty good though. This one is kind of what a 12 yr old kid with a super 8 camera might try to do, with a little help from mom and dad who know nothing about making a movie. And they probably would think it was good, too. One redeeming quality, lots of eerie night shots for mood.

the usual disclaimer - I do not give 1 star ratings to movies which are harmless, bad, low budget and silly, although they may deserve it. These films are often funny, and get rated 2-4 based sheerly on entertainment value - not as a representation of their exemplary film artistry. This film fits this model perfectly. It is a Mexican monster movie, riddled with voice-over narrative and extremely weak not-so-special effects. The makeup is not that bad, and the acting is sometimes quite entertaining, but this film is almost as silly as Aliens vs Predator and the script isn't half as slick (Aliens vs Predator might get a 1 from me, but I want to see it again before I commit).

The plot is ridiculous, but deliciously convoluted. If you've read this far, you must really want to know... A group of remarkably unscientific scientists comprise the main characters. Most of them are heroes - sort of - but one is (of course) mad, and quite perverse. This mad scientist invents a laughable nuclear powered robot (who looks a bit like the tin man from Wizard of Oz, but has a human face inexplicably located inside its head). An Aztec mummy, discovered by the same 'scientist' whose wife just so happens to have been an Aztec princess in a past life (don't ask), is pitted against the robot for the big "climax" the fight scene alone is enough to put the most stoic movie watcher on the floor in belly laughs.

For what its worth, given the budget and the utter silliness of the script, this is a very entertaining low budget goof ball monster movie. If you're into that sort of thing, go for it.