L'aube des zombies

Since HBO/Thorn EMI's domestic video release has long since been retired, the film itself has become a rarity and sought after by many a horror fan. And, I was no exception. Even when the film was in print, I still had trouble. When I was a kid, all the "cool looking" horror films I wanted to see where never available at the video store my family went to, but rather at video stores in other cities and such. This was the case with "DAWN OF THE MUMMY" and I finally secured a copy after all these years. Less than one hour later, my unknowing plight with insomnia had been cured.

First of all, I don't care what anyone says, this is NOT an Italian horror film. This common rumor is not only inaccurate but inappropriate to an established style of filmmaking. What we have here is an American and Arabian co-production, and it shows.

The pacing is absolutely horrible. After spending 40 minutes of ridiculous padding, we finally see the resurrection of an actual mummy. This particular shot is edited quite nicely and stands as one of the two interesting sequences throughout the film. The other, takes place several minutes later, when a horde of flesh hungry mummified zombies rise from the sands of the desert. And, there you have it. That's it. Back to the slo-mo carnage.

If you want blood, you've got it... Sloppy Joe style. Most fans of zombie films crave the gore sequences, and I suppose I do as well to some extent. If it is handled in the right way, it can add to the film, but if it maintains the inept "BURIAL GROUND" approach, as this film does, I soon lose interest.

All in all, I can only recommend the film for it's terrific poster artwork (which lured me to watching it in the first place), a great score and the two sequences mentioned earlier.

That's all for now.

The title of this very low budget Egypt/US co-production suggests a melding of the mummy movie with the zombie movie that was extremely popular around the time of the film's release. Dawn Of The Mummy only partially fulfills this expectation. After a gory flashback opening to ancient Egypt and a somewhat amusing scene where people stagger out of the mummy's tomb with gored-out faces {and who exactly committed this dastardly act is left unexplained,because the mummy has yet to be awoken},very little happens for nearly an hour. The dialog and acting is pretty poor and it's obvious that much of is to to pad out the running time,although there is a little bit of tension at times.

Then at last the mummy and his zombie followers are awoken and it's mayhem typical of Italian horror potboilers of the early 80s-eye gougings,flesh eating,etc,although nothing that would probably shock today's viewer. The mummy,who looks a lot like the one Christopher Lee played,seems to show up all over the place so much that one wonders if he teleports himself,and the film's geography is really screwy. Still,there is a little bit of {intentional} humour,such as somebody asking why do some clothes on a market stall possess Made In Hong Kong stickers, and the climactic bloody rampage through a village is well staged,after which the film abruptly stops,as it they ran out of film.

Director Frank Agrama doesn't show much skill and fails to make the most of some scenes,like the zombies rising out of the sand as the sun sets-just think how good some other directors of zombie movies like Lucio Fulci would have made this scene. Dawn of the Mummy is not a very good film,even on a fun trash level,and it really show how good something such as Fulci's Zombie really is. Still,there is some fun to be had....if you're patient.

Dawn of the Mummy (1981)

** (out of 4)

Rather stupid but interesting American-Egyptian-Italian co-production has a group of fashion models heading to the pyramids of Egypt for a photo shoot. Sadly for them they show up just as a curse has been released with a mummy looking to eat people. Not only that but this mummy brings some zombie servants with him.

DAWN OF THE MUMMY, as the title suggests, is trying to cash-in on Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD but it goes a step further and appears to have been really influenced by Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE, which of course was released in Italy as a sequel to the Romero movie. This film isn't all that well made and features several flaws and boring moments but at the same time it's rather unique and has enough going for it to make it worth sitting through.

What I enjoyed most about the film was the actual mummy. The actor playing the part was extremely skinny and this gives the mummy a very unique look and helps separate it from other films in the genre. I also liked the actual look of it with an almost tar-like quality. The zombies aren't quite as interesting but who's going to frown on a mummy and zombies in the same film? The gore is scattered throughout but once the finale hits we get some very good gore effects with several people bitten and chewed up.

The performances really aren't anything special and there's no question that whenever the mummy isn't on the screen that the film becomes boring. Still, DAWN OF THE MUMMY has a great monster and enough gore to keep it entertaining.

My review was written in December 1981 after a 42nd St. (Anco theater) screening: Latest in the longtime series of mummy films (over 30 so far worldwide) is a gory, low-budget exercise filmed on location in Egypt. Producert Frank Agrama (whose last presumably completed effort, "Queen Kong", has sat on the shelf for the past five years), took over directing this opus from original helmer Armand Weston during production, and resulting picture is a disconnected series of corny scenes. Commercial prospects are grim, with only the gore as a selling point.

Weak premise as an Egyptian royal personage entombed circa 3000 B. C., with his guards also buried. All will rise with him some day and kill any desecrators of the sealed tomb. Pic's tone is set immediately with camera recording the removal of organs from the royal corpse as part of the mummification process.

Three present-day graverobbers searching for gold open the tomb and in a ridiculous coincidence are joined by a U. S. crew shooting glamor mag photo layouts of pretty models, looking for interesting backdrops. Instead of using sacred Tana leaves, this mummy is revived by the heat of the photog's lights.

Mummy is an impressive dude, tall and thin, with body bandaged and face uncovered. Besides the usual choking, his aides are into cannibalism, biting chunks out of the graverobbers (and numerous bystanders) and feeding gruesomely on entrails in the manner of recent film zombies.

Cast overacts miserably, with direct-sound English track instead of the usual dubbing. This picture should be entombed permanently.

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...