Le Mystère de la pyramide

Tomb, The (1986)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

If you remember the good old days when non-stop trash was shown on stations like Cinemax then you might have came across a film like this. The story is pretty simple as a con man is able to steal some jewels from a tomb in Egypt but the dead princess Nefratis (Michelle Bauer) comes back for revenge. She travels to America where she tracks down and kills all the men who bought these items. This film starts off with an incredibly silly action piece, which I'm guessing was meant to be some sort of Indiana Jones homage but then we move into more horror elements. As is to be expected, this film certainly isn't going to be mistaken for the work of Orson Welles but if you're lining yourself up for a film like this then I'm sure you know that already. Those wanting some cheap thrills will find some here but not nearly enough to make this film worth sitting through. At only 83-minutes things move way too slowly and sadly the energy runs out before the opening credits are over. I think fans of the horror genre might want to tune in just to see Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine but neither man can add too much to the film. I'm a die-hard Carradine fan and will attempt to see everything he's in but his work with Ray is cheaper than some of those films he did in Mexico back in the 60s. Mitchell chews up the scenery as only he can. Sybil Danning appears as well and fans of Bauer will be happy to know she has some nudity. There's not as much nudity in the film as one might expect but there are a couple gory death scenes. Most of the effects are cheap but mildly effective. THE TOMB is incredibly light-weight entertainment that isn't going to win any awards but I'm sure fans of "Z" movies might find it interesting. I enjoy low-budget movies but this one here just didn't have enough going for it.

Bram Stoker gets the cheesy 80s action movie treatment in this early Fred Olen Ray stinker. This is an adaptation of Stoker's novel, The Jewel of the Seven Stars. Obviously this is a very loose adaptation (so loose no credit is given), but make no mistake it's derived from his story about a female mummy. The action scenes are hilariously bad. A single gunshot makes a plane explode. The music is also the pits. As for the cast, David Pearson is the star not top-billed Thomas Mitchell. Actually all of the big names in this have small roles. I watched it mainly for Sybil Danning, so you can imagine how disappointed I was by her one scene. It's a pretty boring cheapie. Skip it

...And I don't really know if that is saying a lot either. The Tomb tells the story of some stupid robber in Egypt disrupting the sacred tomb of an Egyptian sorceress, dead and yet still alive. The guy sells the artifacts found in the tomb, and the mummy(wearing low-cut outfits, breasts popping out here and there, and speaking as though she was picked up off of Hollywood Boulevard) goes to Los Angelos to get them back so she can perform a ritual sacrifice and stay young. Alright, the story is not too good, but the film is entertaining. For one of Ray's films, the acting is better than usual. Some nice performances by horror veterans Cameron Mitchell(he does a real fine job) and John Carradine in his five minutes of film raise the film from being strictly mundane. Throw in some great music and lots of T & A(a Ray specialty it seems...he even has Kitten Nativadad as a stripper in one scene doing some entertaining back-breaking bouncing) for extra measure. Let's not forget Sybil Danning too. Yep, she is in the film in the first five minutes only in what can be described as nothing more than a throw-away cameo. Her presence seems to be totally unnecessary, although I really am not complaining. Sure this film is a cheap B movie, but what the heck. Fred Olen Ray is living a lifetime dream of creating movies. His affection for the horror genre is obvious when he makes a point of giving cameos and roles to the likes of Mitchell, Carradine, and in other movies Robert Quarry, Carroll Borland, Kirk Allyn, and many more. He is not hiring them for their billing potential. It is nonexistent except to people like me who like to remember those fond memories of another time. He hires them for his love of their work. He gives characters in his movie names like Howard Phillips(named for H. P. Lovecraft) and David Manners(the actor who starred in the original Mummy as the heroic lead). It is easy for me and others to denegrate his work, and I have in other reviews, but like them or not...I applaud the fact that he went out and made them. Kudos Mr. Ray!

Mid-eighties grade-Z Indiana Jones knockoff starring David O'Hara as beer swilling tomb raider John Banning who unwittingly awakens an Egyptian sorceress Nefratis (Michelle Bauer) and becomes a pawn in her resurrected plans for world conquest, or something to that effect.

When looking at the cast of actors one might get the impression that with such B-movie royalty like Sybil Danning, John Carradine, and the always entertaining Cameron Mitchell that this movie might not be as bad as it sounds. You would be very wrong on that assumption. While all aforementioned actors try their best to elevate the "talent" level on screen they are collectively in the film for only about ten minutes with Mitchell making up the bulk of that time. Instead you get to watch the "don't quit your day job waiting at Spago's" performance buy the woefully inept Richard Hench who becomes the central character in the film about halfway in to it. The scenes with Hench and his professor sidekick are the visual equivalent of banging your skull off of a concrete wall. David O'Hara's character John Banning is so unlikeable that it's confusing as to why he wasn't rewritten better as the film clearly wants him to be the hero. Michelle Bauer's nudity free Nefratis sleepwalks throughout the movie. If anyone can tell me what the hell actually killed her at the end I would greatly appreciate it as I rewound it many times and failed to see what exactly happened. My word of advice for wary B-movie fans is if it says Olen Ray stay away!

This movie was average, but worth checking out! We have a couple of familiar faces like John Carradine and a special appearance by Sybil Danning. But there were alot of virtual unknowns. This marks scream queen Michelle Bauer's first horror film as she portrays a possessed mummy from an ancient Tomb. She's mellodramatic at many times, but she's that way in most films. There's some great music in this movie and it probably did play in theatres in it's time, Unlike the movies you see Bauer in these days that has an awful budget! Someone says that B-movie director Fred Olen Ray's films don't hit theatre's, but what do they know?! This one definetely stood a chance and twice it showed the opening credits saying "The Tomb!" The ending is the best part no doubt about it, even you horror fans will agree! There's also a cameo by cult actress from the film "Surf Nazis Must Die!", Dawn Wildsmith who plays a lesbian and gets eaten alive by Bauer's snakes!