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Ancient Egypt Magazine Volume 4 issue 2 October / November 2003 NETFISHING
The Mummy is undead and well and lurking on the internet. It must be something of the season in northern climes, the introspective and spooky turning of the year that has created the desire to look at mummies in movie myth. Many moons ago we visited the web pages of James M Deem for a light-hearted look at the subject. Now he has an updated site, www.mummytombs.com offering information (and inevitably the opportunity to buy DVDs and the like) on some chilling films including The Mummy of them all: Boris Karloff. This deeply creepy classic, launched in the early 1930s, maintained its shadowy power until the arrival of an updated sequence over twenty years later from Hammer Films. It's the one that held James Deem's own attention and in many ways has never been bettered. Check out what he has to say about it but also take a good look at his well-classified and accessible section on mummies worldwide. Despite strong competition from were-wolves and vampires, mummies have always captured the attention of the public when it comes to movies. Of course, they have the added glamour of pharaonic Egypt. Whether sad, bad, mad or simply homicidal, it's the dread created by the irresistible purgatory of mummies under the control of ancient and unknown forces that creates the horror. That's why the early slow-burn versions still hold their own against their hyperactive descendents. Mummies are only one category of monsters listed on monstrous.com, a site that wants to investigate why monsters are so significant in all cultures and what that tells us about ourselves. Along the way - for instance at movies.monstrous.com - there are images of mummies and a list of about 60 movie titles, dating back to 1909, with a mummy or mummies as central figures. The site is not specifically for children (unlike that of James M Deem, for instance) but I didn't find anything untoward on it and it does highlight clearly any sections that might be inappropriate for younger browsers. The graphics are good, especially the bowing genie and bouncing skull. You can buy mummy movies at www.scarydvd.com where monsters are categorised into sections such as 'creatures, European horrors, flesh hungry animals, haunted house, horror legends' and so on. Probably best if adults do any choosing and buying from this one. On to more scientific (although popularly presented) documentaries of mummies and the site www.pricetool.com/movies-Documentary-keyword-Mummies where there's a fair selection of videos and DVDs to be purchased if you haven't already stocked up. Strictly for movie buffs (and probably, as the site describes them, 'Horror Boomers', members of that post war generation who refuse to grow up), is www.horror-wood.com, a site that will be somewhat incomprehensible if you don't understand the word 'schlock'. Its pages are straight out of the 1950s and are about the 'so bad it's good' type of movie that was churned out (sorry, produced) so cheaply - and often hilariously - in that decade. If cold war paranoia transferred to mummies, aliens and murky swamp things is what you'd like to watch this autumn, this is the place to go. Here is to be found a 'they couldn't make it up' page entitled 'The Day the Mummies Moved'. It purports to be about a 'missing mummy movie link' for which a certain Ed Wood was responsible, the same Ed Wood, if Hapy recalls correctly, who was responsible for arguably the worse film ever made -Plan 9 from Outer Space. This took pride of place in a 'Worst Films of All Time' series shown on TV once - and never again as far as is known. No one could want to endure such an excruciating experience twice. While lurking about, a curious company called www.frogware.com peeped out with goggly eyes from the search listing. They produce a game called Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Mummy. There's a trial version but the company warns that as their server is in Ukraine, it sometimes takes a long time to download. Hapy didn't wait to try it but notes that it's only received two stars from any reviewer. Any readers out there who have tried it are welcome to send in comments, good or bad. Back to the original 'Mummy' who started the movie craze, at least once talkies began, not that he had much to say for himself in the film. It's Boris Karloff, whose memory is also alive and well on the internet. In fact his daughter Sara is custodian of his official site, www.karloff.com, where the scariest thing to be encountered is Boris dressed as an old lady. His appearance is spookily similar to Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts & Coronets. What movie was that? HAPY Back to Ancient Egypt Magazine - Volume 4 Issue 2 contents
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