IMDb RATING
3.8/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
A group of fashion models disturb the tomb of a mummy and revive an ancient curse. Along with the mummy rising, slaves who were buried in the desert thousands of years before, also rise, wit... Read allA group of fashion models disturb the tomb of a mummy and revive an ancient curse. Along with the mummy rising, slaves who were buried in the desert thousands of years before, also rise, with a craving for human flesh.A group of fashion models disturb the tomb of a mummy and revive an ancient curse. Along with the mummy rising, slaves who were buried in the desert thousands of years before, also rise, with a craving for human flesh.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe movie is part of the notorious German "SchleFaZ" series (a satirical film series of the German private broadcaster Tele 5. In this series, mainly B-movies, which are characterized by particularly bad workmanship or unintentionally funny ideas, are introduced, commented on and presented by Oliver Kalkofe and Peter Rütten). Thus, the censored version was aired August 2020 on German TV station Tele5. ("SchleFaZ" is a German abbreviation of "the worst films ever". In that Series 2 hosts present the whole flick - and make fun of it throughout the movie.)
- Alternate versionsThe UK cinema version was cut by 27 secs by the BBFC and the same print was released on the Videospace label before the introduction of the VRA (Video Recordings Act). When the film was officially released on video in 1987 it received 1 min 43 secs of censor cuts with edits to all flesh eating scenes, an eye gouging, the stabbing of a man's head with a meat cleaver, and a woman being bitten in the neck and dragged under the sand. The cuts were waived in 2003 and the film was released unedited on the Anchor Bay label.
- ConnectionsEdited into Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)
Featured review
Ultra gory mummy/zombies from the golden days of gut munching cinema
Farouk (Frank) Agrama's Dawn of the Mummy (1981) tells the traditional story of an old mummy's grave being violated by greedy present day scientists and some other people as they're after a huge gold treasure that was left for the mummy as he was supposed to enter the beyond after his death. The film opens with the embalming (greetings to Poland!) scene which shows how they removed the intestines and left the dead one to rest forever. Then we jump to the present day Egypt in which a fashion photographer group is planning to take pictures for three days, as well as a group of men who are only after the gold. Of course they soon go to the tomb and mess with the mummies waking the "protagonist mummy" and his guards up resulting some vengeful carnage.
The film has not plenty of interesting cinematic elements or merits like photography (some nice angles, though) or atmosphere and it concentrates mostly on the gore. The film ends in a hilarious gore carnage finale as the present day Egyptians and foreigners that caused it all learn that they really should have left the mummies in peace! The end scene is surprisingly gory but also in a cheesy way as can be expected. Still it is far from the kind of film that could be shown for the "unexperienced" with plenty of scenes of gut munching, flesh ripping and the usual meat cleaver to the head ultra gore found in these films from the seventies and eighties. The zombified mummies themselves are pretty gruesome and look convincing, and really angry.
The film looks otherwise pretty believable as it was shot in Egypt for real. There are no stages or other artificial deserts but the real one with many pyramids and beautiful locations in real Egypt. There is, however, one thing that really irritates me in this film and it is how everyone screams so much and just seems to be unable to stop it once something horrible happens. I don't know is it the dubbing and so not in the screenplay but still it is the worst and the most painful thing in this film. Also some of the scenes are pretty unnecessary only prolonging the film with characters and dialogue that don't develop anything and so have no real reason to be there. Still the film manages to maintain the interest with rather good balance between the action/horror scenes and the more restful ones.
Dawn of the Mummy is a noteworthy example of the B level gore cinema of the early eighties with beautiful locations, some quite creepy and effective scenes and monsters, a universal theme about man's greediness and of course the "key thing", the graphic horror. A film like this could be so much more painful to watch and so Agrama's effort will have its place in the book of the no-less-than-mediocre zombie/mummy horrors of the golden days of the genre! 5/10
The film has not plenty of interesting cinematic elements or merits like photography (some nice angles, though) or atmosphere and it concentrates mostly on the gore. The film ends in a hilarious gore carnage finale as the present day Egyptians and foreigners that caused it all learn that they really should have left the mummies in peace! The end scene is surprisingly gory but also in a cheesy way as can be expected. Still it is far from the kind of film that could be shown for the "unexperienced" with plenty of scenes of gut munching, flesh ripping and the usual meat cleaver to the head ultra gore found in these films from the seventies and eighties. The zombified mummies themselves are pretty gruesome and look convincing, and really angry.
The film looks otherwise pretty believable as it was shot in Egypt for real. There are no stages or other artificial deserts but the real one with many pyramids and beautiful locations in real Egypt. There is, however, one thing that really irritates me in this film and it is how everyone screams so much and just seems to be unable to stop it once something horrible happens. I don't know is it the dubbing and so not in the screenplay but still it is the worst and the most painful thing in this film. Also some of the scenes are pretty unnecessary only prolonging the film with characters and dialogue that don't develop anything and so have no real reason to be there. Still the film manages to maintain the interest with rather good balance between the action/horror scenes and the more restful ones.
Dawn of the Mummy is a noteworthy example of the B level gore cinema of the early eighties with beautiful locations, some quite creepy and effective scenes and monsters, a universal theme about man's greediness and of course the "key thing", the graphic horror. A film like this could be so much more painful to watch and so Agrama's effort will have its place in the book of the no-less-than-mediocre zombie/mummy horrors of the golden days of the genre! 5/10
helpful•31
- Bogey Man
- Apr 6, 2003
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content