 Decemberdike
December 21st
Blood From the Mummy's Tomb (1971)
Twenty years after a female mummy is brought back to England, members of the expedition are killed one by one and the expedition leader's daughter is possessed by the spirit of the dead Queen.
Despite Hammer's film having such a lurid title it doesn't actually feature a mummy at all. Although it does have a beautifully preserved Valerie Leon as the embalmed queen despite being hundreds of years old looking like she'd just walked out of a beauty salon in 1971.
This was to be the last film of director Seth Holt. Towards the end of the six week shoot the director collapsed on set and died of a heart attack. Hammer producer Michael Carreras took over during the final days shooting. I don't know if this was the reason but the film feels a bit mixed, some scenes are tense and really engage the viewer, whilst other sections of the film appear quite dull, even boring.
The film features some wonderfully, gory, artery pumping and ripped throat scenes that Tom Savini would be proud of. As with all Hammer's mummy films the sets are quite superb, even though the film takes place in the modern day, the museum that houses the mummy of the Queen could easily have been from the early twentieth century.
Andrew Keir fresh from the excellent Quatermass and the Pit is sadly underused here as Professor Fuchs, the expedition leader. Peter Cushing had actually begun filming the part but pulled out due to the death of his wife.
Due to the films commercial failure Hammer ended their interest in mummy films after this their fourth attempt at the subject.
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