In 1932,
The Mummy
, starring Boris Karloff, introduced another icon to the classic monster pantheon, beginning a journey down the cinematic Nile that has yet to reach its end. Over the past century, movie mummies have met everyone from Abbott and Costello to Tom Cruise, not to mention a myriad of fellow monsters. Horrifying and mysterious, the mummy comes from a different time with uncommon knowledge and unique motivation, offering the lure of the exotic as well as the terrors of the dark.
From obscure no-budgeters to Hollywood blockbusters, the mummy has featured in films from all over the globe, including Brazil, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, and even its fictional home country of Egypt—with each film bringing its own cultural sensibilities. Movie mummies have taken the form of teenagers, superheroes, dwarves, kung fu fighters, Satanists, cannibals and even mummies from outer space. Some can fly, some are sexy, some are scary and some are hilarious, and mummies quickly moved beyond horror cinema and into science fiction, comedy, romance, sexploitation and cartoons. From the Universal classics to the Aztec Mummy series, from Hammer's versions to Mexico's Guanajuato variations, this first-ever comprehensive guide to mummy movies offers in-depth production histories and critical analyses for every feature-length iteration of bandaged horror.