Blood From the Mummy's Tomb sounds like an Egyptian horror film, and surprise, surprise, it is. It is based on the novel, Jewel of the Seven Stars, written by Mr. Dracula himself, Bram Stoker. This 1971 version comes from Hammer studios, which was a British film studio renowned for churning out horror films through the '60s and '70s. Some of the horror films they produced were very good and are considered classics, while others are rightly regarded as crap. Blood From the Mummy's Tomb is one of the better ones, and like most stars a dearth of well-known character actors that can be seen in all manner of British productions from Doctor Who to Coronation Street.
Hammer’s version of this tale is the first, and most faithful, to the original novel. It opens with the attempted mummification of a rather unpopular and feared Egyptian Princess, Tera. Her hand, sporting a huge ruby ring, is cut off to ensure her passage to the next world is hindered, and her name is all but removed from records by the priests. When her tomb is disturbed many years later by a British expedition, the fun begins.
The members of the expedition, not unlike Howard Carter's Tut-Ankh-Amun ill-fated group, suffer consequences including the death of one member, and the incarceration of another in an institution for the insane. Most of the other members, however, have survived by pushing the memories away.
When expedition member Professor Julian Fuchs gives his daughter, Margaret, the ruby ring found during the excavation, she finds herself having nightmares. The ring carries the Princess' desire to live again and wreak revenge on her tomb raiders, and she is going to use Margaret, who looks remarkably like her, to do it.
Enter the strange and dark Corbeck, a member of the expedition and ex-friend of Professor Fuchs. He is quite keen to help Princess Tera return from the dead, and it seems no one, not even Margaret, wants to stop him. As Princess Tera more firmly establishes her position in the land of the living and the people around Margaret begin to die horribly, the enormity of the situation hits home, but it may be too late.
This is a rather well constructed horror film, and is far removed from the likes of the Elm St and Friday the 13th types of horror. Sure, there is some blood, some graphic violence (filmed cheaply), and some special effects, some good, some not, but there is nothing here that will scare. The whole thing is filmed in a studio, though the sets generally look quite good. The acting is pretty solid, the lead female playing both parts of Margaret Fuchs and Princess Tera shows ample breast, cleavage, and even her bottom (sorry girls, nothing for you to perv on in this one), and some interesting and unusual camera angles.
There is some skilful use of shadow and light to intensify the suspense and drama, but this is no The Mummy or The Mummy Returns in any department. There are no cloth-bound mummies running around, no nasties rising from the sand en masse, and no comedic element. This is a fairly serious attempt to put the wind up viewers, and although not a long film at 89 minutes, it is not jam-packed with action either, so lovers of slash-films will be frustrated by the pace and slow development of the key storyline.
Interestingly, Vincent Price was originally on set in a consultative role, but left on the second day of filming when his wife died, and director, Seth Holt, died in the last days of filming. Spooky stuff, eh?
What a surprise this turned out to be! For a film that's 30 years old it looks very good and has either had some restoration work done, or is a very well preserved print - possibly both. The film comes to us in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced. The most striking things are the sharp image and the clean print. While the image is not as razor sharp as modern films, it is still very good, with clear definition. There is almost no grain, and there are no marks, dirt, dust or flecks to speak of.
Colours are very bright and there is no evidence of any fading, and only some very slight bleeding in some of the bright reds - but this is very minor indeed. Black levels are solid throughout, and shadow detail will not cause any concern.
The only small gripes are the slight glaring of brighter colours and the 'poster' look to much of the film. It is a little like staring at an airbrushed photograph at times, but compared to most films of this era this one is looking great, and there's no layer change.
Sadly, the audio is about as lame as it gets. The only option is a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono mix, and while the basics are fine, there is little to impress. There are few big noisy scenes in the film bar the end that would have sounded great, but they end up sounding very thin and not at all frightening. Likewise, through the film motor cars sound like toys, and there is no depth to any sound, nor any crystal clear sounds either.
Having said that, audio-synch is fine, dialogue is always clear and audible, but there is no separation, panning or audio gymnastics of any kind. Only the front left and right speakers get any workout and even then there is no challenge for them.