Celebrating its 25th anniversary intheatrical re-release style, it’s never been clearer: everyone lovesThe Mummy. Nostalgia-colored glassescan often be deceptive, but there’s precious little to not love in writer-directorStephen Sommers' grand, heartfelt, and warmly silly remake of Universal Studios’s 1932 film of the same name.Its dominant tone, that of good old-fashioned swashbuckling, fuses superbly with startlingly nasty horrorfor a family-friendly summer blockbuster. The cast sparkles their way throughHamunaptra with electric chemistry and eclectic line readings. The script is almost too clever for its own good, which isn’t a backhanded compliment on spectacle’s ability to balance art and entertainment.TheMummy’s sly self-awareness transcends cynicism. It never condescends to its genres; it embraces them and understands how to transport audiences.
That authentic enthusiasm resonates, whether it be through internet memes or shouting dialogue in tandem with the characters from the comfort of our couch. (“Looks to me like you’re on the wrong side of theri-ver!") The movie’s backstory makes its enduring success even better: gettingthe 1999The Mummyoff the ground conceptually, let alone safely made,was a nightmare on par with those skittering scarabs.
At an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, an American serving in the French Foreign Legion accidentally awakens a mummy who begins to wreak havoc as he searches for the reincarnation of his long-lost love.
‘The Mummy’ Spent Years in Development Hell
Circa the early 1990s,The Mummywasthe only Universal Monsters property the studio had leftto reboot. AsJim Jacks, a producer on the 1999 film,explained to the LA Times, the canon’s biggest fictional names — Dracula and Frankenstein — were off the table afterFrancis Ford CoppoladebutedBram Stoker’s DraculaandKenneth Branaghtook onMary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The originalMummywas released in 1932 on the heels of 1931’sFrankensteinand touted the same star,Boris Karloff. Despite making a decent profit, no official sequels emerged. Instead, 1940’sThe Mummy’s Handstarted from scratch, swapping in actorTom Tyleras the lead and changing the titular mummy from Imhotep, Karloff’s reanimated priest, to Prince Kharis. The mummiestrying to manifest their reincarnated love intereststayed the same, but otherwise,The Mummy’s Handwas a hard reboot that produced four sequels.
Universal recognized that a bandaged-wrapped creepy guy had modern-era potential. But how to realize it? Initially,Universal sought a low-budget horror takein line with directorKarl Freund’s original. That spent at least nine years in development hell, cycling through names and pitches that never clicked with studio brass. As reported byFangoria via Bloody Disgusting, Universal rejectedHellraiserwriter-directorClive Barkerand horror filmmakerMick Garris’s “scary, violent, and sexually charged” plot involving a trans antiheroine and “the head of a contemporary art museum who turns out to be a cultist trying to reanimate mummies.”
Next,GremlinsdirectorJoe DantesupportedJohn Sayles’s script; the pair had collaborated onThe Howling. Describing Sayles’s idea tothe AV Club, Dante said: “It was more like the Karloff picture, where he’s the mummy at the beginning and then he has this alter ego. […] The problem was thatthe studio just did not want to spend more than $15 millionon the picture, and our budget was $25 million.” Not evenSteven Spielbergcould sway Universal presidentSid Sheinberg, who wanted a 1930s period piece. The studio also turned downGeorge Romero’s “creepier and more romantic” offering. The big man of horror himself,Wes Craven, passed on an offer instead of the other way around.
‘The Mummy’s Cast and Crew Were Injured
Finally, Stephen Sommers’sadventure romancewith splashes of horror was victorious. Ironically, Sommers’s popcorn fare needed more money than the studio wanted to spend.Sommers’s go-big-or-go-home concept swayed them. He hit the ground running, tellingEntertainment Weekly in 2019: “I’ve always wanted to do a version ofThe Mummy. When I was 8 years old, I saw the old Boris Karloff one. It took me to ancient Egypt, and Cairo of the ’20s and ’30s, and scared the crap out of me.”
While filming in Morocco for six weeks,The Mummy’s set experience becameThe African Queenof the 1990s:a debacle of sickness, close calls, and poor weather. To start, Jim Jacks set “million-dollar kidnapping insurance policies” on the cast, as leading manBrendan Frasertold Entertainment Weekly. No one was immune to falling ill, despite Fraser adding that “we got a lot of B12 shots in the ass, whether we wanted them or not.” Crew membersreceived emergency airlifts for their scorpion bites. Memos warned about the effects of yellow-dotted snakes: avoid them, unless you want your bitten limbs amputated. (Fraser recalled encountering such a snake while relieving himself and promptly dashing away.)
Luca Guadagnino Wants to Make a “Very Scary” Remake of ‘The Mummy’
After 2018’s ‘Suspiria,’ let Guadagnino remake any horror classic he’d like.
Brendan Fraser shared that doing his own stunts acrossThe Mummytrilogyresulted in multiple surgeries. For an early scene in the first film where Rick O’Connell nearly dies from hanging, Fraser passed out:
“The first take, I’m doing my best choking acting. Steve [Sommers] says, ‘Can we go for another one and take up the tension on the rope?’ I said, ‘All right, one more take.’ Because a noose around your neck’s going to choke you in the arteries, no matter what. I remember seeing the camera start to pan around, and then it was like a black iris at the end of a silent film. I regained consciousness, and one of the EMTs was saying my name.”
‘The Mummy’s Heartfelt Wit Defied Expectations
If that wasn’t enough to inspire some jitters, unpredictable and fast-moving sandstorms routinely wrecked the equipment. Several actors, likeRachel WeiszandArnold Vosloo, thought their careers would flop alongside the film. Vosloo’s breaking point, after approaching Imhotep without a flicker of insincerity, was receiving instructions from Stephen Sommers to act againstwhat would later be CGI. “Steve’s on a bullhorn,” Vosloo said, “and he’s like, ‘Come over the sand dune! Now look at Rachel! Now gesture at the thing and shout!’ I looked down at Rachel and I said, ‘We’re never going to work again.'”
Despite adversity, everything synchronized in the editing bay.The Mummydusted off the sand and set a new gold standard. Cast memberOmid Djalilreported to Entertainment Weekly that “the Universal representative saidthe film’s opening was so strong, it saved the studio.” Two sequels,The Mummy ReturnsandThe Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, failed to fully recapture the whirlwind delight. The same goes for Universal’sDark Universe experiment, which quickly fizzled. After 25 years,The Mummyproves a coexisting truth: remakes aren’t inherently misguided as long as they’re born from good faith and a narrative-forward mentality.
The Mummyis available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.
