Truly Dreadful Film

One of my all time favorites.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Silly story about an evil Egyptian mummy queen who possesses the daughter of an archaeologist after he gives her the queen's ancient ring as a gift. The daughter, now possessed by Queen Tera, proceeded to hunt down the tomb hunters in modern day London in order to collect artifacts that will bring her back to life. So it's more of a possession story than a mummy going around and killing people. Outside of a sentient severed hand, this is a pretty weak Hammer Horror outing. Based on a Bram Stoker novel.

At the exact moment that Egyptologist Professor Fuchs (Andrew Keir) and party are opening the tomb of the Egyptian Queen of the Darkness, Tara, Fuchs' daughter is born dead in a London hospital. The two events are connected as Tara's spirit enters young Margaret Fuchs (Valerie Leon) and bring her back to life. Unaware of their connection, Margaret grows up to be the spitting image of Tara. Nearing her 21st (?) birthday, Margaret begins having unsettling dreams of Tara. Thus begins Tara's resurrection. To complete the transformation, Margaret/Tara must collect the artifacts from her tomb that are now in the possession of Professor Fuchs' colleagues who assisted in the original expedition. Collecting the objects will lead to a trail of bloody bodies, each with its throat ripped out.Writing that poorly worded plot synopsis was much more difficult that it should have been. The problem is that the plot in Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is a mess of ideas going in several different directions. It's entertaining, but it is admittedly a mess. I quite enjoy the story, but as I've written before, I'm a sucker for Egyptian mumbo- jumbo. Throw in some hokum about an evil queen, possessed artifacts, stars aligning in just the right way, and a traveling, disembodied hand and I'll eat it up. So, despite the many flaws in the plot, none of it really matters to me as I always have great fun watching Blood from the Mummy's Tomb. Watching the film last night for the first time in about 10 years, I realized I had forgotten much about the plot and really most everything else. One thing I hadn't forgotten was Valerie Leon. I defy anyone to watch this movie and not remember Ms Leon. I realize she wasn't hired for her acting ability, but she isn't all that bad. She may be a bit wooden in some scenes, but at worst, she's always watchable. I know Hammer used young women like Ms Leon, but at least Hammer provided her and others the opportunity to star in film. Hammer gave actresses like Ms Leon, Yutte Stensgaard, and Jennifer Daniel a chance for a role with some meat to it. None will be remembered as award caliber actresses, but all are memorable to fans in the various Hammer films/roles.Beyond Ms Leon, the rest of the cast is surprisingly strong. Andrew Keir was a real pro and is quite good as Professor Fuchs. James Villers, as the scheming Corbeck, is a scene-stealer. He's one part smarmy and one part evil. An entertaining combination. The rest of the cast is solid with Aubrey Morris, George Coulouris, and Mark Edwards giving memorable performances. To summarize, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb features a messy but very fun story, the memorable Valerie Leon, and a solid supporting cast. I'm keeping the 7/10 rating I gave it 10 years ago.

Returning home from an excavation, an archeologist's daughter finds that her resemblance to a recently-unearthed Egyptian queen's tomb allows her soul to possess her in an effort to be unleashed in the world again, and must race to stop the ceremony from being completed.This is probably one of Hammer's most underrated features. One of its better features is that this effectively uses shadow and suggestion among the best that the studio ever tried and managing to bridge the gap between their Gothic start and the more exploitative side that was coming to the forefront. The first one is clearly the highlight, as a victim inside an insane asylum, straight-jacketed and held down, when a vicious wind begins to howl and starts blowing things around the room. He notices a snake sculpture on the wall is missing and he goes over to try to get out, but he is trapped inside when the snake sculpture's shadow on the side of the wall slowly approaches him and gets even more frantic and hysterical, and the wind picks up to hide the brutal murder that follows quite effectively. All of the shadows and other images in the film are nice uses of suspense to give the film a little something extra, just to spice up the action. The attacks at the end are the most fun with the full powers of the possessed queen put to display in a variety of locations against the attackers which allows for some frenetic action scenes to occur as the wild fight in the library, a further attack at her home and the finale which is just plain fun. The amazing sets are so eerie and striking that it really catches your eye. It also adds to the suspense of the scenes since the realism of them plays out incredibly well as they are so intricately made that it almost looks like they used ancient Egyptian props straight from a tomb and put them directly in front of the camera. The tomb is the most impressive, with the beautiful sarcophagus in the middle as the best example of this with the decorated head filled with colored jewels, the elaborate headdress, and the overall design it has is simply marvelous with the large hieroglyphics on the walls and looks very nice. It really does look like an actual Egyptian tomb inside up to Hammer's usual high standards. Even the kills were pretty good as always going for the jugular is a nice adaptation to give the killer, making for some nasty kills along the way even if it doesn't provide for any creativity. However, it allows for a lot of blood to flow, as this is one of the bloodier films from Hammer. There weren't a lot of kills in the beginning, but once this got rolling, they came fast and furious. Finally, Valerie Leon is one of the better and busty heroines of the Hammer staple, spending a lot of time in the film wearing negligee, and sometimes less, so this is something many red-blooded males will want to see. There's not a lot to dislike from this one, though it is probably one of the slower entries in the series so it takes a while to get going. Once it gets going, it's not that bad, but for a mummy film we don't see the mummy in the film all that often. Even more so, it isn't a mummy in the traditional sense that we know of, covered in layers of moldy bandages and shuffling about. Here, not only is it rarely seen, but it isn't the traditional mummy, so fans may be disappointed with it if it's a blind buy based on the title.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence and Brief Nudity.

To quote "South Park", when the film begins it's obvious that the film will feature lots of "awesome boobage", as the film seems to VERY prominently display the very well-endowed ladies in the film--though there is no actual nudity. In a way, they are sort of the co-stars in "Blood From a Mummy's Tomb"! This AIN'T the sort of film grandpa used to watch back in the good ol' days of Boris Karloff! Archeologists discover a queen buried in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Oddly, she was neither skeletal nor mummified, but looks as if she's still alive--all regaled like an Egyptian queen. It gets weirder when they see a severed hand and the stump on the body begins to bleed! Pretty weird, but weirder still, the expedition's leader's wife has a baby at the exact moment the tomb is opened and the baby grows up to be an exact duplicate of the dead woman. Later, you realize it has the dead woman's soul as well, as it goes about do bad things...very bad things indeed.If you are looking for mummies, the film, despite the title, has none. Instead, an incredibly voluptuous lady who kills along with the help of a weirdo who LIKES the idea of her running amok! Frankly, this film is an excellent example for why Hammer Films was having financial problems by the 1970s--their horror films were becoming rather bereft of ideas. This film is a far cry from the studio's original mummy film (which was awfully good) or the Frankenstein and Dracula films. Few, if any chills here--just lots of awesome boobage and a rather silly story. I give the story a 2 and Miss Leon's boobage a 9 or 10.By the way, in the final scene, look closely at the queen's teeth. you can clearly see modern fillings in them! Not bad for an ancient Egyptian!