Featured The 90s

The Mummy (1999) – Episode 17 – Decades of Horror 1990s

“You dream about dead guys?” Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) questions the enthusiasm of librarian Evie Carnahan (Rachel Weisz). Of course, they’ll be having plenty of nightmares about dead guys once they encounter…  The Mummy! Nearly 20 years before Universal had Tom Cruise fight against a bandaged undead Egyptian, they managed to give the runt of their canon a kick ass action reboot. While not quite as horror driven as some would want,  The Mummy  from 1999 is a rousing action adventure ride that continues the mantle of Indiana Jones better than most imitators. Or even Dr. Jones himself, with  Crystal Skull. Yet, there’s still plenty of horror imagery to go around as our heroes run away from an army of the undead!

Decades of Horror 1990s
Episode 17 — The Mummy  (1999)

The year is 1999. The world hadn’t had an Indiana Jones adventure in ten years. There hadn’t been a popular film with a mummy since the final days of Hammer. A young Brendan Fraser was stealing America’s hearts in  Encino Man  and  George of the Jungle. All three were just begging to be combined into one glorious package. That vessel was  The Mummy, a fun action adventure story with a few pieces of horror imagery thrown in. Before director Stephen Summer disappointed horror purists  with  Van Helsing, he made them begrudgingly smile at Brendan Fraser shooting a mummy a running in terror. It’s a classic example of a breezy summer ride before those got incredibly over convoluted and gray.

Now, with the recent release of Universal’s newest bandaged monster movie, Thomas Mariani invites Adam Thomas and Bill Mulligan on to talk about this beloved hit. They praise the mixture of practical and computer visual effects, particularly the early use of motion capture. There’s much praise for Brendan Fraser’s charms and Rachel Weisz’s infectious inquisitive nature. Even a bit of appreciation for playful dabblings in the mythology of  The Mummy  mythology. Plus, there’s some  pondering about the prospects of a Dark Universe and why “everyone wants to be Marvel.” You can hear all of it by plugging this one into your earholes!

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The intro and outro is  “Suck City” by Black Math. Look for more of their music via  Free Music Archive.

Next Episode

Blade  (1998)

 

Doc Rotten
Doc Rotten is the founder of Gruesome Magazine. He is also a film critic for Gruesome Magazine and the podcast host & producer for Horror News Radio, Monster Movie Podcast, Decades of Horror: 1970s, The American Horror Story Fan Podcast and Hannibal Fan Podcast. He is also co-host of the Dracula podcast on TV TALK and is a contributing reviewer for HorrorNews.Net and Widescreen Warrior. Doc a lifelong fan of horror films, sci-fi flicks and monster movies first discovering Universal Monsters and Planet of the Apes as a young child in the 1970's searching out every issue of Famous Monster of Filmland (and, later, Fangoria). Favorite films include Jaws, The Car, The Birds, The Tingler, Vampire Circus and The Exorcist. Still a huge fan of horror films from the 70s, Doc continues consuming horror films to this day for the site, for the podcasts and for the fun of it all.
http://www.docrotten.com