Saturday, January 7, 2012

Vengeance of the Mummy Dir. Carlos Aured (1973)

AKA: The Mummy's Revenge, La Venganza Di La Momia

This is another highly recommended entry in the series of Gothic Horror movies from Spain made by their premier star, the traditionally lycanthropic Paul Naschy, who wrote the film under his pen name/alter ego, Jacinto Molina. Director Carlos Aured, who had previously worked with Naschy on his epic Eurohorror outing HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, returned to direct MUMMY'S REVENGE, along with HORROR RISES' female star, the incredibly sexy Helga Lin�, with the great Jack Taylor in the heroic lead and wonderful supporting performances by familiar Spanish/cult horror faces like Eduardo Calvo, Fernando Sanchez Polack, Luis D�vila, and Eurobabes Mar�a Silva & Celia Cruz.

An evil, despotic and bloodthirsty Egyptian Pharoh Amen Ho-Tep (Naschy in his usual dual role mode) is disrupted from his orgies of torture & human sacrifice by palace intrigue and winds up encased in a sarcophagus for 800 years, his body immobilized by a poison but his evil brain just itching for a distant ancestor (Naschy again, with help from Ms. Lin�) to revive his mummified body so he can seek a generalized revenge against basically everything. His tomb is discovered by Taylor & Ms. Silva, and the fun begins when Naschy & Helga start chaining up the virgins and slitting their throats to create some sort of rejuvenate concoction to get the mummy (Naschy again) up and about to roam the sewers of Victorian era London in search of people who's heads need crushing. Between brutal murders they collect virgins to sacrifice in order to perform a blasphemous rite to resurrect the Pharoh's favorite concubine as well (embodied in the film's present time by an actress named Riva Otolina, for whom this film is her only credited performance).

Meanwhile, back at the Egyptian artifacts museum, Jack Taylor gets to look thoughtful with a full beard and eventually deciphers an ancient manuscript outlining Amen Ho-Tep's plans to have himself and his concubine restored to eternal existence and decides to do something about it, all of which culminates in another wonderful on screen death by Naschy that is tinged by tragedy and self sacrifice by his modern day self.

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