Paul Naschy's take on the story of the mummy is a disappointingly plodding film which rehashes all of the old mummy clichés used to death in the 1940s and adds nothing new to the proceedings apart from extra lashings of gore. Actually, I think this was the goriest mummy movie around until DAWN OF THE MUMMY came along, but don't be fooled into thinking this is some bloody gruesome gore fest - the violence is limited to a few throat-slashings, a head-squashing, a brief impaling and a surprisingly violent interlude when Naschy's mummy mutilates the faces of a number of dead girls by bashing them apart with his powerful fist.The expected Egyptian flashback is used to open the film, where we see Naschy sitting on this throne amid some cheap unconvincing sets while pretty girls are tortured and killed for his amusement. It isn't long before Naschy is bumped off by his scary-looking High Priest and his body mummified. After a brief (and very dark) tomb-opening sequence, the film shifts to London where the mummy is displayed in a museum. Egyptian priest Assad Bey (also played by Naschy, I guess he couldn't bear to be under wraps for a whole movie) uses the blood of three virginal girls to bring the mummy back to life and a string of gore murders commences.The film looks to be very cheaply-made, with lots of poor editing and disconcerting camera angles which don't work. It's also badly dubbed and has really annoying tinny screams for the ladies. Director Carlos Aured displays little professionalism in his work and is a far cry from Leon Klimovsky, who directed some of Naschy's best movies in my opinion. He fails to create much interest in the proceedings and only minimum Gothic atmosphere in the scenes where the mummy prowls around the dark vaults and sewers of London.The film's hero is played by Jack Taylor, a genre regular whose roots go back to three of the bizarre Neutron films in the early '60s, which were Mexican wrestling/superhero combinations. Taylor isn't exactly what I would term a quality actor, but he had enough experience of these sort of things to know what to do, thus making for an adequate heroic lead. However, the focus on the film is Naschy in both of his roles, so as usual he becomes a kind of anti-hero in the film. Maria Silva and Helga Line are familiar faces but fail to add much to their roles of the victimised women.Naschy's performance as priest Assad Bey is a fairly typical suave one from the actor, no better or worse than all this others. He does, however, make for an unusual barrel-chested mummy, one of the most agile I've seen in the movies. Thankfully, the mummy make up is actually pretty good and convincing for the film, which helps it considerably and makes it work watching. The unintentionally funny ending is pretty impressive, as Bey and the mummy are trapped in a building on fire and both go up in flames; the mummy's agonised groans are hilarious to listen to because they're extremely over-the-top! The ending also throws in a hideously burnt corpse and a female corpse shrivelling (due to being kissed by the mummy!) for good gruesome measure. Despite being one of the worst Naschy films I've seen, THE MUMMY'S REVENGE does pass the time painlessly in an uninspiring way, but I was expecting a lot more from the Spanish Master of Horror.

There's something about Mummy horror films . Or rather there's something missing about Mummy horror films . They're not really ingrained in to the cinematic memory in the way that films featuring werewolves , vampires , or the Frankenstein monster have . One can perhaps understand this when giving it a little thought . The Mummy narrative usually revolves around some ancient Egyptian being mummified then several thousand years later he's resurrected and just as this is happening his previous mistress just happens to be reincarnated and Mr Mummyman goes to track her down . As bad as in the implausible coincidences might be there is something also about a Mummy that works to its disadvantage - the monster itself shuffles about in an unlikely manner negating much its potential menace That said I was curios as to the Spanish would spin out the legend of the Mummy and to be honest there's nothing radical on show . Perhaps the best comparison would be with a Hammer horror film and this Spanish language movie does give a nod towards the British studio by having the story set at the turn of the century in London . That said there are numerous goofs where you don't have to look very closely at the cityscape to notice there's modern buildings on the skyline but at least it's obviously filmed in its setting and we're not subjected to the usual stock footage . It also contains the Hammer mind-set that foreigners are not to be trusted which gives Paul Naschy to opportunity to shine as the villain which he does quite well . One stark difference between this and a Hammer film though is that of the violence is a bit more explicit and the titular Mummy seems to have an unhealthy obsession with squashing heads ! Don't say you weren't warned

Somewhat atypical Mummy movie which, however, does not escape the deadly dullness that characterizes this subgenre – even if the monster himself is able to speak and his attacks are particularly vicious (a man's head is crushed, another's is thrown into a fire, and a succession of women have their faces slashed)! Paul Naschy plays a dual role as a mummified sadistic Pharaoh revived – to exact the usual curse (on just a handful of archeologists, a sure sign of the film's low-budget: another is its borrowing for the underscoring of one scene of the main theme from Mario Bava's THE WHIP AND THE BODY [1963], while the rest emerges as reasonably rousing) – by his present-day (and just as mean-spirited) ancestor. Aiding him is "Euro-Cult" favorite Helga Line' (this is already the third film of hers in my current marathon) – but, apparently, the Mummy has other plans for her, no matter that she is obviously not a virgin! – and, again par for the course, is the fact that a young woman involved with the archeologists is a dead-ringer for the Mummy's long-lost love!! Perhaps the film's most effective moment is the suspense built during a scene in which she is drawn to the Mummy's hiding-place while visiting Naschy's house, with her instinctive passage eventually obstructed in the nick of time by Line''s appearance at the top of the stairs.Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor is the hero (as already mentioned, hilariously, he turns up for a showdown with the villains flanked solely by his female companion, which ultimately sees the two Naschys shrieking in pain after being set on fire!) – his previous collaboration with the nominal star in DR. JEKYLL VS. THE WEREWOLF (1971) was an altogether more satisfying venture. Though this is the Spanish (and, thus, chaste) version of the film, it features the atrocious (and noise-riddled) English-dubbing – which did not help my involvement any!; at least, though, the correct aspect ratio (i.e. widescreen) was maintained.

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 Liné, 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 Dávila, and Eurobabes María Silva & Celia Cruz.THE PLOT: 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. Liné) 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.If all of this sounds rather familiar to folks who have seen a Naschy or three congratulations -- THE MUMMY'S REVENGE is a classic Jack Molina scripted "Soap Opera Horror" installment with a mummy instead of a werewolf, but story elements common to other popular efforts by Naschy/Molina portraying gruesome ceremonial killings that also require the female victims to be tortured, ancestral vengeance from beyond the grave, a love story of some sort or another figuring into the mix, the death of everyone in the film who has sexual relations on screen other than Naschy, a couple of good "Monster in the House" suspense sequences, and LOTS of atmospheric shots of mouldering catacombs, elegantly designed interior sets with altars, chaining racks, manacles & long ceremonial knives for the bloodletting. There is even a hint of potentially lesbian content between Riva Otolina & Helga that sadly goes underdeveloped, last minute oaths from the condemned that they will rise again to seek vengeance, the deaths of caretakers & transient nondescript types who always seem to end up dying horribly in Naschy's films, and other etcetera's that make up what I like to call The Paul Naschy Effect.As such, for those with a taste for The Naschy Effect, THE MUMMY'S REVENGE is a must-see title. Not only to see him garbed up as the mummy (Naschy has played all of the Universal classic monsters in his films, other than maybe the Creature from the BLACK LAGOON movies) but to see how he re-defined the Mummy Movie conventions to fit his own storytelling agenda. The film was shot in gorgeous color and has that certain special something about Spanish 1970's horror that is so unique & hard to put into words. And even casual viewers who may not be devotees of Spanish horror & Naschy's work will find this an enjoyable viewing experience worthy of 2nd, 3rd & 4th looks. And by then, you're officially hooked.But THE MUMMY'S REVENGE is actually a curious entry in Naschyalia for a couple of reasons. Like DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE he never reprised his mummy character in another film of it's own, but unlike that also wonderful movie THE MUMMY'S REVENGE was apparently shot without the "nude" or uncovered takes he usually had made for export from Spain (which did not permit frontal nudity in 1973) where such content would help to ensure a healthier box office showing. There are two surviving versions of THE MUMMY'S REVENGE, a fullframe English version that runs 91 minutes and a widescreen Spanish version amounting to about 97 minutes of screen time: Six additional minutes, most of it dialog or transitional scenes, plus an extra virgin on the racks at the beginning. But no "nude" or uncovered version has ever been described nor even hinted at via the usual film release/promotional accouterments like lobby cards or publicity stills depicting bared breasts. They may simply have not had the budget to make an export version, and for what it's worth I think this is still a fine movie without boobs, and more accessible for first time viewers than the ultra-heavy HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, which is not for all tastes in the truest use of that expression.THE MUMMY'S REVENGE is more of just a good old fashioned monster movie, flavored by the Spanish atmosphere & tragedy element, with some nice gory head-smushing scenes that will delight fans of that kind of stuff. I prefer the scenes with Helga Liné's "Zennifer" dolled up in a HIGHLY sexalicious Egyptian harlot costume, reserved only for the sacrificial ceremonies & related footage. With a body like hers they could have trotted her out in a garbage bags with holes poked out for her arms & head and it would still be a riveting sight.