Horror Classics: Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)

Well...here we are, the last of Hammer's mummy films; Blood from the Mummy's Tomb.

Let's just jump straight into it, shall we?

Jewel of Seven Stars

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is based, albeit loosely, Bram Stoker's 1903 horror novel, Jewel of Seven Stars. The book examines themes of feminism and the rise of female empowerment. Now, at the time of the book's release, it got very little attention. The reviews were very negative, with one review saying readers would, and I quote:

"curdle their blood" and addle their brains trying to understand this most extraordinary story."

A second review was even worse:

"This book is not one to be read in a cemetery at midnight...but it does not quite thrill the reader as does the best work in this genre...It is due to Mr. Stoker to say that his wild romance is not ridiculous even if it fails to impress." - The Saturday Review

Okay, well, that wasn't exactly terrible, but it was still worse than the first one. The film was funded by EMI Films, but the film's title was a bit of a challenge. Writer Chris Wicking and producer James Carreras debated using the title of the original book (Jewel of Seven Stars), but ultimately went with Blood from the Mummy's Tomb instead.

Apart from the title, the film itself had a rocky production. The directing job went to Seth Holt, but unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan. 5 weeks into the 6-week shoot, Holt suffered a fatal heart attack. Michael Carreras took over the directorial duties for the last week of filming. Peter Cushing was initially cast as the professor, but his wife fell ill and he had to bail.

The Film's Plot

A group of archaeologists led by Professor Fuchs (that's an unfortunate name), uncover the hidden tomb of an evil Egyptian queen named Tera. The professor is obsessed with the queen and gives one of her rings to his daughter Margaret as a birthday gift.

The queen's evil power begins to manifest and torment Margaret and giving her really bad nightmares. Of course, Tera has a couple of crazy followers angling to revive her. That's also a serious problem, because the queen is, quite frankly, psychotic.

What Works Here?

Okay, so what works here? Well, there are quite a few things actually.

• The plotline is really interesting, it's different from the previous three films, which is nice. It's not the standard vengeful mummy story, and I loved that.
• The music and cinematography are lovely.
• Costume design is...interesting. Many of the colors are vibrant which makes a significant difference from some of the more muted costumes of the previous films.
• Performance-wise, there's a lot of great work to be seen here. Valerie Leon pulls double-duty as Margaret and Tera, and she does a phenomenal job. Andrew Keir was great as Professor Fuchs.

What Doesn't Work?

Okay, so what doesn't work?

• The pacing is slow, but not necessarily in a bad way. It does drag on in places, which can make the film difficult to watch at times.
• Certain plot points aren't very well explained. Why is the professor obsessed with Tera? Who knows? How are Margaret and Tera connected? Well, we don't learn about that either.
• The gore, while well done, feels a bit out of place at times - like the producers just wanted to shock audiences. This was a common thing for Hammer back in the 70s because, at the time, their films started going downhill.

A Nice Return to Form

Overall, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is a nice return to form for Hammer Films' Mummy series. While I wasn't a huge fan of the third film, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is probably my favorite entry in the series. If you haven't seen this one, it's worth a watch.