‘He has risen to take back what is his’
Mummy Reborn is a 2018 British supernatural horror film directed by Dan Allen (Unhinged) from a screenplay co-written with Scott Jeffrey (The Bad Nun; The House on Elm Lake; Fox Trap; et al). Also known as The Mummy Reborn
The movie stars Becca Hirani, Rita Siddiqui and Charlene Durrant.
Plot synopsis:
Tina works in an antique store that is shutting down, she has known about the mummy’s tomb for a long time and what is held inside – the red jewel that is worth a fortune.
In a few days’ time, the shop will close, and the jewel will go with it – always kept in secret, never to be seen, unless accompanied by Miss Wilson, who owns the store.
However, Tina has other ideas – she plans on stealing the jewel before it closes. Her plan is to act innocent of the crime, whilst in secret, she lets her friends in to steal the mummy’s tomb.
All goes to plan, Tina and her friends are successful with the robbery – they take the tomb in a van to a remote Manor House for hiding. While waiting for a buyer to come and take the jewel off them, the mummy vanishes from the coffin. The group begin turning on each other, accusing one another of stealing the mummy to auction off themselves.
As tensions rise, we soon discover that they have awoken the curse of the mummy and it won’t rest until their souls are taken inside the jewel one by one…
Review:
Many films start with a quote from a philosopher or statesman; Mummy Reborn begins with a quote from Kanye West. That should have been all we needed to know.
Despite the poster, there is no desert and no pyramids. Mummy Reborn takes place in and around a house in England. The Mummy and his reincarnated love stalk around killing not only those who dared disturb his rest but a bunch of stoned revellers in the woods to elevate the body count. That includes the weakest version of the sleeping bag slammed into a tree kill I’ve ever seen.
Director Dan Allen, working from a script he co-wrote with Scott Jeffrey, serves up a film that goes from attempts at serious drama to horror to “I am so sick of these motherfcking mummies on this motherfcking farm.” and a character reading the film’s subtitles.
Mummy Reborn has no clue what kind of film it wants to be, it’s just a grab bag of scenes strung together in near-random order. Jumping mood, tone and genre without a second thought. Maybe if it had played itself as a farce all the way through it might have worked. Instead, it feels like they saw the footage from the first couple of days, realised what a dog of a movie they had and tried to make it intentionally funny. It didn’t work.
The Mummy himself isn’t too bad looking, somewhat resembling Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie in bandages. But that’s all this film has going for it. Mummy Reborn is pretty much stillborn.
Jim Morazzini, guest reviewer via Voices from the Balcony
Other reviews:
“Some might say low-budget ridiculousness but I say over-the-top, pop culture referencing madness. in the best way possible. Hell, what’s not to love about a film that references Mortal Kombat in its fight scenes, has heroes that suddenly gain superpowers and has a mentally challenged character that can literally read the subtitles on the screen! On paper, it sounds daft but in reality it makes for great viewing.” Nerdly
“The acting is poor, the camera work unremarkable and the tonally inconsistent narrative makes this a film more wrapped up and cobbled together than the Mummy itself. As a comedic horror, I really think Mummy Reborn could work but in its current format it really doesn’t.” The Review Geek
“It’s tonally awkward, poorly-written, and disappointedly bland. Strangely, director (and co-writer) Dan Allen seems to know this, throwing everything he can at the screen in trying to mask this, delivering a weirdly compelling watch that is (hopefully) intentionally bad for the sake of being well, just bad.” That Moment In
Cast and characters:
Becca Hirani … Brenda – The Bad Nun; Mother Krampus
Rita Siddiqui … Barb – End Game; Scarecrow vs. Vikings; Pet Graveyard;
Charlene Durrant … Becky
Chris Kaye … Luke – There’s No Such Thing As Zombies
Tiffany-Ellen Robinson …Tina
Patsy Prince … Jasha
Nila Patel … Cindy
Heronimo Sehmi … Callum
Claudine-Helene Aumord … Marty
Louis Findlay … Duncan
Georgia Wood … Ali
Mika Hockman … Jasmine
Will Dodd … The Mummy
Victor Toth … Max
Related:
The Shuffling Saga of the Mummy on Screen – article
