Rating: 
Summary: George A. Romero influenced gore cheapie...
Review: First saw this film on VHS in the mid-eighties when it was released by either Vestron video or Thorn/EMI, and due to a combination of my young, impressionable age and the over the top violence of this gore classic it left a huge mark or should I say scar on me.
Is the film any good? I would venture yes, in a 'so bad it's entertaining, Lucio Fulci (Zombie, Gates of Hell) or Joe D'Amato (Beyond The Darkness, Anthropophagus)' sort of way. Frank Agrama, the man responsible for this travesty is guilty of helming some of filmdom's worst and most embarrassing moments-need I mention 1976's Queen Kong?
This film is about Rick (one of the hammiest actors these eyes have ever seen) and his band of merry, but not so bright tomb raiders. They stumble upon a cursed (aren't they all?) Egyptian crypt containing a very big and angry mummy who is justifiably upset that these nitwits have interrupted his ancient slumber to plunder his gold. A group of pretty american models soon decide to use the defiled crypt for a magazine photo shoot. If this sounds ridiculous and implausible, imagine the implausibility of an early eighties gore flick featuring sexy female models but no nudity at all. What was Agrama thinking? The dormant mummy soon rises to avenge this indiscretion and summons his hordes of undead, cannibalistic followers to assist him. This allows the film to degenerate into a 'Dawn of the Dead' type bloodbath with gore galore recalling special effects maestro Tom Savini's pioneering work.
The film is slow at times, but so were the original black and white Universal Mummy movies of yesteryear. All in all, this is a good updating of the mummy legend, and has the distinction of being one of the only mummy 'gore' films I have ever seen.
For a cheap, discount dvd Madacy has done a pretty good job even supplying a commentary track with Agrama. The film is presented full screen and the transfer pretty much looks like it was lifted directly from a VHS tape. Still the quality is pretty acceptable in spots, be forewarned there is a constant hiss in the audio present throughout. Nevertheless until Anchor Bay decides to release a region 1 version of this, this will have to do. Another gripe is the crappy cover art which is no match for the original with the imposing Mummy, eyes aglow, superimposed upon a desert landscape.
In closing, this oddity is certainly worth seeing..once. Though once may be enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Gutmunching Zombie Horror Comes To DVD
Review: I saw this on TV back in the 1980s and while it takes too long to get going, once it does (about 38 minutes in when the mummy finally rises from his tomb), you are in for some fun gore and zombie action. The mummy leads a horde of flesh-eating zombies on a rampage through the streets of an Egyptian town. We get a meatcleaver to the head, gut-muching, biting chunks of flesh, and a fiery climax. The soundtrack is especially good. The new Madacy DVD release is a nice, clean but slightly dark print. The only bonus feature worth mentioning is a surprisingly fun and informative audio commentary with director Frank (Farouk) Agrama, who obviously had a lot of fun making the film (this was his final directorial effort, and he wistfully talks about making a sequel now). Listening to the commentary really increased my appreciation both for the film and for the director. For under $10, you won't do much better for 80s flesh-eating zombie horror on DVD. I would have liked to see a trailer for Dawn Of The Mummy, but as it was never released theatrically in America, I suppose hunting down the foreign trailers was too much to ask. A poster or image gallery would have been nice (even if just a few images), or the inclusion of the excellent Shuki Levy soundtrack (which was originally released on LP). Maybe we'll get lucky and have a Dawn Of The Mummy: Special Edition someday! By the way, Dawn Of The Mummy was not the first mummy gore movie. That dubious honor goes to Paul Naschy's 1973 film La Venganza de la Momia ("The Vengeance of the Mummy"). The only other mummy gore movie I've seen is WAVE's shot on video Mummy's Dungeon from the early 90s.
Rating:
Summary: It's worth the price
Review: I seen this movie along time ago on channel 48 which is a local channel. To my suprise it was uncut at least all the gore was intact. Anway I've been meaning to buy this film for years. I was hoping it would repeat again on that station but since it was uncut with the gore I have a feeling someone complained about it because it has never aired again. Anyway I was planning to order this from a private collector when low and behold I was in the bargain section at Best Buy and while scanning the titles there it was. At first I thought it was some cheap knock off made for video crapola which there is a non stop flood of these days. Check out the sci-fi channel and you can see for yourself. Well it was'nt a knock off title it was the film that I was hoping it would be and it's a must buy for anyone who's into these kinds of films. Meaning if you enjoy horror films such as Zombie,Burial Ground,Dr.Butcher M.D,The Beyond and Cannibal films such as Cannibal Ferox,Mountain of the Cannibal God,and Cannibal Holocaust then this film is right up your alley. Sure it's not as good as some of the one's mentioned above but it sure deserves a spot on your shelf next to them. There's some real bad dubbing and some great juicy gore effects and for under ten bucks how can you go wrong. So forget these so called horror films that are being made by either hollywood or the straight to video blunders which never deliver the goods which in my opinion is the gore,nudity,and lots of good old fashion heart warming violence. These above films have it and then some so what are you waiting for?. Order it and all these others from Amazon you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent price on an rare 80's classic
Review: I was quite thrilled to see that this movie was finally available on DVD and as a budget priced release to boot! I was afraid that the content was going to be some multi-generation TV print but was pleasantly surprised. The print and transfer quality are excellent and when compared to my 20+ year old video copy-the content is identical. My video copy was originally rated "X" for violence but shows up here in an "R" rating with no edits made to the film.Maybe we've become desensitized to violence over the years. The plot is threadbare and the acting is marginal but what makes this film are the atmospheric scenes of the army of the mummy rising from the desert sands at night. The special effects (done by an Italian crew) are mostly standard zombie genre-lots of biting, blood spurting and munching down on the victim's intestinal tract. Excellent mummy make up effects and Egyptian location shots are also a highlight. Sit back and enjoy this low tech precursor to the computer effects laden Mummy movie from a few years back. You could do a lot worse.
Rating:
Summary: file under "z" for zombie!
Review: If you're a big fan of the recent big-budget mummy films, you may want to pass this one up. But gorehounds should check it out. It's an Egyptian/American co-production directed by Frank Agrama, who according to Jay Slater's great book "Eaten Alive" is actually Farouk Agrama, director of the not-yet-distributed "Queen Kong." I saw lots of Agramas on the credits for this one, padding the payroll perhaps? This one takes a long time to get going, but makes up for it with lots of gore in the last half hour or so. It's actually filmed in Egypt. The story starts out in 3000 B.C. with an ancient curse being performed, then flashes forward to the present day (early 80's of course) and some tomb raiders who succumb to poison gas when they open the tomb. The titles flash, followed by a roller-skate wearing model being photographed in New York. She and some other models end up going to Egypt to be photographed among the pyramids. They stumble across a group of treasure hunters and decide to do the rest of the shoot in the actual tomb itself. The heat of the lights they use in the shoots ends up cooking the mummies back to life, and we are treated to numerous shots of bubbly black ooze squirting out of the mummified bodies. People start disappearing, but the fashion crew insists on staying to complete the photo shoot. The mummies are initially slow-moving, decomposed and like to feast on human flesh and blood. They reminded me of Italian zombies more than your typical cinematic mummy. There is a great scene where the mummies are rising from the sand in the early morning, a literal "dawn of the mummy" I guess. Lots of unintentional laughs make the slow parts of the movie more tolerable, especially the hilarious overacting of the lead tomb raider. It's well worth the low price for anyone who can hang on until the final bloodbath.
Rating:
Summary: file under "z" for zombie!
Review: If you're a big fan of the recent big-budget mummy films, you may want to pass this one up. But gorehounds should check it out. It's an Egyptian/American co-production directed by Frank Agrama, who according to Jay Slater's great book "Eaten Alive" is actually Farouk Agrama, director of the not-yet-distributed "Queen Kong." I saw lots of Agramas on the credits for this one, padding the payroll perhaps? This one takes a long time to get going, but makes up for it with lots of gore in the last half hour or so. It's actually filmed in Egypt. The story starts out in 3000 B.C. with an ancient curse being performed, then flashes forward to the present day (early 80's of course) and some tomb raiders who succumb to poison gas when they open the tomb. The titles flash, followed by a roller-skate wearing model being photographed in New York. She and some other models end up going to Egypt to be photographed among the pyramids. They stumble across a group of treasure hunters and decide to do the rest of the shoot in the actual tomb itself. The heat of the lights they use in the shoots ends up cooking the mummies back to life, and we are treated to numerous shots of bubbly black ooze squirting out of the mummified bodies. People start disappearing, but the fashion crew insists on staying to complete the photo shoot. The mummies are initially slow-moving, decomposed and like to feast on human flesh and blood. They reminded me of Italian zombies more than your typical cinematic mummy. There is a great scene where the mummies are rising from the sand in the early morning, a literal "dawn of the mummy" I guess. Lots of unintentional laughs make the slow parts of the movie more tolerable, especially the hilarious overacting of the lead tomb raider. It's well worth the low price for anyone who can hang on until the final bloodbath.
Rating:
Summary: OK GORE SHOCKER....
Review: Neither the best of it's kind nor the worst, "Dawn of the Mummy" is notable for having been filmed mostly in Egypt which does give it a kind of grisly realism. Using a cast of no-names, it presents an egomaniacal fashion photographer gathering the "world's top models" for a photo shoot on location in the Egyptian desert. While shooting, they stumble upon tomb raiders invading a cursed pharaoh's tomb searching for gold. The greedy photographer pushes the group in for a rare photo-op in a "real Egyptian tomb". There they find the mummy of the pharaoh the raiders have disturbed and the heat from the set lights cause it to slowly ooze to life. Once the mummy is up, so are his buried minions who return as flesh eating zombies. The mummy strangles and uses weapons to kill while the zombies just attack and eat. If you are watching this for gore, you will not be disappointed as it is plentiful...especially during the horrific climax where the zombies attack a wedding party. As for the print, it isn't bad but could have been better as it gets a little too dark. Assuming you're not watching this for the acting, it's pretty laughable. But you do get two strong heroines that outdo their male co-stars who end up getting slaughtered anyway. So, for the price, this is an OK time killer with some interesting qualities and should satisfy the gorehounds out there. The mummy and his zombies are well done and "Dawn of the Mummy" does have it's scary moments as well as guts galore.
Rating:
Summary: OK GORE SHOCKER....
Review: Neither the best of it's kind nor the worst, "Dawn of the Mummy" is notable for having been filmed mostly in Egypt which does give it a kind of grisly realism. Using a cast of no-names, it presents an egomaniacal fashion photographer gathering the "world's top models" for a photo shoot on location in the Egyptian desert. While shooting, they stumble upon tomb raiders invading a cursed pharaoh's tomb searching for gold. The greedy photographer pushes the group in for a rare photo-op in a "real Egyptian tomb". There they find the mummy of the pharaoh the raiders have disturbed and the heat from the set lights cause it to slowly ooze to life. Once the mummy is up, so are his buried minions who return as flesh eating zombies. The mummy strangles and uses weapons to kill while the zombies just attack and eat. If you are watching this for gore, you will not be disappointed as it is plentiful...especially during the horrific climax where the zombies attack a wedding party. As for the print, it isn't bad but could have been better as it gets a little too dark. Assuming you're not watching this for the acting, it's pretty laughable. But you do get two strong heroines that outdo their male co-stars who end up getting slaughtered anyway. So, for the price, this is an OK time killer with some interesting qualities and should satisfy the gorehounds out there. The mummy and his zombies are well done and "Dawn of the Mummy" does have it's scary moments as well as guts galore.
Rating:
Summary: Now this is how you make a crappy movie.
Review: Now this movie has a brilliant concept: A zombie movie, but with mummies instead. The execution of it all is, um, flawed, but it's good campy fun anyway.
Lots of people out there who are horror fans are unable to take horror movies seriously- they just like them as camp or whatever. I am not one of these people, and while I certainly can enjoy good-bad movies, I prefer them to be genuinely good. Sadly, 'Dawn of the Mummy' cannot be taken seriously, at all. It's just way, way too amateurish and silly. So make no mistake, you aren't getting any Romero or Fulci here.(`City of the Living Dead' falls into the good-bad category, but it's still a cut above this.) Frankly, I cannot imagine why anyone would be expecting anything above about D-grade stuff, but I've read a lot of complaining, so I figured I might as well clear it up.
Alright, the plot's like this: There's a bunch of models who go to Egypt for a fashion shoot around some pyramid's, where there are also some grave robbers out to make it rich. Both groups end up in the actual tombs, which upsets the mummies, which eventually leads to a veritable mummy apocalypse. I say eventually cause it takes quite a while to really get going. I was worried that it was going to be a bit padded at 95 or so minutes, and I was right. Most of the film consists of the models standing around and complaining, or the grave robbers looking for the gold in the tomb, and complaining. They coulda clipped 20 minutes or so and lost nothing of particular interest. Still, most of it is reasonably amusing, particularly due to some outrageously over the top acting on the part of some of the graverobbers, and the later stuff is amusing enough to make it worth the wait.
This film does not look very professional, as you'd imagine. Each individual shot looks passable enough, but it doesn't flow right and doesn't exactly feel like a movie. Kinda like a TV movie. A cheap one. Still the eventual mummy massacre is entertaining enough. The mummies actually look better than you'd anticipate. Well actually, they're mostly henchman, who may or may not be actual mummies, but whatever. They're cheap with a hard, crunchy look like what you'd see in 'The Beyond' but I think they look pretty good, particularly their ragged outfits. Their rising out of the sands is one of the few genuinely effective moments in the film. The head mummy is more conventional, with bandages and all, and he's pretty damn cool. He's also real damn tall.
Well, after all the silly, campy crap we get to the final showdown, which is quite amusing. Mummies run amuck in the city, ruin a wedding, and eat lots and lots of guts. There's not much more to say about it then that. If that description intrigues you, you oughta check it out.
Oh yeah, it's also got a brilliant titular line, which is given during the prologue telling us about the tomb which will soon be invaded. It goes something like, `Those who violate this tomb will die on the dawn of the mummy!' Now that is awesome.
Rating: 
Summary: Only for true fans of bad movies.
Review: One thing I seriously do not like is a page of reviews recommending that I buy a bad movie. I bought the DVD of 'Dawn of the Mummy' only to be seriously disappointed. I can take bad acting, a dumb plot, and even poor make-up effects; but not when it is this boring. This is the story of an archeologist who ignores the warnings of the locals regarding a tomb he blasts open and the models who discover his dig and think it would be an ideal place for a shoot (every fashion models dream). At least when the mummy finally rises (which takes way too long) the pace picks up; alas, not the same for the intelligence of the script. There are of course scenes that are just outright laughable: one where the mummy is after one of the models as she keeps running at a good pace as the mummy walks slowly after her and she is still not able to outrun him: another is a meat cleaver to an obviously fake head. If someone likes bad movies, they may well like this. This is not a 'Classic' and certainly not something I would irresponsibly recommend to others.-Bob
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