The Monstrefact Redux: The Mummy

In this classic episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the undead mummies of horror cinema and where they emerge from in modern Egyptomania… (originally published 10/25/2023)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lambin. This is the Monster Fact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.
In this episode, I like to discuss one of the
classic monster icons of twentieth century horror cinema, the Undead Mummy.

(00:32):
You've all encountered some variation on this monster before, if
not in the original six part Universal Pictures Mummy franchised,
then perhaps in nineteen eighty seven's The Monster Squad or
nineteen nineties Tales from the Dark Side, the movie which
has a very memorable adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
Lot two forty nine, which I'll touch on again in

(00:52):
a bit. For my own part, I fondly remember reading
a pair of kids books from the late eighties and
nineties when I was a child, by Alita E. Young,
Terror in the Tomb of Death and Returned to the
Tomb of Death, both of which featured undead mummies and
ancient Egyptian curses. Now, to properly understand mummy horror fiction

(01:14):
in general, we have to recognize its place within the
larger world of Egyptomania. The term Egyptomania is more often
used to refer specifically to nineteenth century European fascination with
all things Egypt in the wake of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign,
but it can also generally be leveled at different points
in time when various cultures have pursued an interest in

(01:36):
ancient Egyptian civilization and culture. In the excellent book Egyptomania,
author Ronald H. Fritz discusses various forms of Egyptomania over
the ages, from the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans to
Europeans and afrocentrist movements. He also devotes a chapter to
Hollywood movies and literature. He writes that Egyptian themed fiction

(01:59):
in its current forms emerged during the nineteenth century, again
after Napoleon's campaign in Egypt inspired a new surge in
European Egyptomania, surplanting Egypt's smaller place in the European culture
of the time period, where it was mostly relegated to
its role in Shakespearean theater, freemasonry, and sporadic fictional treatments.

(02:21):
Fritz writes that Egyptian themed fiction basically falls into a
number of subgenres. There's historical fiction, biblical fiction, mysteries and thrillers,
occult fiction, and yes, there is the mummy fiction. But
where does the idea of undead mummified ancient Egyptians come
from in all of this? Well, the nineteen thirty two

(02:42):
universal horror movie The Mummy might seem like a good
place to start, after all, it kicked off a rather
influential franchise, but Fritz shares that early versions of the
script didn't feature an undead mummy at all. This settlement
was only added later in subsequent rewrites. Unlike Dracula and Frankenstein,
the Mummy frame was not rooted in a particular work

(03:02):
of literature, Though there are clear literary forbears, nineteen thirty
two is The Mummy wasn't even the first mummy motion picture.
Consider instead that the likes of nineteen eleven's The Mummy,
in which a scientist revives an Egyptian mummy with electricity
and then falls in love with her sadly lost, is
just one of a flurry of silent mummy movies from

(03:26):
the nineteen tens. As for literary sources, Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's short stories The Ring of Thoth eighteen ninety and
Lot Number two forty nine eighteen ninety two are important
to note, as is Brahm Stoker's The Jewel of the
Seven Stars from nineteen oh three. Fritz singles out The
Mummy or a Tale of the twenty second Century by

(03:49):
Jane C. Loudon from eighteen twenty seven as the earliest
long work concerning a reanimated mummy. Other early examples of
reanimated mummy story include Theophile Gottner's The Mummy's Foot and
Edgar Allen Poe's eighteen forty five story Some Words with
a Mummy. These stories, according to Fritz, arise in general

(04:11):
again out of nineteenth century Egyptomania, but also out of
European and American fascination with mummies and mummy unwrapping parties.
In particular. He also writes that we can't underestimate Victorian
colonial guilt and misgivings about the desecration of Egyptian tombs
and artifacts as a strong motivation for summoning so many

(04:31):
tales in which over eager American and European archaeologists on
Earth ancient tombs ancient curses and invoked the wrath of
the untead. In fact, he points out that initially mummy
stories cast archaeologists firmly in the role of villains, but
then the needle moved in the opposite direction quote after

(04:52):
the discovery of Tutenkammen's tomb nineteen twenty two. Thanks to
the film industry, archaeologists were portrayed as heroic, scholarly adventures,
while angry mummies were not avengers but the revived, corporeal
forms of a mindless ancient evil. This shift is in
effect an affirmation or vindication of imperialism and colonialism. On

(05:15):
top of all of this, there's, of course the influence
of pre existing tales of cursed objects and the unsettled dead,
which would have found new life in Egyptomania fuel creations.
These various elements all would seem to have contributed to
the undead mummy's place in our horror fiction. Tune in

(05:36):
for additional episodes of The Monster Fact or The Artifact
each week. As always, you can email us at contact
at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from My Heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.