The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 22, 2020

Note: Mill Creek has released 'The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb' as part of a twenty film Hammer Horror collection and shares a disc with The Revenge of Frankenstein. The two films were previously released in a two pack. This film features identical video and a new lossless soundtrack. Unlike 'Revenge,' which included a commentary track, there are no new (and no returning) extras for this film.

The year is 1900. The place is Egypt. Several archeologists (played by Jack Gwillim, Ronald Howard, and Bernard Rebel) discover a find of a lifetime: a sarcophagus containing a mummy. The American who financed the expedition (played by Fred Clark) orders the find returned to London in order to monetize public displays. But things begin to go awry when it seems the mummy inside has returned to life, bent on killing those who have interrupted its slumber.

The movie banks on real-world mythology, anticipation, fear of the unknown, and general horror to terrify, and entertain, audiences. It works to an extent. The movie is a crude -- sometimes limp, lame, and tired, but usually halfway enjoyable -- entertainer with a few tricks up its sleeve. It's not particularly scary, at least not by today's standards, though a few boundaries are pushed and several squeamish moments pop up on the screen. It's a bit slow out of the gate and on through the beginning parts of the second act, but it picks up rhythm and even some intensity as it moves forward. Production values are fair and performances are solid enough given the relative dearth of legitimate characterization. Hardly the jewel of the Hammer collection, the film nevertheless makes for passable, lazy day throwback entertainment and serves as a decent lower-rung baseline for what to expect from the company.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This release of The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb appears to use the same transfer from the 2016 issue. That is unlike The Revenge of Frankenstein, with which this film shared a disc then and now, which features slightly tweaked color timing. Below is a recreation of the video review from the 2016 disc:

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb doesn't look particularly bad on Blu-ray...nor does it look particularly good. Mill Creek's middling 1080p presentation handles the basics well enough. Color saturation is fair, even if the image lacks real, serious punch. Gold plated and colorfully jewel-adorned sarcophagi look nice enough, sparkling rather nicely and revealing the punchiest colors the movie has to offer. Otherwise, the palette is rather straightforward, maybe a hint bland, but with enough vitality to scrape by. Details fare just ok as well. Definition holds firm enough for the duration, with those historical artifacts and sarcophagi showing off a good bit intimate texturing, while rougher surfaces around the frame show enough raw definition to please. Faces and clothes aren't insanely complex, but the image presents them well enough. A light grain structure hovers atop the image, but so too does noise and occasionally heavy macroblocking. Skin tones appear neutral and blacks occasionally, but not detrimentally, push a little light. Overall, this is a fair image, but nothing to be too terribly excited about.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For this Blu-ray, Mill Creek has upgraded, or perhaps better stated updated, the soundtrack from lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 to lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The new lossless presentation brings an uptick to fidelity but there's simply not much the encode can do for the dated sound design. It's certainly not a dramatic, transformative experience next to the older lossy soundtrack, particularly as it retains the same channel count, but listeners can except a modest boost to detail for all elements, including music and various effects, from fistfight punches to boat horns. The track offers pleasant spacing off to the sides, refusing to push all of its elements into a center-imaged position. It only stretches out as necessary, not at all times, leaving light underlying score more in the middle, and dialogue of course, but it's capable of some side reach as the scene and the sound elements permit. In fact, dialogue imaging is so well done it nearly fools the listener into believing a center channel is active. This is a solid listen at its core, nothing remarkable but it serves the movie well by offering modest upticks in definition over its predecessor.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release, as part of the Hammer Horror Collection, contains no supplements. Neither did the 2016 issue.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's not much new here. The lossless soundtrack adds a touch more fidelity to the experience but the channel configuration remains the same. This presentation holds to the so-so 1080p picture and includes no extras.