Today, I'm rewatching Bubba Ho-Tep for the first time since seeing it on the big screen in 2003.  In a retirement home in East Texas, Elvis and JFK have to stop a mummy that's sending their neighbors to an early checkout. Elvis is played by Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead movies.  JFK is played by Ossie Davis.   Yep. JFK thinks the mummy might be LBJ, come to kill him. It's a crazy little thing even with the standard horror film suspension.   The mummy is indeed an revived ancient Egyptian, the how not as critical as the why, though they do include a nod to "The Mummy's Hand" and Tanna Leaves. Directed by the creator of the Phantasm series, Don Coscarelli, Bubba Hotep has a little more humor than most mummy films (not talking about the Sommer's movies of course).

 I've postponed the Universal Mummy again, delayed gratification.  Today, I'm looking at the next best thing: 1959's The Mummy from Hammer Films. While this film borrows the title of the 1932 film, it practically strip mines the subsequent Universal films in the series, The Mummy's Hand, -Tomb and -Ghost (I'll be getting to them eventually). Kharis, priest of Karnak (a who here, rather than a where)  violates the tomb of Ananka in order to bring her back to life.  This doesn't go as planned and he's discovered and mummified alive to be her protector through eternity.  He's played by Christopher Lee, and is just as effective in the wrappings and silent as he is all priestly. In 1898, Kharis is reawaken by a British expedition that includes Peter Cushing.  And because of the way these things go, Cushings's wife looks JUST! LIKE! ANANKA! There's the standard British archeological grave robbing because of course there is, and while they take Ananka,

  When trying to figure which movie to start this project with, I entertained the idea of going to the classic, the one that started it all, the amazing 1932 Universal Pictures Boris Karloff movie The Mummy.  But I can watch that over and over again- it's a comfort movie for me. Dawn of the Mummy ended up being my first for the series because it's awful.  I realize that's not the best reason to choose it but I really, really never want to see it again. Ever. So I'm getting it out of the way now, moving on and never looking back Dawn of the Mummy uses the standard plot of grave robbers breaking into a lost tomb, awakening an ancient evil.   Because it's 1981, it's complicated with the addition of a group of models on a photoshoot.  They tumble upon the tomb and steamroll over the grave robbers and commandeer it for an exotic setting for their photos. It's validated by the fact that Dawn of the Mummy is actually filmed in Egypt (with an Egyptian writer/directo