31 Days of Horror Reviews 2018: The Mummy's Hand

The Mummy’s Hand is a soft reboot of the Karloff Classic.

REVIEW

Instead of Imhotep, the mummy is Kharis and has been kept alive for 3,000 by a special brew of tana leaves for the sole purpose of guarding the tomb of Princess Ananka. It’s stated that if Kharis gets nine tana leaves, he’ll go on a killing spree. He’s watched over by a long line of priests that pass down the duty to a young priest before the previous passes on. The young priest that is charged at the beginning of the film is named Andoheb and is the villain of the film.

The heroes are a comical duo named Steve Banning and Babe Jensen; it’s kind of funny to see this in a Universal film before the Abbot and Costello Meet the Monsters film series. There are plenty of funny moments but the comedy gets really good when a magician named the Great Solvani joins in and agrees to fund the expedition to find Princess Ananka’s tomb. His daughter Marta tags along under the pretense that Steve and Babe are con artists. They find the tomb of Kharis much to their disappointment, but they remain optimistic. Andoheb sneaks in the camp and gives Kharis nine tana leaves fluid bringing him to life and ordering him to kill the explorers. Kharis abducts Marta and taken to a temple in the mountains where Andoheb plans to make her and him immortal, but his stopped before he can do anything and Kharis is incinerated.

This is actually pretty entertaining and a decent monster movie. The design of Kharis is very impressive and the black eyes do add to the creepy dead factor. The comedy is not overly used nor is it forced. I was expecting something along the lines of The Three Stooges and got Shaun of the Dead. It still makes good use of some dramatic lighting and impressive sets.

The one thing that stood out to me was how much this felt like the Brendan Fraser The Mummy movies. It has a guy who wears a fez that is part of ancient organization that guards the dead and tries to destroy evidence that leads archaeologists to the site. On top of that, it has a mixture of horror and comedy. So while that movie may use the names and plot points from the 1932 classic, its style and tone comes from The Mummy’s Hand.