''Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy'', or simply ''Bram Stoker's The Mummy'', is a 1998 American

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

based on

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

's 1903 novel ''

The Jewel of Seven Stars ''The Jewel of Seven Stars'' is a horror novel by Irish writer Bram Stoker, first published by Heinemann in 1903. The story is a first-person narrative of a young man pulled into an archaeologist's plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptia ...

''. Directed by

Jeffrey Obrow Jeffrey Obrow is an American film director and a professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts. He has also produced many music videos with Propaganda Films Propaganda Films (stylized as PЯOPAGAИDA FILMS) was a production company founded in L ...

, who is one of the writers that adapted the novel for the film, it features an ensemble cast that includes

Louis Gossett Jr. Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (May 27, 1936 – March 29, 2024) was an American actor. He made his stage debut at the age of 17. Shortly thereafter, he successfully auditioned for the Broadway theatre, Broadway play ''Take a Giant Step.'' Gossett co ...

Eric Lutes Eric Lutes (born August 19, 1962) is an American actor, known for his roles as Del Cassidy on ''Caroline in the City'', Jerry Stanton in '' Switching Goals'', and Jake Carlson on ''So Little Time'' (which starred both Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley ...

Amy Locane Amy Locane is an American actress known for her role in John Waters' 1990 musical comedy ''Cry-Baby''. In 1992, Locane portrayed Sandy Harling in the first season of the prime time soap opera ''Melrose Place''. She appeared in the 1992 film ''Sch ...

Lloyd Bochner Lloyd Wolfe Bochner (July 29, 1924 – October 29, 2005) was a Canadian film, TV and voice actor. He appeared in many Canadian and Hollywood productions between the 1950s and 1990s, including the films '' Point Blank'' (1967), '' The Detecti ...

Victoria Tennant Victoria Tennant (born 30 September 1950) is a British actress. She is known for her roles in the TV miniseries '' The Winds of War'' and '' War and Remembrance'', in which she appeared as actor Robert Mitchum's on-screen love interest, Pamela T ...

Mary Jo Catlett Mary Jo Catlett (born September 2, 1938) is an American actress. She is a main cast member on the animated series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', providing the voice of Mrs. Puff. She is also known for originating the role of Ernestina in the 1964 Br ...

Aubrey Morris Aubrey Morris (born Aubrey Steinberg; 1 June 1926 – 15 July 2015) was a British actor known for his appearances in the films '' A Clockwork Orange'' and '' The Wicker Man''. Early life and career Morris was one of nine children born to Becky ...

, and

Richard Karn Richard Karn (born Richard Karn Wilson; February 17, 1956) is an American actor, author and former game show host. He starred as Home Improvement (TV series)#Characters, Al Borland in the ABC series ''Home Improvement (TV series), Home Improveme ...

. Morris previously appeared in '' Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'', a 1971

Hammer Films A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...

adaptation of the same novel.

Plot

Art historian Robert Wyatt is summoned to the house of his old flame, Margaret Trelawny. Her father, noted Egyptologist Abel Trelawny, was found in a coma in his study with claw marks on his wrist. Per his dictated wishes, Trelawny asks that he be kept in the room with his Egyptian artifacts with two witnesses at all times. Hoping to solve the mystery of Trelawny's case, Wyatt contacts Corbeck, an archaeologist who worked with Trelawny in the 1970s in uncovering the tomb of an Egyptian queen.

Cast

as Corbeck *

as Margaret Trelawny *

as Robert Wyatt * Mark Lindsay Chapman as Daw *

as Abel Trelawny *

as Mrs. Grant *

as Doctor Winchester * Laura Otis as Lily *

Julian Stone Julian Stone is a British actor. He has appeared extensively on the screen, guest-starring in many popular TV shows including ''Suburgatory'', ''Maron'', ''Castle'', ''Columbo'', ''Mad About You'', ''Baywatch'', and ''Babylon 5'', and was a reg ...

as Jimmy *

as Brice Renard *

Portia Doubleday Portia Doubleday is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Sheeni Saunders in the film ''Youth in Revolt'' (2009), Chris Hargensen in the film '' Carrie'' (2013), and as Angela Moss in the USA Network television drama ''Mr. Robo ...

as Young Margaret * Rachel Naples as Queen Tera * Donald Monet as Hutchins *

Kelly Perine Kelly Perine (born March 23, 1969) is an American television actor, writer, director, producer, and comedian. Early life and education Perine attended Lake Forest Academy, near Chicago, Illinois, where he studied stage acting. He spent his unde ...

as Keene *

as Mary

Production

was inspired adapt a classic horror novel to film after friend and colleague

Matthew W. Mungle Matthew W. Mungle (born October 26, 1956) is an American make-up artist. He has been nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Academy Award for Best Makeup, winning (as part of a three-person team) in 1992 for ...

won the

Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling is the Academy Awards, Academy Award given to the best achievement in makeup and hairstyling for film. Traditionally, three films have been nominated each year with exceptions in the early 1980s a ...

for his work on '' Bram Stoker's Dracula''. After some research, Obrow came across the novel ''

'' by

and decided the book would serve as the basis for his next film.

John Penney John Penney is an American film producer, screenwriter and director who has been working in the horror genre for over thirty years. He has created material for, and been involved in, a range of subgenres, including zombie movies ('' Return of th ...

wrote the initial adaptation, but due to scheduling conflicts Penney was unable to complete the script and Obrow finished it which would then be followed by a rewrite by Lars Hauglie. ''Bram Stoker's The Mummy'' is the fourth film adaptation of the 1903 novel ''The Jewel of Seven Stars'' by Bram Stoker, following the 1970

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

''The Curse of the Mummy'' (an installment of the TV series ''

Mystery and Imagination ''Mystery and Imagination'' is a British television anthology series of classic horror and supernatural dramas. Five series were broadcast from 1966 to 1970 by the ITV network and produced by ABC and (later) Thames Television. Outline The se ...

''), the 1971

production '' Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'', and the 1980 film '' The Awakening''. Obrow didn't watch any of the prior adaptations as he didn't want to let the prior works influence the direction of the film. Obrow attempted to pitch the film in 1994 but was met with disinterest from producers. After failing to secure financing, Obrow instead created a 10-minute promotional video utilizing some aspiring effects artists who worked under his colleagues from ''

The Kindred (1987 film) ''The Kindred'' is a 1987 American science fiction horror film directed by Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter. Obrow also produced the film, and co-wrote it along with Carpenter, Earl Ghaffari and John Penney. Starring David Allen Brooks, Am ...

'' as well as USC Film School students Obrow had taught a class on independent film. Hanel Goldstein and Bill Barnett at Goldbar Entertainment were impressed by Obrow's video and came on board to produce the film. Goldstein and Barnett financed the film through foreign pre-sales as well as partnering with home video distributor A-PIX Home Video.

Special effects

Effects artists Chad Washam and Chris Fording provided the special effects makeup for the film, which included a mummy prop built using a sculpted head, rubber hands, and a

spandex Spandex, Lycra, or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is a polyether- polyurea copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont. Name The name ''spandex'', which is an anagram of t ...

suit with cloth bandages glued to it; mechanical seven-fingered hands; shriveled face makeup; a baby mummy suit; and a

foam latex Foam latex or latex foam rubber is a lightweight form of latex containing bubbles known as cells, created from liquid latex. The foam is generally created though the Dunlop or Talalay process in which a liquid latex is foamed and then cured in a ...

chest appliance for a death scene. The effects crew also utilized "lots of dirt", with Washam noting, "This whole movie is dirty. We must have used over 100 pounds of the stuff."

Release

The film was released

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

on December 29, 1998 by A-Pix Entertainment on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and by Simitar Entertainment on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

Reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' gave the film a score of two out of five stars, writing that it "unearths a story familiar from classic

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...

and Hammer horror movies; unfortunately, this straight-to-video rendition of the tale has few chills, and pales in comparison to the originals." Alan Jones of the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

'' also awarded the film two out of five stars, and wrote that it "features the least believable Mummy make-up in horror history".

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * {{The Jewel of Seven Stars The Jewel of Seven Stars 1998 films 1998 fantasy films 1998 horror films 1990s supernatural horror films American fantasy films American supernatural horror films American direct-to-video films Direct-to-video horror films Films based on Irish novels Films based on horror novels Films based on works by Bram Stoker Mummy films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Jeffrey Obrow 1990s American films English-language horror films English-language fantasy films