Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy (2000)

'You may be surprised to learn that the Aztec religion is alive and well and being practiced today.' Perhaps the slowest-paced trudge-around-the-campus since the similarly-plotted Time Walker, this is an entirely pointless Aztec mummy effort from the prolific but rarely-interesting David DeCoteau. Class nerd Norman (Trent Latta), last of a line of Tlaloc-worshipping high priests, raises a tubby mummy (Anton Falk) – who, despite the subtitle, is completely mute - from the dead to slaughter his obnoxious classmates ('Me an Norman have this understanding,' says the crass jock, 'he's under, and I'm standing'), planning to climax with the sacrifice of virgin Stacey (Ariauna Albright), which will somehow end the world.

The film consists entirely of a handful of poor actors wandering about a couple of university buildings in dead of night during an endless thunder-and-lightning-but-no-rain storm, occasionally blundering into the knife-wielding mummy. In the end, Norman's scheme is thwarted because the hero (Jeff Peterson) stamps flat a bracelet. The score works overtime to add ominousness, with assorted chant and moans. Sold on video in the UK as a sequel to the unrelated, Stoker-derived Legend of the Mummy.
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

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