Michael Delahoyde, PhD

Professor of English

Bram Stoker’s The Mummy

BRAM STOKER’S THE MUMMY (1997)


Notes: GoldbarEntertainment.
John Corbeck: Louis Gossett, Jr.
Margaret Trelawney: Amy Locane
Robert Wyatt: Eric Lutes
Sergeant Daw: Mark Lindsay-Chapman
Bryce Renard: Richard Karn
Abel Trelawney: Lloyd Buchner
Mary: Victoria Tennant

Produced: Harel Goldstein and Bill Barnett
Directed: Jeffrey Obrow
Written: Jeffrey Obrow
Music: Rick Cox.


Summary: “Egypt 1947. Valley of the Sorcerer.” A boy in anancient tomb witnesses a jewel thief scream and burn. “MarinCounty — Present Day.” Abel Trelawney pieces together stonefragments and a mummy wakes. Trelawney becomes comatose. Arthistorian / hobbyist Robert Wyatt meets Trelawney’s estrangeddaughter Margaret and an inspector, Sergeant Daw. Robert playsa tape in Trelawney’s study on which the old man has given explicitinstructions about the small key on his wrist remaining thereand two people being in the room with him at all times.

A maid begins to confess fears to Robert later,a cat acts weird, and the maid has a bloody doorknob illusion. Robert discovers an artifact and is conked. He speaks to BryceRenard, a museum curator, but is skeptical about curses: “”Don’tgive me that King Tut bullshit.” Bryce’s old professor insistedthat two eye gems were stolen and the thief burnt to a crisp.

Margaret dreams of her girlhood peek at daddy’smummy and has flashes of an ancient Egyptian ritual. She wasborn at the Cairo Hilton, but her mother died a couple days later. A pious Christian housekeeper left alone in the room with Trelawneyis mutilated, and a would-be journal thief is killed in the basement.

Robert tracks down John Corbeck, the deep know-it-allformer expedition leader and partner of Trelawney. We flash backto the late 1960s and the forbidden entry into the tomb of QueenTara, who was unpopular with the high priests but knew of theplot to kill her. She had herself mummified but swore she’d beback.

Bryce tells Robert that Corbeck, after thisexpedition, went crackers and started trying to mummify people. A mummy attacks Bryce and snaps off his fingers. Bryce burns. Robert tries to wake Margaret but he rolls over a corpse. Thenhe wakes up, having dreamt this. Bryce brings a scarab artifactand is partly hypnotized by Margaret. Later he tries to warnthe household and is electrocuted in a phone booth. A sleazyguy named Jimmy has a key to Trelawney’s secret safe and stealsa gem. He is later strangled in the cellar with a bandage anddragged off. The house trembles and bleeds, and Corbeck claimsTara is holding Trelawney ransom so that she might come back tolife.

Margaret has an episode of possession and attacksSergeant Daw. Corbeck and Robert dig up pieces of mummies, lookingfor a key to the tomb where they subsequently move everythingnecessary for a ritual. They also bring a seven-sided ruby whichreflects seven stars. There are seven fingers on the slowly unwrappedhand of the mummy. Margaret is possessed. Sergeant Daw is scratchedand dies in bug-swarmed quicksand in the basement.

Tara, partially unwrapped, is still fresh. The jewels and heavens align. Robert tries to stop the proceedings,but Corbeck is power-crazy. Tara strangles him. A strobe illuminatesan incomprehensible scene of Margaret.

Margaret and Robert are now bidding a cheerygood-bye to a revived Abel. On their honeymoon, Robert noticesseven scratches and Margaret starts acting weird.


Commentary: There is no such thing as Bram Stoker’s The Mummy. Thisis a loose adaptation of Stoker’s The Jewel of the Seven Stars,with lots of “mummy” added in order to come up witha title to capitalize on the trend to attribute films to nineteenth-centuryauthors.

The Stoker original is no great shakes, andneither is this film, despite the bandaged one’s cameos. There’sno real focus here whatsoever and no reason to care what happens. So once again we have themes of forbidden tomb entry, curses,ritualistic revivification, and possession, but all aswirl inwhat is finally another fairly incoherent mummy text.


Mummy Films
Mummies