Oct 21, 2019
NARRATOR: “Welcome back to Reign of Terror 2019! 31 straight days of horror movie reviews and interviews. Today’s episode will feature the cast of Dice Tower Theatre, who will be reviewing the 1932 classic ‘The Mummy’, starring Boris Karloff. A promo will run before the review.”
NARRATOR: “But for now, let’s turn out attention back to the fate of our host, in Part Three of “WORLD WITHOUT COLOR”.”
SCENE: Pyramid Dig Site
NARRATOR: “When we last left Joseph, he had snuck his way into a party of spectral individuals, ducking into an Egyptian themed attraction. His pursuer, a mysterious, ruggedly handsome individual, was unable to follow him, and rather than confront this new character, Joseph merged with the party ahead of him, through a tunnel covered in hieroglyph wallpaper, until a light appeared at the end of the tunnel, emerging into the interior of a large tent.”
MIKE: “It was at that point, a new narrator took over.”
NARRATOR: “Not again.”
MIKE: “One who knew the intricacies of this particular party, and could guide this adventure in the right direction.”
NARRATOR: “Now, see here.”
BRIAN: “I say, old chap, take a look at these artifacts on this table.”
JORDAN: “Yes, very exquisite.”
JOLEEN: “Gentlemen, who exactly is this individual?”
MIKE: “The group turned to look at Joseph, who immediately looked away in surprise, noticing he was now dressed in desert fatigues from the turn of the century.”
CARA: “Why, I’m not sure. Identify yourself.”
MIKE: “Brian walked over to the tent entrance, to block any escape.”
BRIAN: “Must have been someone who spawned in with us.”
MIKE: “Unfortunately, Brian would learn the fate of breaking character during this session, when a rag wrapped monster grabbed him from outside the tent and dragged him outside.”
BRIAN: “Oh, come on! I barely got to play.”
MIKE: “Life could be cruel, sometimes.”
NARRATOR: “Nice one.”
MIKE: “Thanks.”
MIKE: “The event, of course, just spurred the group into action, running outside the tent to see where Brian had gone. They stared at a single pair of footsteps, heading towards an immense pyramid in the distance.”
JOLEEN: “We should follow these, to see if we can still save Brian. And you, whomever you are, you’re going to help.”
JOSEPH: “Ummm, sure.”
MIKE: “The group hurried towards the pyramid in the distance, making surprisingly great time considering the sandy path, following the tracks around to an entrance hidden by a boulder. What will the group do?”
JOLEEN: “I say we enter the pyramid.”
JORDAN: “I agree.”
CARA: “I should probably roll to look for traps.”
MIKE: “And at that point, a giant albatross covered the sun overhead, before diving down and snatching Cara from the desert, to be carried off screaming towards the horizon, never to be seen again.”
CARA: “Lame.”
MIKE: “The remaining two looked to Joseph.”
JOSEPH: “Sure, let’s go below and not get snatched up by the giant bird.”
MIKE: “The group turned and entered the pyramid, stepping down into a path narrowing as they moved further into the structure.”
JOLEEN: “Be careful. Ancient tombs tend to have traps and curses about them.”
JORDAN: “Oh, don’t worry. I have a +2 charm of protection, which...”
MIKE: “...was absolutely no effect against a huge spike that ejected from the wall, immediately killing Jordan and pinning his body against the wall."
JORDAN: “Are you serious?!”
MIKE: “Which left just the two of them.”
JOLEEN: “What say you?”
JOSEPH: “As little as possible from the looks of things.”
NARRATOR: “What? You’re not going to kill him for that?”
MIKE: “I’ll allow it.”
JOLEEN: “But that’s not fair...”
MIKE: “Said Joleen as another spike ejected from the wall, which also pinned here against the wall, leaving her just enough time before she died to say...”
JOLEEN: “Great. Now some rando’s getting all the treasure. This is...”
MIKE: “The fate of adventurers in a cruel, cruel world, seeking treasure beyond their wildest dreams. But now, before Joseph, the passage keeps narrowing, and the light from outside begins to dim. What will you do, Joseph?”
JOSEPH: “I guess I keep going forward?”
MIKE: “And so he did, leading to a vital piece of information, which was that...”
NARRATOR: “And then suddenly, the other narrator was gone, because this story doesn’t need two narrators. Or is that three? Clearly too many. And now, we’re left with just Joseph, as he proceeds further and further into the dark, unknown passage.”
JOSEPH: “I guess I should be glad I didn’t run into...”
NARRATOR: “Oh yeah, and a mummy totally entered the passage behind him, beginning to chase him down the corridor.”
JOSEPH: “You bastard! More running?”
NARRATOR: “Where would he end up? Find out tomorrow in Part Four of “WORLD WITHOUT COLOR”, which will feature Nathan Gibbons of The One Where Show, reviewing this year’s ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’.”
/////
<< DICE TOWER THEATRE PROMO >>
/////
Today’s movie is “The Mummy” (1932), the Horror film directed by Karl Freund and written for the screen by Nina Wilcox Putnam, Richard Schayer and John L. Balderston. A classic story of ancient Egypt involving love, crime, and death. Starring Boris Karloff as the Mummy, Zita Johann as Helen Grosvenor, and David Manners as Frank Whemple. Even though it’s an 87-year-old movie that spawned a slew of derivatives and remakes you may have heard of, we wish to warn you there are...
Spoilers ahead!
MIKE: “I'm Mike Atchley.”
JESSICA: “I'm Jessica Atchley.”
STORMY: “I'm Stormy Cone.”
JORDAN: “I'm Jordan Thompson.”
ARIANA: “I'm Arianna Atchley.”
MIKE: “Today we watched ‘The Mummy’ with Boris Karloff.”
JESSICA: “I was very impressed at the throwback to the true nature of theater.”
MIKE: “Did you see any costume changes between twenty-one and thirty-two? Time periods. Do you see any changes in their costume?”
STORMY: “I don't know.”
ARIANA: “It's cuz of the mummy.”
MIKE: “Oh, the Mummy made a costume change.”
STORMY: “Well, he did. That is right.”
MIKE: “He cleaned up nice too. Yeah.”
ARIANA: “And when only his hands showed up, it was different.”
STORMY: “And you can see he has, like, the makeup on his face. It's very subtle.”
MIKE: “That's right.”
STORMY: “So, it just makes him look papery.”
JESSICA: “Yeah.”
ARIANA: “I think it’s toilet paper.”
MIKE: “One-ply toilet paper and some spirit gum.”
STORMY: “Yes.”
JESSICA: “Yeah.”
MIKE: “When the mummy was in the museum, and he was doing the ritual...”
STORMY: “Yeah.”
MIKE: “Right. And he had that lamp. In that lighting that was illuminating his face as he's going through all that. You see how it was cast in the shadows when she reacts to it. That interaction that's happening between the two... that really shows... that theater... that you can see where it came from a stage almost. Put with film. Film was less of the point. Its more the story was the point.”
STORMY: “Yeah.”
JORDAN: “I thought I would be scared a lot more. It's just not... it's not really there. It's more of... Imhotep trying to find his princess. Less of him trying to kill everybody. I think one of the cool things is they did this skip in years. And they don't show you how he comes to look like a human. It leaves a lot to the imagination of... Did he unbandage, and he looks like a mummy, and then had to kill people? Because we know of the Brendan Fraser version where you know he has to kill people.”
MIKE: “Yeah.”
JORDAN: “To take pretty much, like, their essence and to become human. And so they kind of skipped that whole period.”
JESSICA: “Human essence equals Oil of Olay. There you go.”
JORDAN: “OK. So it's really... it's cool that they skip that and makes you wonder how did he come to look as he does now. And the fact that he had somebody had to chase him for him to kill somebody.”
MIKE: “There's an interesting fact about the flashback sequence. Well, there's a credit that bothered me. Talking about the Saxon warrior."
STORMY: “I saw that. Yeah.”
MIKE: “That was... the Saxons weren't at this time period. Yeah, there's the credit... Well, it turns out that they cut it, and it was supposed to show him chasing her spirit throughout time.”
STORMY: “Oh.”
MIKE: “Yeah. So yeah.”
STORMY: “That's really cool. That's a shame that got cut.”
MIKE: “That's pretty cool plot point.”
STORMY: “That's really interesting. That would have been a very, very cool thing to see.”
JORDAN: “But out of all of the deaths, the only one that actually shows blood was when they were killing the slave. Who...”
STORMY: “Yeah.”
JORDAN: “Who put the... help put the casket into the ground. Like, now that's the only time that showed any kind of blood was this poor slave dude. They just get speared.”
MIKE: “What made that acceptable?”
STORMY: “Yeah.”
MIKE: “I mean that's...”
STORMY: “Like, why was that suddenly cool?”
MIKE: “Exactly. Everything else pulled the motif we talked about earlier, and then, ’Oh, and here's this impalement.’ Right?”
JESSICA: “Yeah.”
MIKE: “That wasn't good times or... time period.”
JORDAN: “Time Period. Yeah.”
STORMY: “Also, I enjoyed the very musical style of the people falling in love. Just that it happened like, half of a second.”
MIKE: “Was like, frozen.”
JESSICA: “Yeah. Helen and Frank? Yeah, yeah. I kept thinking... I was like, ‘Okay. Is this, like, part of some weird spell?’”
STORMY: “The first time he said, ‘I love you’, I was like, ‘Oh, didn't you meet like, less than 24 hours ago? What is happening? I mean, she didn't mind. Glad you guys are on the same page, I guess.”
JESSICA: “I really dug it when, right at the end there, ahe was beseeching the statue of Isis to help her. And then Isis comes back and just totally smote Imhotep.”
STORMY: “Yeah, the hero of the story was Helen and Isis. The Brendan Fraser one I watched... that one, I was a little bit too young, and the scene when they mummify him in the... in that version scared me so bad. In this one, it was still like it might, just because I have, like, I already had the pre-fear of the other one. But him getting wrapped up like, once he was covering his mouth, I was actually like, ‘Oh, I don't like that back, then, wrapping up his face so he can't breathe, and then putting him in the casket.’ I was like, oh, fear from that. How really grotesque that Brendan Fraser one was.”
MIKE: “But, yeah. Overall, I had fun. I liked it.”
JESSICA: “Yeah.”
STORMY: “I like it too.”
JORDAN: “It was a really good movie. Really good movie.”
In conclusion, this masterpiece of the classic Universal Monsters still holds up today as a great movie. Proven to be a great way to explore the grim and the macabre. And yet, still retain the spirit of the stage with simply using atmosphere and mood. We recommend this as a great way to introduce the young and old alike to our beloved horror genre.
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 9.0/10
“The Mummy” (1932) is unrated and is available in many collections or streamed through Amazon, VUDU, Fandango and iTunes!
Thank you for listening, and Happy Halloween!