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In the pantheon of great movie monsters, the mummy has a strange history. There aren’t nearly as many mummy movies as there are werewolf movies, zombie movies, or Frankenstein monster movies, and yet mummy movies predate all those other genres, going back at least as far as Georges Méliès’ “Robbing Cleopatra’s Tomb,” way back in 1899.
What’s more, movies about mummified remains have been weirdly successful, spawning multiple hit motion picture franchises, and spanning a variety of genres. There are scary films about killer mummies, family films about friendly mummies, comedy films about wacky mummies, and dead serious films about the moral vacuum created when people steal corpses for profit.
So while you may have a specific image in your head about what a mummy movie looks like — and there’s at least a 90% chance it’s got a young Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in it — there’s a lot more to mummy films than most people realize. Some of the very best are strange, esoteric, and obscure. But they almost all stem from our ongoing fascination with ancient burial rituals, and the conflict that stems from the colonialist belief that history, even sacred history, is just the western world’s for the taking.
10. ‘Tales from the Darkside: The Movie’ (1990)
George A. Romero’s 1982 anthology horror movie “Creepshow” was such a smash hit it almost became a television series. But the rights to the title weren’t available, so Romero produced “Tales from the Darkside” instead. The series ran for nearly 100 episodes, and was popular enough to get its own anthology movie a couple years later. “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” opens with an old-fashioned mummy story, starring Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore and Christian Bale, about a college student who raises an ancient corpse from the dead to exact revenge on his classmates.
The stellar cast and classy direction, courtesy of John Harrison — who also directed the Emmy-winning TV mini-series adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” — make it a standout short mummy flick. (Even though the film’s second chapter, “The Cat from Hell,” is the best of bunch.)
9. ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ (2026)
Lee Cronin’s “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” — which we have to write like that, since “Lee Cronin’s” is technically part of the title — is probably the goriest mummy movie on record. Jack Reynor and Laia Costa play Americans working in Cairo, whose daughter is kidnapped and mysteriously turns up eight years later, inside a sarcophagus. When they take the girl home, they gradually realize she’s possessed by a demonic spirit, which tears their whole family apart. Literally. It’s a bit long and plays more like an “Evil Dead” movie than a mummy movie (a lot more, if we’re being honest), but it’s a proper shockfest, with memorable gore and demented showmanship.
8. ‘The Monster Squad’ (1987)
Fred Dekker’s “The Monster Squad,” co-written by future Hollywood super-screenwriter Shane Black, is about a group of young kids who love horror movies. So when the classic Universal Monsters arrive in town, on a mission to open the portal to hell, they’re the only people equipped to shoot them down, blow them up, and in the case of the particularly terrifying mummy, unravel it with a bow and arrow in the middle of a high speed car chase.
The only reason “The Monster Squad,” a classic of the 1980s latchkey kid genre if there ever was one, ranks so low is that the Mummy (Michael Reid MacKay) gets less screen time than Dracula (Duncan Regehr), the Wolfman (Jon Gries) and the Frankenstein Monster (Tom Noonan). Those other monsters steal the movie, and they do so with relish, but the Mummy has his moments and they’re memorable as hell.
7. ‘The Eternal’ (1998)
Michael Almereyda’s “The Eternal” is a rarity in the mummy genre, since it has nothing to do with ancient Egypt. Instead, Jared Harris and Alison Elliott star as Jim and Nora, alcoholic parents who drag their young son back to Nora’s old home in Ireland, where her bizarre Uncle Ferriter (Christopher Walken) has unearthed the mummified remains of a Druid witch, who was preserved within a bog. She comes to life and tries to steal Nora’s body and soul.
This probably sounds like a straightforward mummy film — change of scenery be damned — but that’s not how Almereyda films it. Just like “Nadja,” his 1994 cult vampire classic, “The Eternal” is a strange indie character piece with hangout vibes, spacey editing and bizarre performances. Harris and Elliott are particularly magnificent as charismatic drunks, on the verge of hitting rock bottom but having too good a time to notice. It’s bad enough that a mummy is trying to kill you. On top of it all, your would-be protectors are completely sauced, which adds odd dimensions to an otherwise conventional horror concept.
6. ‘The Mummy’ (1959)
Hammer Studios was on a mission in the mid-20th century, updating the classic Universal Horror monsters with new, colorful, violent, sensual filmmaking. Terence Fisher’s “The Mummy” isn’t their best by a long shot but it’s a memorable, handsome retelling of the classic tale. Peter Cushing plays an archaeologist whose family is targeted for extermination, mummy style, after his father plunders a forbidden tomb. Christopher Lee plays the title monster and George Pastell plays the Egyptian controlling him, who also gives Cushing hell for the racist, colonialist views the west uses to justify stealing from other cultures. Then he tries to kill him outright, using a mummy as a murder weapon.
5. ‘Under Wraps’ (1997)
Don Rhymer’s “Under Wraps” is in the history books as the first Disney Channel Original Movie, which is balderdash, since there were a lot of original movies that debuted on the Disney Channel before that. “Under Wraps” just happened to be the first one that was officially labeled a “Disney Channel Original Movie.” But don’t hold that against it. This family-friendly film about a group of kids who accidentally find a mummy, who turns out to be a really nice guy, is a lot cleverer, funnier, and — compared to modern Disney films, at least — a heck of a lot edgier than you’d ever expect.
The mummy is played by future “SpongeBob SquarePants” co-star Bill Fagerbakke, so fans will instantly recognize the unmistakable, adorable voice of Patrick Star. “Under Wraps” was remade in 2021, and the remake had its own sequel, but the original is the real classic.
4. ‘The Mummy’ (1932)
The first Universal “Mummy” movie was, if we’re being completely honest, a bit of a rehash of Tod Browning’s game-changing horror classic “Dracula,” this time starring “Frankenstein’s” breakout star, Boris Karloff. But in many ways it’s a better film than “Dracula,” generating more sympathy for the immortal title creature and making the love story between a mummy and the woman he loves more complicated and tragic. Karloff is also genuinely haunting, and director Karl Freund knows exactly how to film his penetrating gaze.
“The Mummy” spawned a long-running franchise: five additional films, including the wacky “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy” in 1955. But none of the sequels hold a candle to the original, a moody and macabre horror staple which still has the power to hypnotize today.
3. ‘The Mummy’ (1999)
The sexiest mummy movie, by a long shot, stars Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser as gorgeous adventurers searching for ancient Egyptian artifacts. When they accidentally awaken the undead sorcerer Imhotep, played by the frequently shirtless Arnold Vosloo, he unleashes the plagues of Egypt.
Stephen Sommers got the right cast and spent the money in the right places, crafting a handsome Hollywood blockbuster epic with memorable heroes and villains. The CGI is awfully dated — and was never particularly convincing to begin with — but that’s a forgivable sin. “The Mummy” isn’t just one of the best mummy movies, it’s one of the best “Indiana Jones” knockoffs, and that’s a subgenre with even more serious competition.
2. ‘The Night of Counting the Years’ (1969)
Not every mummy movie is a horror movie, or has anything to do with the supernatural. The Egyptian neo-realist classic “The Night of Counting the Years” is a grim and fascinating drama about the people of Kurna, who rob their own culture’s graves to sell on the black market. When two brothers uncover their family’s terrible secret, they’re torn by the moral consequences, and have to choose between supporting their family and accepting their desperate acts, or trying to stop them from defiling the dead.
“The Night of Counting the Years” was the only narrative feature film directed by Shadi Abdel Salam, a filmmaker who made documentaries and short subjects, and also worked in production design and costume design for Egyptian period pieces. His fascination with history, attention to detail, and complex conversation about the Egyptian national identity comes through in nearly every frame of “The Night of Counting the Years,” which was Egypt’s Academy Awards submission for 1970. (Sadly, it wasn’t nominated.)
1. ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ (2002)
The best mummy movie ever made is also arguably the weirdest. Bruce Campbell stars as Elvis Presley, who switched places with an impersonator and was unable to prove his identity after the impersonator died. Now he’s stuck in an old folks home with a man who claims to be John F. Kennedy, played by the iconic Ossie Davis. Neither of these strange people believes the other’s story but together they team up to stop a mummy from sucking the life out of the elderly people in their community.
Yeah, it’s weird. Really weird. But writer/director Don Coscarelli — who built his career on the “Phantasm” movies, which were also supernatural ruminations on the mysteries of death — finds it all so very beautiful and tragic. Based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, “Bubba Ho-Tep” is an eccentric but earnest horror comedy about the end of life, in serious and ridiculous ways, culminating in a dramatic finale that actually brings tears to your eyes.
