this is my 100th review, and I wanted to do a movie that was a hundred years old. I had planned to do the Cabinet of dr. Caligari, but got sidetracked. The oldest movie I've ever attempted to watch is Nosferatu, which I didn't really enjoy that much. I'm sure if I watched it again I might get some enjoyment out of it but that first viewing for me was very... Plain.
This was,of course, the first Universal monster movie I have ever seen. The feels someone special after how much I enjoyed the mummy. I truly expected to be bored but I was pleasantly surprised. The version I have looks more like it was shot in 1962 than 1932. The Twilight Zone has a very Charming 1950s kind of feel, and this film has an equally Charming 1930s feeling.
The way they shoot mummy in this movie is absolutely amazing. We only see small parts of him at a time. First to see his head is his eyes slowly roll open. The next time we see him it's just a hand, and the next time we see it it's just a few loose bandages is being dragged off around a corner. The hand is ancient and rotted, and the effect looks amazing. They made an ancient mummy that looks like he's been dead for 37000 years.
The setting is equally Charming, Egypt in the 1930s is just plain old fun. It has a lot of The Twilight Zone over the top acting as well, and great characters. The soundtrack also really works for the movie. It's mostly just orchestras, but it's when they choose not to have a soundtrack in the darker scenes that is really spooky. , if all Universal monster movies are as good as this one, I see why people love them so much.
10/10
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