Seven Mummies is a strange title for a movie. At first glance, one might assume it is a modern mummy movie, but in reality, it’s a take on the Western ghost town genre popularized in films like Ghost Town (1988), Phantom Town (1997), or Purgatory (1999). Oh, and if you want to check out my other essays, I have a more comprehensive catalog of Weird Westerns there.
Of all the films mentioned above, it is evident that Seven Mummies has taken inspiration from the Rodriguez/Tarantino collaboration called From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Both movies start with a group of criminals being chased by the cops in a long chase that puts them at the borders of Mexico. Undoubtedly, I need to say that the movie makes Seven Mummies incredibly boring to watch, as it is very clearly imitating an incredibly popular and frantic film such as From Dusk Till Dawn. This specific movie makes the comparison quite blatant because of the involvement of Robert Rodriguez, who repeatedly casts the character of Danny Trejo in his films.
Another work of Carpenter would spring to mind here, which was The Fog of 1980, which was itself remade as The Fog of 2005 around the same time as Seven Mummies came out, and has its band of zombified undead guarding a treasure of gold and slaughtering anyone that ventures close.
When I was writing this, Seven Mummies was ranked quite high on the IMDB Bottom 100 List. I must confess, I did not find it all that bleak. At best, it appears a movie that has no redeeming qualities. There is no actual story, and the movie does not transcend the very basis of people running away from zombies in a forsaken western village, and there are about sixty minutes of footage out of the eighty-minute running time. Even at that, the zombies are very nebulous the seven mummies are shown preparing for a battle at the end, and the rest of the undead in the town are never identified. The most grating thing is that, despite the name, the seven mummies have nothing to do with the plot, which is the single most important captive voice in the production.
Quested as a director is competent enough, but I don’t think he has brought us to a place where we are on the edge of our seats. The climax is quite humorous as the mummies do eventually appear and Billy Wirth and Cerina Vincent fight them but it is rather ridiculous that the mummies are turned into martial arts performers (and Quested had brought in a bunch of Hong Kong choreographers for this purpose).
To the film’s advantage, it has one cast of familiar faces that it employs quite well. Although not top-billed, Billy Wirth is effectively the hero of the show and to my surprise, he still looks impossibly handsome, aged at 43. Billy Drago demonstrates to be worth his reputation and paycheck as he acts his head off in typical Drago fashion. Former action star Martin Kove also made a cameo as the saloon owner and to my surprise, HE still appeared to be in his prime.
This review does highlight the improvement that the movie can benefit from. Nick Quested as a director has made some music videos and documentaries before so he is a tad bit versatile. Mostly he is a producer and he heads Goldcrest Films.
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