Seven Mummies is a conceptual oddity. Though the title gives the impression that it is a modern mummy film, what we have is a variant of the Western ghost town concept that we have seen in films like Ghost Town (1988), Phantom Town (1997), and Purgatory (1999). (I have a more detailed list of Western/genre crossovers here with my essay Weird Westerns).
Although far more than any of these, Seven Mummies has borrowed its central plot and setup from the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino collaboration From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Both films start with a long extended getaway by criminals on the run from the forces of law and heading towards the Mexican border before the group inadvertently walks into a bar without realizing that it is inhabited by undead (although it is hard to tell if what is attacking the party here are vampires, zombies or what). Even aside from that, Seven Mummies makes the From Dusk Till Dawn connection direct in the casting of Robert Rodriguez regular Danny Trejo (who also appeared as Razor Charlie in From Dusk).
The other film that one was reminded of was John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), which was notedly remade as The Fog (2005) at the same time that Seven Mummies came out, with its group of zombified undead guarding a treasure of gold and killing all those who come near.
When I originally wrote this, Seven Mummies sat high on the Internet Movie Database’s Bottom 100 List. I must admit I didn’t find it that bad. At most, it seems a film that lacks anything remarkable. There is no particular plot, and the film never advances beyond the concept of characters running around an abandoned Western town pursued by undead, which takes up about 60 of the film’s 80 minutes running time. Even then the undead are vague the seven mummies make a brief appearance at the end but it is never specified who the other undead in the town are. The most annoying aspect is that, despite the title, the seven mummies are largely irrelevant to the film.
Nick Quested’s direction has a basic competence, although there is never any point where he has us holding on in suspense or jumping out of our seats. There is a very silly climax where the mummies finally do turn up and Billy Wirth and Cerina Vincent take them on in a fight sequence where the mummies rather absurdly turn into martial artists (with Quested having imported several Hong Kong choreographers for the express purpose).
To the film’s benefit, it has a cast of familiar faces that it uses reasonably well. Billy Wirth, though not top-billed, is effectively the hero of the show and still has the impossibly handsome looks (at age 43) that he showed as a young actor. Billy Drago proves worthy of his reputation and paycheque by acting his head off in typical Drago style. Now aging former action star Martin Kove also makes a brief appearance as a saloon owner.
Director Nick Quested has elsewhere directed music videos and documentaries. He is mostly a producer and the head of Goldcrest Films.
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