Dawn of the Mummy (1981)

(In French, On Cable TV, February 2022) Let me be clear and unrepentant when I say that I have no objection whatsoever to nudity in movies aimed at adults—sometimes, it’s the only element saving the film from loathing and dismissal. So, in the opening moments of Dawn of the Mummy, when an American photographer shows up in the Egyptian desert with two models eager to bare it all (although no farther than a bikini), you might as well enjoy it because it’s all downhill from there. After the usual shenanigans about ancient curses and such, the film takes a turn toward mummies behaving like zombies, some extreme gore and plenty of the usual monster movie scenes. Given this, the cute models and the Egyptian setting are all that distinguish writer-director Frank Agrama’s Dawn of the Mummy from many other Italian-style zombie films of the early 1980s. Considering that I happen to loathe that subgenre, well—desert landscapes and brief flashes of partial nudity will have to do as small compensation for having to sit through this.