When audiences head to theaters to watch Lee Cronin's The Mummy, they’ll be seeing a familiar story. The Evil Dead Rise director’s latest film is about a family’s young daughter who disappears in the desert, only to suddenly reappear eight years later. But “what should be a joyful reunion,” the official premise warns, “turns into a living nightmare.” One look at the movie’s poster, featuring the corpse-like girl wrapped in rune-inscribed bandages and the warning “some things are meant to stay buried,” makes the source of the problem obvious.
The film’s awkward title is a concession to the fact that Hollywood is making multiple mummy movies. A third sequel to the beloved Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz Mummy is slated for 2028, while Cronin’s film has been billed as a “reimagining” of the classic Universal Monster series. But those are just the tip of the pyramid. Mummies have appeared in countless films, books, and games, jumping out at everyone from Dungeons and Dragons players to Goosebumps readers. These fictional mummies are almost invariably hostile, as they seek revenge for having their eternal slumber disturbed. But … why? How did the image of a bandaged corpse doling out curses become a pop culture staple?
