Although I found Hammer’s remake of Universal’s 1932 horror classic to be a bit of an improvement over the rather stale, stately original, I didn’t find it particularly involving or interesting either. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are always welcome, and this time around the titular villain actually appears in mummy form (unlike Boris Karloff in the original), but somehow it all boils down to a slasher formula, at the risk of sounding reductive or flippant. It’s not that it’s bad, but it’s not great either. Recommended for fans of Hammer or horror cinema history, but unless you qualify as either, I’d recommend skipping it.
Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)
