The Legacy of The Mummy

This chapter highlights the legacy of The Mummy (1932). Ever since the 1930s, the plot elements and iconography of the film have been re-used, re-interpreted, and re-worked in myriad forms. Universal Pictures' follow-ups to The Mummy began eight years after the original film came out, by which time the studio's horror output had lost some of its spark from the early half of the 1930s. First came The Mummy's Hand in 1940, then The Mummy's Tomb in 1942 and The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse in 1944. Eventually, Britain's Hammer Films obtained full remake rights to the Universal horror filmography. The chapter then looks at other mummy films made outside Universal and Hammer. In the era of franchise blockbusters, The Mummy remains a viable cinematic brand. While the original Universal Mummy series ended in 1955 and the Hammer revival in 1971, the 1990s saw Universal attempt to recreate The Mummy for a new generation.