Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (Seth Holt, 1971)

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is a skillful and enjoyable hour-and-a-half of creepy, atmospheric fun from Hammer Films, despite the cast and crew having to overcome two tragic events behind the scenes, one at the beginning of the film's production, the other at the end. Peter Cushing was originally cast in the role of Prof. Julian Fuchs, but he left after only one day of shooting when the health of his wife, who was suffering from emphysema, took a turn for the worse. She died shortly thereafter, and Andrew Keir stepped in to play Cushing's part. With only one week left in the shoot, director Seth Holt died of a heart attack, aged only 47. Filmmaker and Hammer executive Michael Carreras took over direction for the final week. Behind-the-scenes turmoil can often make for an inconsistent film, but not in this case.

Based on the Bram Stoker novel The Jewel of Seven Stars (also the basis for Mike Newell's 1980 horror film The Awakening, reviewed here back in 2015), Blood from the Mummy's Tomb is about a group of British archaeologists who discover the unmarked tomb of evil Egyptian queen Tera. The title is fantastic but a bit of a misnomer, though Blood from the Evil Queen's Sarcophagus Inside Her Tomb would have been a little wordy. Instead of doing the professional thing, the archaeologists raid the tomb, each one taking a different artifact home.

Prof. Fuchs (Andrew Keir) takes it even further than the others by bringing the queen's body home and placing it in his basement, which he has remodeled to resemble an Egyptian tomb. Talk about taking your work home with you, am I right? He has his reasons, however misguided. At the very moment he and his team were discovering Tera's tomb, his poor wife was giving birth to a baby daughter back in London. She died during childbirth, and his daughter, unbeknownst to her, became the reincarnated spitting image of Tera.

The daughter, Margaret (Valerie Leon), is an adult now, struggling with nightmares in which she remembers the life and death and revenge curses of Queen Tera. Meanwhile, a strange man named Corbeck (James Villiers) is spying on her, her father, and her patronizing bearded boyfriend Tod (Mark Edwards). Several more eccentrics are introduced, played by a rogues' gallery of great British character actors, including Hugh Burden, George Coulouris, Rosalie Crutchley, and Aubrey Morris. Matt Berry was definitely taking notes from Morris' performance in this film, which is more than alright with me.

Straddling the line between seriousness and camp without ever falling too hard on either side, the film is assured and confident and looks fantastic. The studio sets are a marvel of expressive horror movie architecture, the blood flows like paint, the humor and scares land where they're supposed to without getting in each other's way, and the cast delivers the goods. It's a classic Hammer movie good time and a fitting tribute to Seth Holt's talent. I really liked this one.