Egyptian Mummies: From Sacred Vessels to Scary Undead | Monstrum
201K views · Nov 16, 2022 · Education
Comments · 359
@brettwood1351 · 3 years ago
One the most interesting things for me is how the Mummy can vary from a mindless shambling dried out zombie, and one the weaker seeming of the classic movie monsters, to a nigh unstoppable sorcerer with powers requiring divine intervention to defeat.
200
@ospididious · 3 years ago
The sheer cultural ramifications, not to mention the historical damage the practices of the of the early "Archeologists" makes me cry out in horror. The mummy was not the monster in this situation.
803
@wimvanderstraeten6521 · 3 years ago (edited)
The actor Arnold Vosloo (who played Imhotep in the 1999 Mummy movie) once remarked that there's actually nothing scary about mummies as they're presented in horror movies. They"re so slow that you can easily outpace them. You don't even have to run.
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@reysinny · 3 years ago
Would be great to see a comparison of mummification myths/processes throughout the world
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@mascadadelpantion8018 · 3 years ago
When talking about the Epic monster otherwise known as "The Mummy" Jane Loudon is not mentioned nearly as much as she should be and she really does deserve more credit in the monster fandom community
48
@TylerRakstis · 3 years ago (edited)
I was hoping you finally get to mummies and how they became one of the undead monsters in media like ghosts, zombies, and vampires. Plus it's kind of both sad, and a bit disturbing, that many mummies were lost to time due to using them as medicine. Like how many dinosaur fossils before we started doing paleontology, were grounded up for pharmaceuticals.
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@theasinclaire52 · 3 years ago
I remember mummies being huge in the 90s. There was the Mummy franchise, Mummies Alive, even an episode of Buffy with an Aztec mummy.
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@DoctorWortspieler · 3 years ago
Karloff's version of the Mummy has always been my favorite. Unlike most portrayals of the mummy, he actually doesn't seem to care about the archaeologists who dug him up; he doesn't harm the archaeologist's assistant who inadvertently brought him back to life, rather it's implied that his insanity was caused by the curse that the people who entombed the mummy put on it, not the mummy himself. Karloff's mummy isn't particularly malicious, either, with his main goal to be reunited with his lover, and only gets murderous when it's necessary for his plan.<br><br><br><br><br><br>And even if it's based on a gross misunderstanding of Ancient Egyptian spiritual practices, I do think it's cool that the mummy was not defeated by either of the male leads, but instead by the <b>female</b> lead praying for intercession from a <b>female</b> goddess. Quite progressive for 1932.
15
@davivignola5895 · 3 years ago
First, the opening makes you look like a Lovecraftian protagonist hunting the ancient secrets of forbidden lore.<br><br>Second, as a former anthropology major, the 19th century stories of egyptologists, makes me twitch and recoil in horror. Ugh, just... so much history lost.<br><br>Mummy brown, well, the 19th century version, was just baffling to me that it was a thing. Just... so bizarre.
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@merlapittman5034 · 3 years ago
Excellent video! I've always liked the Karloff mummy best. Karloff was a marvelous actor who made the characters he played more real than most actors of his generation.<br><br>The way the Victorians treated mummies and Egyptian artifacts and culture was shameful. You can't blame the fictional mummies for attacking and consuming the Victorians. They were just responding in the same way the Victorians treated them!
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@beth8775 · 3 years ago
The way they treated these remains was just appalling.
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@TheRhuen · 3 years ago
The sheer number of bodies lost to stupidity and artifacts lost to greed whose where abouts remain unknown and could be sitting in thrift stores, private collections, discarded as mistaken for replica, or sitting in safes is all so staggering.
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