Synopsis
A deadly curse has been unleashed. It will rip your soul apart!
Six young archaeology students discover the remains of an ancient Aztec mummy and accidentally unleash the fury of an evil god.
Directed by David DeCoteau
Six young archaeology students discover the remains of an ancient Aztec mummy and accidentally unleash the fury of an evil god.
Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy 2, Bram Stoker's Der Todesschrei der Mumie, Der Todesschrei der Mumie, La Légende de la Momie 2, El grito de la Momia, Scream of the Mummy, Мумия: Древнее зло, 远古恶魔:木乃伊的惊叫, A Maldição da Múmia, 遠古惡魔:木乃伊的驚叫
The brainiac among budding archeologists awakens a mummy to knife his classmates and rouse an Aztech god through a final human sacrifice.
Frustratingly following the usual for David DeCoteau, this would-be slasher is more concerned with illuminating its attractive cast in equally attractive lighting than letting an effects team within spitting distance. So dry the mummy's bejeweled dagger doesn't get bloody despite repeated plunges into various chests. Off-screen kills result in a soaked shirt being the extent of the red stuff offered.
Not that sadism alone makes a movie, Ancient Evil lands other points like a mummy who could be a cousin from Waxwork (1988) and keeping atmosphere isolated to the long shadows of night. It just ends up as inconsequential as the bulk of its prolific director's filmography without that finishing spice. Instead throw on Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988) or Puppet Master III (1991) from his golden years. Watched via Platinum Disc Corporation's DVD.
People dunk on George Lucas for looking lazy and sitting around all the time while working on the prequels, but David DeCoteau just remade The Mummy and barely even left his house! I promised this movie up to two bonus stars if they bucked convention and made the nerdy horn-rimmed glasses-wearing student the final girl instead of "the hot one" and let the black kid live. As you can guess by my rating, only one of those conditions were met.
So you’re probably on Prime right now sitting through 4 minutes of credits and wondering if this is the movie that you intended on watching or if it’s a suitable replacement and worth riding out. In both cases, it isn’t.
The movie you’re looking for is called Twisted Nightmare (which also went by the name Ancient Evil at some point in its journey.) You do not want this.
This is a first draft script at best. This is the vomit draft filled with throwaway page-filler dialogue that you’re supposed to go back and edit once you have a story on paper.
It’s wild to me that actor Trent Latta who wasn’t even cast (according to the IMDb trivia, he was…
Warning - if you search for "Twisted Nightmare" on Amazon you get this movie which I assumed just had a different name which is common for low budget bullshit and hooooo boy let me tell you that this sucked shit. I have seen scarier Goosebump episodes.
Pretty sure this David Decoteau-helmed Mummy slasher from 1999 didn’t really exist until it sprang forth from my forehead fully formed sometime last week.
Let me just slip into something a bit more naked while I wait.
Dave saves the shirtlessness for the final reel. Such restraint!
This movie was made around the time when J.R. Bookwalter had gone out to L.A. and ended up working on a bunch of DeCoteau/Full Moon movies. Ariauna Albright followed him out there and I think this was her second and last movie for DeCoteau (following Witchouse which apparently wasn't considered much of a success at the time even though I happen to love that one). Even though Bookwalter didn't do anything on this movie it's got more of an SOV touch than just Ariauna. Matthew Jason Walsh wrote it and Jason Paul Collum was the second second assistant director.
This one's not so bad but you can see David's movies moving slowly toward the Rapid Heart formula through the late…
Men talking in underwear, yeah you can tell David directed this. While the acting and kills are meh. The one thing this has that I never seen is a Aztec killer named Norman.
P.s. Amazon you lied this was supposed to be twisted nightmare
This wasn't good. All so amateurish. Not at all scary or anything. The trivia that this once reigned #1 on IMDb's bottom 250 makes total sense.