American Mummy

Director - Charles Pinion (Twisted Issues, Red Spirit Lake)
Starring - Suziey Block (Dude Bro Party Massacre III, NCIS: Los Angeles), Aidan Bristow (All American Zombie Drugs, Transmorphers: Fall of Man), and Aaron Burt (Thursday the 12th, Drunk Harry Potter)
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The curse is unearthed"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Slashers, zombies, and paranormal found footage flicks are everywhere right now especially in the indie horror community.  Slashers are a dime a dozen right now which makes complete sense considering how easy they are to write and film.  Don't get me wrong, I love slashers but they are still very popular.  Next we have zombie flicks.  The Walking Dead is a pop culture phenomenon that has skyrocketed horror into the mainstream.  As a result we now have more zombie flicks than we have time to watch.  They are everywhere and at any given moment you can find at least a dozen zombie flicks on the shelves of any major retailer.  With that being said, there is sub-genres of horror that I often forget about because we just don't see films that often for them.  Honestly, I enjoy films centered around witches/warlocks in or around Salem and mummy flicks.  Recently, Wild Eye Releasing released the 2014 Charles Pinion flick American Mummy which was originally titled Aztec Blood.  I reached out to Wild Eye and they were kind enough to send over a review copy.  Thanks guys!
     The film follows a group of amateur archeologists who uncover a hidden tomb in the New Mexican desert.  They notify someone of worth to come inspect their claim but what they don't know is that one of their own has dark ambitions.  They set forth in performing a blood ritual which resurrects the dead as blood hungry fiends.  They all must now work together to survive or die at the hands of the American Mummy.
    
     I love Wild Eye.  It's hard for me to write a review on a Wild Eye release and not mention how much I love this company.  They have released so many great movies over the years but within those awesome indie films there is a few that I just don't care for.  Sadly, American Mummy is one of them.  The acting in this one is not that consistent.  The cast seems to find their footing as the film progresses but the earlier scenes are a little awkward to watch.  I honestly can't tell you in what order this film was shot but you can almost see the cast become more comfortable as the film progresses.  The story for this one has a lot of potential and has similar themes, outside of the obvious, as the new remake of The Mummy.  In this film we follow a group that uncovers an Aztec mummy that was far from his home insinuating that he was exiled from his homeland and then buried much like Ahmanet in The Mummy.  This was a pretty cool angle that was actually done years before the Tom Cruise film was announced.  Sadly, the film has a hard time following up with that and is poor at character development.  The film does pick up toward the end with some action but not as much as I would have liked.  I feel like a lot of the story was left out due to budget concerns.  Finally, the film has plenty of blood and practical effects.  I really enjoy the blood color and the practical effects but I was expecting more than what we got. Overall, American Mummy had a lot of potential but failed to reach it.  The film had some fun moments but missed the mark.  If you really want to watch some no budget carnage I would recommend Bigfoot vs. Zombies or Sodomaniac.