Legend of the Mummy 2 (2000)
"When terror is alive, Evil never dies."
Plot
Six young archaeologists are spending the summer with their professor and are working their newest discovery: the remains of an ancient Aztec mummy, found in the ruins of a temple. They don't realise that the mummy was servant to the Rain God and that one of the group is able to bring it back to life to do his evil bidding.
I thought I'd never see a worse mummy film than the first Legend of the Mummy but I spoke too soon. Originally released as Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy, this film has since been renamed for its UK release to pass itself off as a sequel to Legend of the Mummy. Quite why anyone would try and pass their film off as some sort of sequel or follow-up to one of the worst mummy films of all time is beyond me and no doubt said person was fired from their marketing job soon after but it's here anyway. Clearly an attempt to milk some cash from the mummy market due to the popularity of The Mummy in the late 90s and early 00s, I'd now class Legend of the Mummy 2 as not only the worst mummy film I've ever seen, but also one the worst films I've ever seen. I do bandy that around quite a bit on here but usually other films have at least a handful of redeeming features. This has nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nought.
I can't see how something like this ever gets the green light to be released. There's just nothing remotely professional about it and it seems as though everyone involved did just the bare minimum to end up with a film. There's no story as we join proceedings with the mummy already being unearthed and sat on a slab in the compound waiting to be analysed. And that's basically it - the mummy is awakened by the last in the line of the high priests and then goes around killing the rest of the students in the compound. Try stretching that out for eighty five minutes! In fact the opening titles and closing credits take up about ten minutes between them (and the opening titles go extremely slowly!) so it's evident that the filmmakers were looking to pad out the running time as long as possible. Legend of the Mummy 2 constantly has characters over-explaining every single plot point that they weren't able to afford to shoot, continually adding extra seconds to the running time to avoid having to do anything exciting or horror-orientated.
When Legend of the Mummy 2 confines itself to the same handful of rooms for the entire duration of the film, save for a few brief shots outside in the compound, then the scenes of the mummy shuffling around exactly the same set for an hour really grind on you after a while. To be fair, I'm not quite sure where the film is supposed to be set. A university campus? Someone's fancy mansion? You'll not get a good look around the place, save for the same few rooms, and the idea of people going missing in such a small location is laughable. To think that this was shot in Mexico over the space of four days, you'll not get any hint of Central America in the final product, more like the remnants of a studio backlot. Trying to buy the idea that these are all archaeology students and this is actually meant to be a university campus is a difficult pill to swallow, especially when the 'classroom' looks like someone's patio.
The characters we're presented with aren't even one-dimensional, they're virtually non-existent. Yes they fall into the stereotypical roles of jock, nerd, virgin, etc. but they're so poorly written that even any semblance of those stereotypes would have been most welcome. They're totally un-engaging characters - the ones we're supposed to root for are just as bland and non-descript as the ones who die first. There's no chemistry between any of the cast either and no sense that any of them had ever been in front of a camera before in their lives. The script tries to keep them 'hip' but ends up failing because there's nothing for them to do except walk around the compound talking to each other and searching the same two or three rooms over and over and over again. Trent Latta, who plays the nerd Norman and is also a secret Aztec priest, is just a skinny white guy and isn't intimidating in the slightest. Buying him as a threat to the rest of the characters is like believing McLovin' from Superbad could turn into the Terminator.
Even the mummy looks to be nothing more than an expensive fancy dress costume. From the first time you see it on the screen, there's no way that anyone would believe it had been dead for centuries. The actor in the bandages is a little on the stocky side so you get the awkward visual of this undead creature looking like he's just come from an all you can eat buffet. Having said that, it is the best thing about the film and I'm really trying hard to cling on to some small mercies. Above all, there's no style or visual flare from the director. Everything is literally from the 'point and shoot' mode of filming. No attempts are made to inject any atmosphere or tension into proceedings and the overkill on the lightning effects would have been best served with some sort of prior 'flashing lights' warning for epileptics.....all lightning and no rain I must add. David DeCoteau is hardly my favourite director but I've seen a few of his other films - Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge springs to mind - so I know that he's not incapable of making something semi-watchable. It doesn't look like he tried here and took his money and ran.
Final Verdict
I thought the first one was bad but this one is just as terrible for different reasons. Legend of the Mummy 2 is a non-event of a film - a pointless waste of time, energy and effort from everyone involved and everyone who has seen it. It’s like a project from a college student with no story, no structure and is simply a collection of images and scenes which join together abruptly for ninety five minutes of absolute torture. Hilariously, one of the writers even wrote an online review for this disaster and ended it by saying "I’m sorry. I’m really, really, truly sorry."
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Legend of the Mummy 2 Also Known As: Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy Director(s): David DeCoteau Writer(s): Matthew Jason Walsh (screenplay by), David DeCoteau (story by) Actor(s): Trent Latta, Jeff Peterson, Ariauna Albright, Michele Nordin, Russell Richardson, Michael Lutz, Brenda Blondell, Christopher Cullen, Anton Falk Duration: 86 mins |  |
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