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MOVIES THE MUMMY'S GHOST 
Quick Rating:
** Here we have the fourth Mummy movie from Universal. There seems to be some continuity between these movies, but not very much. We see the new high priest walking up the same steps to the tomb of Ananka as seen in the Mummy's Hand. (Actually, it's reused footage from "Hand", but its supposed to be someone else this time 'round). We are told of the mummy's demise as shown in the Mummy's Tomb. And we return to Mapleton, MA. That's about it for continuity. Everything else seems to have changed to meet the needs of the writers/director. For instance, the keepers of Kharis are now the High Priests of Arkam, not Karnak. And, no longer does Kharis have to drink the liquid from 9 tana leaves - all you have to do is boil the 9 leaves, and then Kharis will somehow be given movement, and he will seek out the tana leaf tea! And Ananka's body is now in Mapleton, too. Oh, and the old high priest who was going to die in the last movie? Yeah, he's still kicking, although it is 10 years later, and he's got a new guy to pass the mantle of High Priest on to - John Carradine (funny, he doesn't look Egyptian). Ok, enough about the discontinuity. Let's get into the story of this particular film. It's 30 years after the finding of Ananka's tomb. We're given a good recap of the events of the previous films from the old High Priest, and from a professor at a college in Mapleton. I am assuming it is a college since the actors portraying the students appear to be 35, so I would hope they're not in high school! Anyway, one of this professor's students happens to be dating a girl with Egyptian heritage (how dare he!). Any time she thinks of Egypt, she bugs out. I wonder who will be reincarnating Ananka later in this film? So, there's a new High Priest (Carradine) who's task it is to come to America and bring back Kharis and Ananka to Egypt. Apparently, Kharis didn't die in the last movie. The old High Priest told us that he lives... so I guess he's fine. It was acknowledged that he was burned, but there's no explanation on how he survived. Anyway, Carradine comes to Mapleton, and brews the leaves, waking up Kharis, and they attempt to get Ananka's body, but she turns to dust, and somehow her soul hides out in the Egyptian girl's body, and her boyfriend is upset, and she's a suspect in a murder, and the townsfolk go on a mummy hunt because mold was found on a victim's neck, and guess who gets kidnapped and guess who comes to the rescue and guess who falls in love with said kidnappee, and... oh, I guess I should stop there. The whole mummy thing is just going downhill... Each movie is significantly worse. I'm not really looking forward to see if #5 continues this trend. I mean, it's an ok movie, but only because there's a mummy in it. And Carradine is pretty funny (in a B-movie kind of way). Especially when he's arguing with himself. Oh, that scene is super campy. And someone explain this to me: In these movies, it always appears that Kharis's right arm is somehow out of commission. It appears paralyzed or injured, held close to his body all the time. Then, it comes time for him to carry some dame, and out the arm comes, ready to carry her weight. He even carried her down a ladder! Using one arm to carry her, and one to hold onto the ladder! And every time he's done carrying her, his arm curls up into its paralyzed state again. Wacky. Quality: 3.0 Visuals:
4.0 Intensity: 4.0 Laughability: 3.5 reviewed
2005
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