Why are Mummies considered scary?

[Krutch]

Just a debate that sprung up at work. I never understood how mummies were ever considered scary. Have they ever been written well? They're basically just zombies wrapped in cloth. And I never understood what happens if they ever reach you. Do they have super strength? And isn't there biggest weakness fire, a completely easy to find natural element?

Someone help me out here.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Go watch "Mummy on the Orient Express", Doctor Who, Series 8 (2014).

I'm a grown-ass man and I couldn't sleep after that.

[Candy Kappa]

Well, unlike just ordinary undead and zombies. Mummies have magical abilities to control other undead, flesh eating bugs, mind-control or other supernatural beings.

They often also have super strenght, and the ability to either regenerate further wounds after awakening, or regenerate to a more alive looking person. A mummy's mere touch often inflict their victims to become deathly ill, starting torot and decay while being still alive, in the end turn into dust upon death.

[plastroncafe]

Do you mean as monster movie baddies go?
Or why we consider them scary in the first place.

The latter being because White Europeans are freaked out by death, dying, and most importantly the funerary practices of people who aren't them.

[BubblyShell22]

Maybe people are scared they'll turn into mummies, too?

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Do you mean as monster movie baddies go?
Or why we consider them scary in the first place.

The latter being because White Europeans are freaked out by death, dying, and most importantly the funerary practices of people who aren't them.

Wow, so only Caucasians from the European continent are scared of dying?

[plastroncafe]

Wow, so only Caucasians from the European continent are scared of dying?

I didn't say Caucasian, I said White European.

Let's put this into a cultural context.
King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1920.
Boris Karloff's "The Mummy" came out 12 years later.

All were made by white people.

So no, White people aren't the only ones afraid of death, but it certainly can be argued that Mummy as a classic character from horror fiction can be traced back to a base fear of death, dying, and being freaked out by the funerary practices of a culture that wasn't theirs.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I didn't say Caucasian, I said White European.

Let's put this into a cultural context.
King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1920.
Boris Karloff's "The Mummy" came out 12 years later.

All were made by white people.

So no, White people aren't the only ones afraid of death, but it certainly can be argued that Mummy as a classic character from horror fiction can be traced back to a base fear of death, dying, and being freaked out by the funerary practices of a culture that wasn't theirs.

First, Caucasian and White are synonyms. Yes, you can split hairs, but they're commonly used as synonyms.

Also... "all made by white people?" You listed one film. Pretty sure Tut's tomb wasn't made by white people.

[plastroncafe]

First, Caucasian and White are synonyms. Yes, you can split hairs, but they're commonly used as synonyms.

Also... "all made by white people?" You listed one film. Pretty sure Tut's tomb wasn't made by white people.

I've trained and studied in anthropology, so I tend to steer clear of Caucasian much the same way I steer clear of Mongoloid and Negroid. They're outdated academic jargon that are frowned upon.

Yes, the film that started the Mummy as Universal Monster Movie, made by American white guys, which capitalized on the public fervor surrounding the excavation of Egypt's past by... European white guys.

I'm saying that to us Mummies in particular are scary because of our specific fears regarding death and dying, and also because we find Ancient Egyptian funerary ritual and burial weird.

Not a whole lot of embalmed bodies at the art museum, but...there will be mummies.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I've trained and studied in anthropology, so I tend to steer clear of Caucasian much the same way I steer clear of Mongoloid and Negroid. They're outdated academic jargon that are frowned upon.

Yes, the film that started the Mummy as Universal Monster Movie, made by American white guys, which capitalized on the public fervor surrounding the excavation of Egypt's past by... European white guys.

I'm saying that to us Mummies in particular are scary because of our specific flavor regarding death and dying, and also because we find Ancient Egyptian funerary ritual and burial weird.

Okay. When you said "all made" it sounded like you had meant to list multiple mummy movies and then forgot or something.

Weird. I see Caucasian on a lot of those official surveys/questionnaires that do still say "Caucasian." Those other two terms, though... yeah, it's probably a good thing those aren't still used.

Now that I understand your POV, I find it pretty sound logic. Cool stuff.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Why are they scary? Has no one thought to mention Tut's Curse? Seriously, when twelve people involved in the excavation all die within seven years, including the man who financed the dig, and all through accidents or diseases or unusual circumstances, when they KNEW there was a warning of a "curse" upon anyone who disturbed it, it kind of makes you think twice about messing with mummies in general. And Tut wasn't the only one, either. I was fairly common to have tombs "enspelled" by the priests, so that anyone who messed with the graves would meet with death or misfortune. So it's no wonder people freak a little at the idea of mummies.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Why are they scary? Has no one thought to mention Tut's Curse? Seriously, when twelve people involved in the excavation all die within seven years, including the man who financed the dig, and all through accidents or diseases or unusual circumstances, when they KNEW there was a warning of a "curse" upon anyone who disturbed it, it kind of makes you think twice about messing with mummies in general. And Tut wasn't the only one, either. I was fairly common to have tombs "enspelled" by the priests, so that anyone who messed with the graves would meet with death or misfortune. So it's no wonder people freak a little at the idea of mummies.

I like that you die within 66 seconds exactly of seeing the Mummy. And that only you can see the Mummy. And if you see it, you have 66 seconds left to live.

So yeah. Brilliant episode.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Huh?!! I was talking about actual history. I was just reading about Tut a little while ago, oddly enough. Some archeologist thinks he may have found Tut's mother Nefertiti's tomb. And it mentioned the "curse", as well as one of the assistance on the original dig, who believed she was a reincarnated Egyptian priestess. She helped find several sites based on "memories". Interesting stuff.

[CyberCubed]

Is this thread for real? Its the same reason people find human skeletons scary. Why do you think we constantly see Skeletons moving around as warriors in movies? The human skeleton is scary when its animated and moving on its own, so are Mummies for the same reason.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Personally, I've always found zombies creepier. Since just getting bitten is enough to infect someone. It's like fear of the Plague....

[Electric]

Is this thread for real? Its the same reason people find human skeletons scary. Why do you think we constantly see Skeletons moving around as warriors in movies? The human skeleton is scary when its animated and moving on its own, so are Mummies for the same reason.



I think cubed has it this time. They're scary because of what we see/hear about them.

[IndigoErth]

Cold, unapologetic (and other word I can't find that's going to drive me crazy) truth of death in a physical form... even if they couldn't do much to you if it was as simple as breaking off their dry, bony limbs, to have one do something unnatural like come to life and be after you, I suppose there is some instinctive symbolism there as if death itself is after you so it might only be natural to want to get away.

Not to mention that's sort of a dried up zombie, and zombies have old folklore attached to them so humanity's stories have been around a while.

[ProactiveMan]

They've been dead for a long time, but they haven't rotted away. There is a sense that they poses some kind of unnatural longevity, which interestingly enough was desirable at one time in Europe, and people thought they could benefit from this by grinding up and consuming powdered mummy, or applying it topically. Kinda gross and disrespectful, but these are the same people that thought moss grown on a human skull could cure epilepsy, so they'd collect unburied heads from old battlefields.

There is a theory that the medicinal mummy trade helped spread plague at one time because unscrupulous traders would pass off, shall we say, fresher remains.

[Hamato Yoshi]

No curse....they breathed in 1000s of yrs worth of dust , no wonder they died :ohwell:

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Not all of them died of illness, though. Dust had little to do with it. Several had accidents or were killed in other ways within a few months of having opened up the tomb. Or within a year or two, at most. I think the last one died only a few years after the tomb opening, and nearly ALL of them were plagued by misfortunes afterward, as well. It's one of those really bizarre bits out of history that makes you go "Hmmm....", sort of like the Hope Diamond (also supposedly curses its owners) and other historical creep-stories.

[Candy Kappa]

Yeah, curses and mystical revenge from the grave is far more sexy, then just straight up being unlucky. :lol:

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Well, when twelve people involved in a singular event all end up dying in less than seven years, that starts to transcend the realm of simple "luck", in my experience. Probability and coincidence just can't account for things like that.

[Ninjinister]

Mummies don't get enough modern takes outside of The Mummy series (which are more action oriented), so we really don't know what the current idea of "scary" would be in the sense of them. Back then, all the mummy tropes were probably considered utterly terrifying - to quote Lisa Simpson, " Maybe people were easier to scare back then."

Until someone actually tries to make a modern, scary piece of fiction with a mummy, they probably won't ever be considered scary.

Go watch "Mummy on the Orient Express", Doctor Who, Series 8 (2014).

I'm a grown-ass man and I couldn't sleep after that.

Dr. Who has the wussiest monsters of pretty much any piece of fiction. It's about half of the reason why it bores me so much.