The Mummy is one of the most familiar figures in horror cinema, established in the popular imagination to a greater degree than virtually any other screen monster, yet the Mummy movie as a genre has been largely overlooked in critical analysis. In this compelling study, Basil Glynn explores the history of the Mummy film, revealing that the Mummy, far from being maddeningly repetitive, has instead been a refreshingly diverse and protean figure, with a myriad of on-screen incarnations.
Glynn traces the Mummy's development in popular culture from literature and theatre to its early incarnations in silent cinema, through Universal Studios and the Mummy movies of the 1930s and 40s, to Hammer Horror's re-imagining of the figure in the 1950s and beyond.
Glynn argues that the Mummy genre needs to be understood in terms of changing discourses of race, particularly Orientalism, transgressive romance and monstrosity, in order to appreciate its continuing appeal to global industries and audiences.