The tyranist's thoughts
Set 10 years after the last entry in the series and focusing more on the love story than on revenge, I found this to be a far superior movie to its immediate predecessor. Even when you discount the fetching Ramsay Ames as the love interest, there is just more meat to this story.
John Carradine is a priest of Arkan who is charged with recovering both Kharis, the Mummy, and Princess Ananka, the mummy, from Mapleton, Massachusetts. The Bannings have apparently all died (even though one of them was alive at the end of the last movie) and the majority of the players in this one are attached to the college there. One night when a professor knowingly brews a pot of tanna leaf juice, the Mummy comes calling and the mayhem begins.
There were a couple of things that I really liked in this one. First, I liked the younger setting. The hero and heroine were in college as well as a lot of the other characters at first. Additionally, the love story was central and that really helped. I also appreciated what they did with the Mummy and priest this time. There was more appreciable tension between them. It probably also helped that the opening exposition scenes and the dialogue in general were better in this one.
I feel that I need to explain the skull for Horror film showing on TV/in theatre in movie. You never see it. Instead I awarded the skull for the night watchman listening to a horror radio show and reading Detective Comics. Very cool.
This one is far better than the last and really very endearing. Check it out if you get a chance.