Review of Pharaoh's Curse

A drab horror film that runs only 66 minutes but feels like it's 166. A group of archaeologists in Egypt encounter a curse that starts to affect a sick member of their group, gradually transforming him into a wrinkled, mummy-liked ghoul wearing pajamas. All the characters are bland and uninteresting, and the pacing is like sludgy molasses which plods along endlessly. Once the mummified man starts walking and doing his thing, there are some good moments of chills, but that does not occur until about the 40 minute mark (which may sound like a short amount of time, but it doesn't seem like it), by which time it's already too late. The makeup is pretty good, but the pj's had to go. While writing these notes I couldn't help comparing the structure of PHARAOH'S CURSE to THE MUMMY'S HAND (1940). That was another similarly short film around the same length where its monster doesn't get to work until later on, but the differences between the two are astounding. At least in HAND we are invested in the main characters and don't feel so bogged down. Interesting wrong and right way to do this type of film. *1/2 out of ****