Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I really wish that Michael Almereyda had kept the alternate title for this movie, which was Trance. The Eternal: Kiss of the Mummy is a terrible title, and the cover graphics make it look like any other lame horror flick. But it's not.

The Eternal is traditional mummy/haunted house/zombie movie, but with interesting details. A woman who emigrated from Ireland at the age of 16 returns to her native country with her Irish-American husband (I think; Jared Harris looks like a short version of Conan O'Brien here) and their son. She and her husband are alcoholics and want to start over by reuniting with her grandmother and uncle. You can tell that they love their son, but they neglect him by drinking. It's not a typical mummy movie set-up, and it makes you see the characters as people and not just victims.

It returns to conventions with the addition of her invalid grandmother, her crazy uncle, and the mysterious little girl he adopted. But even these have twists. The mummy is a Druid corpse and not an Egyptian one. Christopher Walken makes the uncle simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. And the little girl is the most sane one in the house. With the exception of the grandmother, who seemed one-dimensional, the characters are well-played. There are slight touches of other films in it: Psycho, Days of Wine and Roses, What Lies Beneath, even Straw Dogs.

Michael Almereyda's Hamlet is one of my favorite movies, but since The Eternal obviously does not have Shakespeare's writing, it exposes Almereyda's weakness in plot development. Once the scariness sets in, the story becomes so loosely constructed that it's hard to determine what's actually happening. And that's how the film dies, so to speak.

Overall, it's a good movie but not a great one.

this one gave me a sort of chill down the center of my spine. Jared Harris(Igby Goes Down), his wife played superbly by Allison Elliott(dont know whatelse shes played in) and their son go for a vaction in Scotland to where Elliott used to grow up. Their they meet Joe, a guy who Elliott loved back then and her relatives, a eeirly Lois Smith(Minority Report) and a ever so mad frankensteinish Christopher Walken(Catch Me If You Can, Envy). Walken brings Elliott to the basement where a centuries old corpse of a mummy lies. He tells her a chilling tale about love and death. Pretty much what you'd expect from Walken, thought I sort of knew he would die. He looked more like a pale vampireish figure (with one blind eye). Maybe it was the red robed coat that gave it away. The mummy is in the shape of Elliott and it's on the loose when it gets done chopping poor Walken to bits. It goes on, roaming threw the house. Tensions flare and chills fly. Camera work is dizzy and amazing. Almereya knows how to make you feel like your there. Harris does a nice Walken impression...Elliott is sexy as ever and Karl Geary(was in 2000's Hamlet with Ethan Hawke with was also directed by Michael Almereya, forgive me if I spelled his last name wrong), Geary is a nice supportee with his long tied back hair and gun. He was bitchin in this movie. Some people might not like this type of movie but I did really enjoy it and I watched it last night. So I recommend this movie