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How do?

So, I’m a sucker for old Horror Movies, with a particular weakness for anything with Peter Cushing, and the classic Universal Monsters.

And I’m massively bummed at just how badly they blew The Mummy remake. The one with Tom ‘I really don’t know why people keep hiring him, but that’s just me’ Cruise. He was awful in it, producing a singularly irresponsible and unlikeable hero, that causes all the trouble and just gets away with it.

And tonight, I’ve popped on Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Yes, it’s the weakest in the series, and far from a good film. But in places, notably the opening and the endgame, I feel it utterly outshines it’s predecessors in scale and execution. And as I often do, I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Oh....woe. Woe is me. Turns out, before they decided to reboot it, a fourth outing for Rick O’Connel was on the books. Mummy; Rise of the Aztec. With Antonio ‘I’ll watch him in anything, such is his charisma’ Banderas as the villain.

And that has unreasonably annoyed me. Not that it was cancelled for what proved a god awful film, but that it really didn’t have to be cancelled at all. Now, I get they wanted a darker tone, and The Mummy trilogy is nothing if not camp. But surely, surely they could’ve adapted it. Perhaps a bittersweet ending. One where Rick ends up ded, but victorious? Perhaps he loses his kid during it (Luke Ford was also scheduled to return as Alex). Evie, with all she’s been through and the resources she has, could then have set up some kind of secret society, dedicated to fighting the nasties she knows to exist.

The film would be presented as a literal retelling - perhaps presented as a warning lecture to new recruits, agents or scholars, hinting that the preceding three films were part of the same.

With that, rather than rebooting, you’re bridging the gap, and potentially opening up your narrative universe. Each next movie (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Swamp Thing) follows the same narrative trick. This allows them to play around with different time zones, eras and tones, working toward The Mission/Challenge the recruits are being trained for.

If they’re desperate for a post-credits marvelesque sting? Perhaps a hand reaching for the next volume, revealing the forthcoming film. Or a flash of what The Big Bad is. Perhaps both.

But no. They threw baby out with the bath water. And that’s a damned shame.