Are you a fan of spine-chilling creatures rising from the dead? Do you love watching mummies come to life after centuries of slumber and wreak havoc on unsuspecting victims?
Then this is the post for you! From classic horror films to modern-day blockbusters, we’ve rounded up the 15 Best Mummy Movies of All Time that will have you on the edge of your seat. So grab some popcorn, turn off all the lights, and prepare to be scared out of your wits as we take you through an epic journey into the world of Ancient Egypt’s most terrifying undead monsters. Let’s get started!
15The Mummy (1932)
This classic Universal Pictures film starring Boris Karloff is one of the most iconic mummy movies ever made.
An ancient Egyptian priest named Imhotep is revived when an archaeological expedition finds his mummy and one of the archaeologists accidentally reads an ancient life-giving spell. Imhotep escapes from the field site and searches for the reincarnation of the soul of his lover.
14The Mummy (1999)
A thrilling adventure film directed by Stephen Sommers, featuring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. It spawned a successful franchise.
Dashing legionnaire Rick O’Connell stumbles upon the hidden ruins of Hamunaptra while in the midst of a battle to claim the area in 1920s Egypt. It has been over three thousand years since former High Priest Imhotep suffered a fate worse than death as a punishment for a forbidden love—along with a curse that guarantees eternal doom upon the world if he is ever awoken.
13The Mummy Returns (2001)
The sequel to the 1999 film, continuing the action-packed adventures of Rick O’Connell and Evelyn Carnahan.
Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, along with their 8-year-old son Alex, discover the key to the legendary Scorpion King’s might: the fabled Bracelet of Anubis. Unfortunately, a newly resurrected Imhotep has designs on the bracelet as well, and isn’t above kidnapping its new bearer, Alex, to gain control of Anubis’s otherworldly army.
12The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
The third installment in the modern “Mummy” franchise, this time taking the characters to China.
Archaeologist Rick O’Connell travels to China, pitting him against an emperor from the 2,000-year-old Han dynasty who’s returned from the dead to pursue a quest for world domination. This time, O’Connell enlists the help of his wife and son to quash the so-called ‘Dragon Emperor’ and his abuse of supernatural power.
11The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964)
A Hammer Horror production that follows a group of archaeologists who disturb the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess.
Those who have interfered with the Tomb of Ra-Antef are in terrible danger. Against expert advice, American showman and financial backer of the expedition, Alexander King, plans a world tour exhibiting this magnificent discovery from the ancient world but on the opening night the sarcophagus is void of its contents. The mummy has escaped to fulfill the dreadful prophesy and exact a violent and bloody revenge on all those who defiled his final resting place.
10Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
A unique horror-comedy where an elderly Elvis Presley (played by Bruce Campbell) teams up with a man who claims to be JFK to fight an ancient mummy.
Bubba Ho-tep tells the “true” story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his “death,” then missed his chance to switch back. He must team up with JFK and fight an ancient Egyptian mummy for the souls of their fellow residents.
9The Mummy (2017)
A reboot of the franchise starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Russell Crowe. It takes a more action-oriented approach.
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.
8The Mummy’s Hand (1940)
The first in a series of Universal Pictures’ “Kharis” mummy films, following an ancient Egyptian priest brought back to life.
A couple of young, out-of-work archaeologists in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician and his beautiful daughter, they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest and the living mummy Kharis who are the guardians of Ananka’s tomb.
7The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)
The fourth installment in the “Kharis” series, with Lon Chaney Jr. portraying the mummy.
An Egyptian high priest travels to America to reclaim the bodies of ancient Egyptian princess Ananka and her living guardian mummy Kharis. Learning that Ananka’s spirit has been reincarnated into another body, he kidnaps a young woman of Egyptian descent with a mysterious resemblance to the princess. However, the high priest’s greedy desires cause him to lose control of the mummy…
6The Awakening (1980)
Set in early 20th century Egypt, this supernatural horror film tells the story of an archaeologist’s daughter and her connection to an ancient curse.
When a British archaeologist violates an Egyptian queen’s tomb, her evil spirit enters his daughter.
5The Mummy’s Shroud (1967)
Another Hammer Horror production, involving a group of explorers who uncover an ancient mummy’s tomb.
Archaeologists discover the final resting place of a boy king, removing the remains to be exhibited in a museum. By disturbing the sarcophagus they unleash the forces of darkness. The Mummy has returned to discharge a violent retribution on the defilers as the curse that surrounds the tomb begins to come true. One by one the explorers are murdered until one of them discovers the ancient words that have the power to reduce the brutal killer to particles of dust.
4Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971)
A British horror film where an ancient Egyptian queen’s reincarnated spirit seeks revenge on those who disturbed her tomb.
Two Egyptologists, Professor Fuchs and Corbeck, are instrumental in unleashing unmitigated horror by bringing back to England the mummified body of Tara, the Egyptian Queen of Darkness. Fuchs’s daughter becomes involved in a series of macabre and terrifying incidents, powerless against the forces of darkness, directed by Corbeck, that are taking possession of her body and soul to fulfill the ancient prophesy that Queen Tara will be resurrected to continue her reign of unspeakable evil.
3The Mummy’s Curse (1944)
The final film in the “Kharis” series, where the mummy is unleashed in a Louisiana swamp.
After being buried in quicksand for the past 25 years, Kharis is set free to roam the rural bayous of Louisiana, as is the soul of his beloved Princess Ananka, still housed in the body of Amina Mansouri, who seeks help and protection at a swamp draining project.
2Tale of the Mummy (1998)
A horror-adventure film starring Jason Scott Lee and Louise Lombard, combining ancient curses with modern archaeology.
1The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)
The second film in the “Kharis” series, following the mummy as it seeks revenge on those who desecrated its tomb.
A high priest of Karnak travels to America with the living mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) to kill all those who had desecrated the tomb of the Egyptian princess Ananka thirty years earlier.
