10 MORE Horror Movie Monsters That Shouldn’t Have Worked… But Did

For almost a century, the Mummy has remained one of the most quintessential cinematic monsters. With Lee Cronin's Mummy adaptation set for release soon, it's apparent the bandaged revenant has lost none of its power or relevancy. 

The Mummy has been embedded so deeply in horror that it's easy to forget how odd the concept is. Firstly, he moves so slowly that a baby could outcrawl him. And yet, his victims usually scream and stand motionlessly while the Mummy takes his sweet time plodding towards them.

Although modern interpretations often portray the Mummy as an unstoppable force with godlike powers, he was depicted for decades as a shambling corpse. Zombies also move slowly, but their vast numbers allow them to overwhelm even the most adaptable heroes. The Mummy, on the other hand, tends to fight alone, so his defeat should be straightforward.

Of course, horror fans suspend their disbelief when they see actors like Christopher Lee or Boris Karloff portraying the Egyptian ghoul with such menace and charisma. Talented directors also utilise shadows, subtle sound effects, and clever camera positioning to make a Mummy lumbering down a corridor look like the most spine-tingling thing imaginable.

Though the  Mummy shouldn't be that scary in theory, the staying power of the iconic monster over the last hundred years proves otherwise.