Quote Originally Posted by Bohandas View Post
Speaking of reanimation, a lot of kids don't seem to have any concept of regular non-reanimated mummies.
Mummies are interesting because they have perhaps the greatest range on what, exactly, they are in terms of horror monsters. From glorified zombies or ghouls to supernatural horrors to rival vampires, they tend to run the gamut depending on who's writing.

The manifestation of their powers, when they have more than "shamble and moan after victims," also ranges from derivations from their most notable feature (their bandages are often, for mid-range mummies-as-threats, depicted as animated under the mummy's control, like flat, elastic and numerous tentacles) to relations to the Biblical Curses on Egypt to body horror related to the canopic jars' contents.

They also kind-of fill a dragon-like role as the monster with a huge hoard in the remote dungeon-like environment. But they have a curse rather than enormous bulk. How magical they are in terms of retaliatory might varies almost as much as with dragons, too.


As a kid, I never got why they were so scary. The notion that they were undead eluded me because I only saw the cartoony, entirely-wrapped-up varieties. So why people are afraid of a guy all bandaged up and unable to bend his arms properly or move faster than a stiff-legged walk was puzzling.