Starting from the 1930s, the "romantic mummy" was supplanted by the "monster mummy", pioneered by Boris Karloff in the 1932 movie The Mummy; mummies thus joined the pantheon of 19th century Gothic monsters, alongside Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.[1]
One of the earliest examples of undead mummies is The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, an 1827 novel written by Jane C. Loudon. This early science-fiction work concerns an Egyptian mummy named Cheops, who is brought back in to life in the 22nd century.
The Mummy's Foot (1840) by Théophile Gautier concerns a ghostly Egyptian princess who, hoping to recover her lost foot, takes the protagonist on a journey through time to her homeland.
Lot No. 249 (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle has been called "...the first to depict a reanimated mummy as a sinister, dangerous creature."[6] Doyle's 1890 short story The Ring of Thoth also features a mummy, though of a more benevolent nature.
Several short stories by Seabury Quinn featured resurrected mummies, including The Grinning Mummy (1926), The Bleeding Mummy (1932), The Dead-Alive Mummy (1935), and The Man in Crescent Terrace (1946).
"Monkeys" (1930, anthologized in More Spook Stories the following year) by E. F. Benson tells the tale of a doctor whose visions of monkeys dovetails into legends of mummies in ancient Egypt.
"Eyes of the Mummy" (1938) by Robert Bloch reverses the typical "possession" narrative established in The Jewel of Seven Stars by having the protagonist's consciousness transferred into a mummy's body. It was included in the author's 1945 collection of stories The Opener of the Way.
The Goosebumps franchise featured mummies in its different stories.
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb featured an assortment of mummies.
Return of the Mummy featured the Mummy of Prince Kho-ru who was the fictional cousin of King Tut.
Diary of a Mad Mummy featured the Mummy of King Buthramaman.
The Mummy Walks featured the Mummy of Emperor Pukrah of Jekeziah.
The Tales to Give You Goosebumps story "Don't Wake Mummy" featured a mummy. The television adaption of this episode also featured the mummy's cat.
Who's Your Mummy featured an assortment of mummies.
The Dummy Meets the Mummy featured the Mummy of Arragotus.
In 1966, Mummy Man was a revived ancient creature that attacked a research facility. His demise led to the summoning of Dodongo in episode 12 of Ultraman.
The 1990 TV series Gravedale High features mummy characters like Cleofatra (voiced by Ricki Lake) and Mr. Tutner (voiced by Tim Curry).
In Big Bad Beetleborgs, the character Mums is a mummy that resides at Hillhurst.
Mummies Alive!, a 1997 animated series, featured a group of heroic mummies.
The anime franchise for Digimon features Mummymon.
The main protagonist of the 2003-2008 TV series Tutenstein is a re-awakened mummy.
In the Ben 10 franchise, there is a race of alien mummies called Thep Khufans. Ben Tennyson's alien form Snare-oh (originally called Benmummy) is a Thep Khufan.
In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, the monster Zeibu of the Mummy is a mummy-like creature with centipede-like features. In Power Rangers Megaforce, he is adapted as Mummy who is one of the illusions of the monster Distractor.
In Late Night Liars, the character William A. Mummy (performed by Brian Clark) is one of the main characters. He is a flamboyant mummy who Shelley Oceans' ex-wife and a parody of Paul Lynde.
In No, You Shut Up!, Andy Al-Jizah (also performed by Brian Clark) is a mummy who is the President of the AAMRP (short for American Association of Mummified and/or Retired People).
The anime series Monster Musume features Mummies where they are depicted as a subspecies of the Zombies. As the desert environments have made their skin dry, the Mummies must take long baths to replenish their fluids and even do this by sucking the life force out of humans to supplement their beauty as a placebo.
The TV series OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes features the character Ms. Mummy (voiced by Ashly Burch) who is a regular of the Lake Plaza Turbo where she lives behind "Gar's Hero Supply & Bodega."
During the 20th century, horror films and other mass media popularized the notion of a curse associated with mummies (see Curse of the pharaohs). The 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by archaeologist Howard Carter brought mummies into the mainstream.
Slapstick comedy trio The Three Stooges humorously exploited the discovery in the short film We Want Our Mummy, in which they explored the tomb of the midget King Rutentuten (and his Queen, Hotsy Totsy). A decade later, they played crooked used chariot salesmen in Mummy's Dummies, in which they ultimately assisted a different King Rootentootin (Vernon Dent) with a toothache.
A Mummy was featured in the film Mad Monster Party?. He does not speak and is among the monsters invited to Baron Boris von Frankenstein's castle on the Isle of Evil. The Mummy's sarcophagus was carried to Baron Frankenstein's castle by the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In one scene, the Mummy dances with the Monster's Mate to "Do the Mummy" by Little Tibia and the Fibias.
The Night at the Museum franchise featured some mummies. Unlike in most portrayals of mummies, the magic is so thorough that the mummies are restored to full life-like appearance, as opposed to simple reanimation:
Night at the Museum centers around the tablet of Ahkmenrah (portrayed by Rami Malek), intended to keep his family together forever, by granting life to his mummy.
In the PlayStation and PC versions of Breakout, a Mummy is the boss of the Egyptian Lair as Bouncer must rescue one of his friends from the Mummy.
The Kirby series features the recurring mummy-based enemy Mumbies. It appears to be a floating ball of bandages who follows the player character when he or she looks the opposite direction. The series later has another mummy enemy named Mummbon in Kirby Mass Attack.
The video games Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Luigi's Mansion 3 have mummies that are enemies. They are depicted as ghosts who are wrapped in mummy tape. The ghost Serpci in Luigi's Mansion 3 is the mummy of an ancient pharaoh.
In the Age of Mythology video games, the Mummies are part of the Egyptian faction's Myth Units and are associated with Osiris.
The Warcraft franchise have mummies that are part of the Scourge. These mummies are mummified versions of creatures from other races that are reanimated through necromancy. The Trolls and the nerubians are known to mummify their dead.
The video game Moe Chronicle features an unnamed female mummy.
In the game MediEvil, mummies are enemies that Sir Dan must kill. In its sequel MediEvil 2, there is a blue-skinned mummy named Princess Kiya who is Dan's love interest.
In the fighting game Killer Instinct, there is an immortal mummy named Kan-Ra.
The Legend of Zelda features recurrent mummy-like enemies called Gibdo. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess featured an enemy known as a ReDead Knight, which combined features from Gibdo and ReDeads (another undead enemy from the series).
Mummified versions of different humanoid races, such as humans, dwarves and elves, appear as enemies in NetHack.
In Minecraft, there is a mummy-related zombie known as the "husk".
In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Mummies are neutral creatures.
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, there are Mummies that are undead creatures and sometimes playable characters throughout its editions[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and come in various types like Bog Mummies, Clay Mummies, Greater Mummies, Hunefers, Ice Mummies, Mummy Lords, and Salt Mummies. They are based on the creature from Gothic fiction, and are a typical denizen of the Ravenloft setting.[24]
In the Warhammer tabletop game, the Tomb Kings were the mummified rulers of Nehekhara, the Land of the Dead, who commanded vast armies of skeletons and constructs.
Lego is shown to have different Mummy minifigures:
Lego Minifigures is shown to have a Mummy as part of its series three. This Mummy later appeared in The Lego Movie. He is among the Master Builders that meet in Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Lego Monster Fighters features The Mummy who roams the desert roads of the Monster Realm at night on his chariot pulled by fire-eyed skeleton horse. This Mummy later appeared in The Lego Batman Movie. He alongside Lord Vampyre and the Swamp Creature appear as inmates of the Phantom Zone.
Lego Pharaoh's Quest features the Mummy of Amset-Ra, a Mummy Warrior, a Flying Mummy, and a Snake Charmer Mummy. The minifigures for the Mummy of Amset-Ra and a Mummy Warrior have double-sided heads.
In the Monster High franchise, Cleo de Nile and Nefera de Nile are known mummies who are the daughters of the mummy Ramses de Nile.