Description
This paper explores the film 'The Mummy' (Terence Fisher, 1959) through the lens of Orientalism, examining how Hammer Studios reworked one of cinema’s most enduring mythical figures at a moment when British culture was renegotiating its relationship with the colonial past. While blending horror with exotic adventure, Hammer’s film drew heavily on Western constructions of Egypt as a site of mystery, danger and forbidden knowledge: constructions long embedded in both American and British cinematic traditions.The paper situates 'The Mummy' within the socio historical context of late 1950s Britain, a period marked by anxieties surrounding decolonisation and shifting global power structures. It will analyse how Hammer reimagined the Mummy not simply as the Universal-style monster popularised in the 1930s and 40s, but as a figure whose menace had become inseparable from Orientalist tropes: ancient curses, exotic rituals and the imagined threat of the colonised returning to disrupt the imperial centre. Hammer’s embrace of colour cinematography and heightened violence intensified these dynamics by presenting Egypt and its imagined ancient, supernatural forces as vividly present within a believably vulnerable nineteenth century Britain. It was a representation of Britain under attack by the Orient that was resonant with late 1950s post-colonial and post-Suez crisis unease. By placing mythic ‘Eastern’ threats within the heart of Victorian domesticity, the film exposed contemporary British fears while revealing how colonial fantasies continued to shape mid-century horror cinema and broader culture.
| Period | 23 Apr 2026 |
|---|---|
| Held at | University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Degree of Recognition | International |