Scorpion Releasing dives into the Paul Naschy Blu-ray market with their disc of THE MUMMY'S REVENGE.

Eighteenth dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep (Naschy) is a cruel ruler who delights in sadism and torture, offering up virgin blood sacrifices with his equally cruel consort Amarna (Rina Ottolina). High priest Anchaff (Fernando Sánchez Polack, CURSE OF THE DEVIL) decides to put a stop to things by drugging Amenhotep and burying him alive without mummification rites so that he will not be accepted into the world of the dead and his soul will rot with his corpse. At the start of the twentieth century, the unviolated tomb of Amenhotep is discovered by archaeologist Nathan Stark (Jack Taylor, FEMALE VAMPIRE) and his wife Abigail (Maria Silva, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD) who take the sarcophagus back to London for examination at the Lansbury Institute by Stark's wheelchair-bound mentor Sir Douglas Carter (Eduardo Calvo, HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN) who tells them the legend of the "cursed pharaoh." The discovery also brings to Egyptian archaeologist Assad Bey (Naschy) and his "companion" Senofed (Helga Line, NIGHTMARE CASTLE) to England where they learn from Carter that Amenhotep anticipated his murder and left ritual instructions on how to resurrect him with the blood of three virgins mixed with the plant of life. Sharing the same bloodline as the pharaoh, Bey carries out the ritual and Amenhotep rises, promising Bey riches and immortality if will not only sacrifice seven more virgins to restore the pharaoh's full strength but also help him find a vessel for the soul of Amarna which just happens to be Carter's half-Egyptian daughter Helen (also Ottolina). Stark suspects that Bey is involved in the disappearance of the mummy, but the Scotland Yard is too busy with Inspector Taylor (Luis Dávila, A QUIET PLACE TO KILL) investigating the disappearances of a number of young women from the streets of London.

Having spun his own variations on the reluctant werewolf, a romantic Dracula, Mr. Hyde as the sadistic alter ego of his werewolf, and medieval occultist serial killer Gilles de Rais, Spanish horror auteur Jacinto Molina/Paul Naschy's take on the mummy is decidedly different. On the one hand, it shares with the Universal and Hammer series' mummification as punishment and a modern-day reincarnated love interest; however, Amenhotep is no high priest punished for loving a pharaoh’s consort, he is an irredeemable monster who graphically squashes the heads of virgins he deems unsuitable for Amarna's incarnation and wants to kill the violators of his tomb even though it was kind of necessary for him to be restored to life for his diabolical plans (Frank Agrama's later DAWN OF THE MUMMY would also have a sadistic pharaoh properly mummified but out for gut-munching once resurrected). This differing take is also reflected in the film's racial concerns with both any odd behavior of half-British Helen and European-educated Bey described as atavistic, and even Carter and Abigail seeming to suggest that a racial basis for Stark's insistence that Bey's willingness to entertain the curse of the pharaohs makes him a religious fanatic performing bloody rites for a "dusty mummy" without any proof. Although Naschy wrote the screenplay, credit also must go the visualization of director Carlos Aured who helmed some of Naschy's important 1970s works in between other works helmed by Leon Klimovsky (WEREWOLF SHADOW), and the Techniscope photography of Francisco Sanchez (VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES) who foregoes the more considered camera moves of his non-anamorphic films for Naschy in favor of striking wide and deep compositions this time around. The ending conflagration is as expected – it appears that the massive cemetery and mausoleum near the grounds of Bey's country house is the same location used in Aured's and Naschy's CURSE OF THE DEVIL and BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL – but the surprisingly downbeat ending anticipates the more regressive and budget-impoverished VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST. The score is credited to Alfonso Santisteban (GRAVEYARD OF HORROR) who may have contributed the rich orchestral main theme – either for the film or from another one of his scores – but the soundtrack consists mainly of CAM recordings including Carlo Rustichelli's WHIP AND THE BODY and Stelvio Cipriani's WHIRLPOOL along with some other tracks that Naschy would reuse in NIGHT OF THE WERWOLF.

Apparently intended for an Avco Embassy theatrical release based on the existence of a theatrical trailer (the distributor appending "An Avco Embassy Film" to an export trailer very much in the spirit of the hyperbole-heavy one for COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE seen on the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray of that title), THE MUMMY'S REVENGE was released to Avco Embassy's Nightmare Theater television package – which included Naschy's FURY OF THE WOLFMAN and HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, Armando de Ossorio's NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, Claudio Guerin Hill's BELL FROM HELL, Francisco Lara Polop's MURDER MANSION, Raul Artigot's THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN, Joe D'Amato's DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER, Damiano Damiani's THE WITCH, Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON, and Jose Antonio Nieves Conde's MARTA along with the American DEAR DEAD DELILAH and British DOOMWATCH – and that print showed up on VHS courtesy of Unicorn Video looking dark and badly cropped. While it seems likely that the film was shot like others of the period in nude and covered versions, and it makes sense that the TV print would use the covered version (although the TV version of FURY OF THE WOLFMAN had covered takes, Avco Embassy also had the uncovered version which turned up on VHS alongside the TV version stateside), and the more recent anamorphic Spanish DVD was also the covered version, the uncovered version has never turned up and may never have been released.

Scorpion Releasing's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray presents two versions of the film, both covered: an extended cut (91:35) which adds a sequence featuring the mummy's respective killing and abduction of a groom and bride at 40:48-43:03 that was missing from the Spanish master in inferior quality, and a mislabeled "English theatrical cut" (89:19) which is the master without the added scene – the running time the 24fps equivalent of the Spanish DVD's 85:36 PAL timing – which was indeed included in the TV print (and there is English audio for it on the extended cut). The HD master is an improvement over what has come before, but the quality is overall variable, with the cinematography partially to blame. The "Egyptian" studio shots, Spanish location interiors, and London daylight exteriors look fairly crisp – enough so that cars can be seen over Taylor's shoulder while he and Silva talk beside the Thames and Polack's bald cap is more obvious than the rest of his scar prosthetics – while the night exterior and sewer scenes are probably faithful to the photography in that the screen can be annoying pitch black for long moments. Perhaps a 4K scan might have eked out more texture and grain but we may have go get used to Naschy films not looking immaculate due to the care of the materials and the lack of interest of the rights owners; it is, however, the best way to see the film since fandubs/subs of the Spanish DVD would either be cut or similarly patched up. The extended cut has Spanish and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono options, and the former is highly recommended not just because of the quality of the performances and the fidelity, but also because the familiar English dub comes from a much lesser source (possibly VHS) and has dropouts and uneven levels throughout (plus, whoever dubbed archaeologist Taylor has him pronouncing "papyrus" in the most infuriating way). Optional English subtitles are available for the Spanish track and have a 2009 copyright date at the end, suggesting that they may be adapted from whoever did the fansub of the Spanish DVD that was floating around the net years ago. The shorter cut has only an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track of the same quality.