Curse Of The Faceless Man

Written by Bamboo

An old black and white movie made in 1958, Curse of the Faceless man has a familiar plot line. A stone-covered body is discovered in the ruins of Pompeii which turn out to be the remains of Quintilus Aurelius. While trying to flee Pompeii, the mummy was buried in volcanic ash and turned to stone. Carlo Fiorillo, Italian archaeologist, speculates the mummy may hold some life; medical researcher Paul Mallon dismisses the idea. But people left alone with the seemingly petrified “faceless man” keep dying of crushed skulls; and Paul’s artist fiancée Tina starts having strange visions of the mummy. Even for a film made in the 1950s, the acting is terrible, and the plot is very predictable.

The doctors spend a lot of time trying to explain scientifically how the man could be alive after 2000 years of being under ground, and to be it all seems irrelevant. The main trope employed here is a classic one found in hundreds of movies similar to this with a wide degree of variation defining the genre. The mindless humanoid killing machine can be found with Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy or the dreaded Golem found in Jewish mythology. The movie, like the mummy in this case is very slow moving.

Like too many mummy movies where the monster could be easily outrun, characters have to make incredibly stupid decisions like standing still when the faceless man is coming at them, or running into a dead end where they are trapped. The narrating throughout the movie is nice, and the music is a little redeeming. It has very classic horror music that is more likely to scare you than the Mummy or screaming coming from the woman in this movie. Curse of the Faceless Man is directed by Edward L. Cahn, written by Jerome Bixby, and stars Richard Anderson; all three have done better work elsewhere.

I guess what really bothers me is how a mummy moving SO SLOW can possibly catch and kill someone. Also, after people see what’s happening, how do they continue to make such poor choices and get killed? It’s a fun old black and white mummy movie; there are much better movies to watch if you are looking for a laugh, or a scare. This one will bring you back to the old days however. Bad acting, predictable plot, mindless dialog, and no special effects make this one a miss for me. I suggest re watching “The Mummy” if you feel the urge for that type of movie.