It’s interesting to think, as a culture, what we deem scary.  We have a diverse collection of nightmarish creatures with which we’re fascinated.  They star in our favorite horror movies, and gentler versions of their faces get stuck to the windows of suburban houses the entire month of October in celebration of Halloween.  Plucking these beings – ghosts, vampires, werewolves and the like – from various cultures and myths, we embrace them and re-invent them as our own, simultaneously fearing and worshipping horror creations that may be remarkably different from the original version of the entity in question.  It’s a bizarre practice, if you think about it, and one that may not be as prominent in other cultures.  It might make us wonder: What is horror?  What can we learn about ourselves through the monsters we create? Continue reading “A Tale of Two Mummies: The Mummy in 1932 and 1999” →