Indie horror from Darkside Films started its life titled Anubis: Guardian of the Underworld before distributor Silver Nitrate decided to retitle it and try to pass it off as a sequel to David DeCoteau's original (much to the chagrin of director D.W. Kann) and the only thing the movies have in common is that they both contain a mummy - but if you're wondering which one is better, this is.

While this isn't anything to write home about and it suffers from a finale that's sadly lacking (with a few unsuccessful attempts at humour involving a pointless hobo character who speaks in a wacky accent and a Nerf gun), considering that it was made with very little money and a crew of only four people it's a commendable try and better than a lot of no-budget horror flicks out there.

The story is your basic "slasher in the woods" tale with a twist of black magic and Egyptian myth as it starts out in the desert as an Egyptian warrior has a swordfight with the malicious god Anubis (a dog faced mummy creature) and manages to trap the beast in a stone using a magical book.

We flash forward to modern day as a small group of friends, led by goth witch wannabe Noel Francomano, head to the woods to perform a ritual that will bring back Anubis and give allow them to make him do their bidding. They're supposed to make a circle of sand from a statue (to protect them as long as their inside it) and recite some passages, but things don't work until blood is accidently spilled on the stone Anubis is trapped in. However things go terribly wrong and they end-up on the run as they're stalked by the angry resurrected demon (who uses a mean sickle).

It's a mixed bag here as the unserious tone leads to some amusing dialogue (like when they mention they got the statue in the "deepest, darkest wilds of Canada") and a few pleasingly over-the-top performances (especially Francomano who gets to ham it up and makes the best impression out of the amateur cast); plus there's a decent batch of deaths such as a cool shovel moment and a decent "eye gouge" scene, but it also really doesn't have much in the way of story and even resorts to having our witch character being visited by her dead mother (it really has nothing to do with the story), there's too much static dialogue between the horror scenes, and like mentioned before the finale is pretty weak.

So if you like low-budget do-it-yourself horror then give this one a go, but if you're not big on the whole "digital video" movement you probably haven't gotten this far into the review anyway. (Chris Hartley, 4/6/05)

Directed By: D.W. Kann.
Written By: David Buscemi.

Starring: Christopher Kann, Victoria Campbell, Noel Francomano, Alex Whall.