The Pyramid

The cast list probably fires enough warning shots for us to realise that this is going to be nonsense - and on that front, at least, it doesn't disappoint! A group of archaeologists are poking around inside a previously unexplored Egyptian pyramid when things start going bump in the dark. The building becomes a bit unstable, and next thing they are all being persecuted by a manifestation of Anubis, not best pleased that his slumbers have been disturbed. What now ensues, well you can easily guess. What makes this worse is that director Gregory Levasseur has decided that we are going to have to watch this as if we really were inside the structure. I'm guessing he hoped the darkness, the shadowy torch-light style photography (think "Blair Witch" 1999), might help to create some menace. Wrong! It just comes across as cheap and cheerful but with no sign of Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee. On that score, the acting and dialogue are mutually banal ("thank you captain Egypt"!), it's got loads of hysterical screaming which, again, annoys rather than scares - and I was rooting for the hungry fiend from pretty early on! Will anyone escape... who cares?