Dr. Eduardo Almada (Ramón Gay) did not take the criticism of his theory of past life regression well. So with the help of his mentor (Jorge Mondragón) and his cowardly comic relief (Crox Alvarado), he hypnotizes his fiancée—who also happens to be his mentor’s daughter—Flor (Rosita Arenas). Luck would have it she used to be an Aztec virgin destined to be sacrificed to their god. Popoca, a brave warrior, was none to keen on this and wanted to snuggle with the hot virgin, but they got caught, so he was buried alive, forever to watch over a breastplate and armband that holds the secret to where the Aztecs hid their treasure. As for Past-Life-Flor, she got sacrificed, which is what was going to happen anyway, so no foul. Realizing all those uptight members of the Euro Psychiatric Congress weren’t going to take his word for it that his theory is true, he ignores Flor’s ranting about an ancient curse and heads out with his entourage to the in-town Aztec pyramid to find the breastplate. Unbeknownst to him, he’s been observed by the masked master criminal, The Bat (Luis Aceves Castañeda), who wants to get his hands on that breastplate.
Well, that’s some plot. And I have to say, Doc Eduardo is kind of an ass. After going on about how dangerous his experiment is and how the trauma of a past life could permanently damage the subject, the first thing he does to his girlfriend when he’s got her recalling her Aztec days is to zip her up to her sacrifice. Isn’t her death the kind of thing that might be traumatic? Couldn’t he have had her recall that nice day when she was gathering flowers? Oh well.
It’s all as silly as it sounds. It’s also cheap looking, generally. But having an actual Aztec ruin to use for the exterior shots goes a long way in making up for other shoddy sets. A real pyramid beats any CGI one, although director Rafael Portillo realized that and took it a bit too far. He had his camera set up on those ruins and damn if he wasn’t going to get a shot of each and every person slowly walking up and down the side.
I was amused by the things the film doesn’t explain but just presents as the characters’ normal lives. Eduardo has a young daughter. Where’s the mother? Who knows? He also lives with his under-aged brother. Why? Who knows? Neither of these kids affect the story. Since the brother keeps sneaking around to peep in at the experiment and stowaway on their temple visit I assumed he’d get into some kind of mummy problem, but nope. The Bat doesn’t do much of anything either, but he gets his chance in the sequels.
The titular character has only a few minutes of screen time. He’s not scary, but then anything this silly was never going to be frightening. I’ve seen worse looking cinematic mummies.
There’s a lot going on that’s just wacky. How much you enjoy The Aztec Mummy is directly related to your feelings about long, foggy, temple song and dance routines. Oh, and those ancient Aztecs liked opera. Really.