pyramid

Ancient Egyptian culture has been fodder for horror stories since King Tut was discovered in 1922. Early tabloid journalists reported that the “Curse of the Pharaohs” was responsible for the deaths of several archeologists and moneymen behind the dig. And by the time Boris Karloff came shambling onto movie screens ten years later wrapped in moldy rags, the iconography of The Mummy was set in stone, just like spooky hieroglyphics.

The Pyramid (2014) seems to have stumbled onto yet another good use of the “found-footage” gimmick. At the very least, it makes logical sense that archeologists would capture their work on film…so the documentary team that tags along is really just overkill. Geeked about their discovery of a structure buried “under” the sand, our team sneaks inside to rescue their stranded robotic-rover before riots in the capital force them out of the country.

Horror films revolve around bad ideas. And this is the first of many.

Director Gregory Levasseur has all the technical tools at his disposal: a creepy set, expendable characters and cameras by the dozen. But somehow The Pyramid barely generates one scare in its entire 89 minutes. And once the mummified menace is revealed to be completely computer generated, the ratio drops below zero. Levasseur forgets the one advantage of the found footage format: you don’t have to show the monster!

The cast doesn’t exactly do him any favors; delivering their “off-the-cuff” lines in such stilted fashion that whatever tension might have been hidden in the script is squashed. But perhaps it’s not fair to hold The Pyramid up to the lofty standard of a major studio release. It has the feel of a teenage slumber party pick, watched between prank phone calls and pillow fights. There’s still a place for movies like that: it’s called cable TV.

Fox’s Blu-ray presentation is awesome to look at, as you might expect. But only bothers with four brief (2 minute) featurettes and an equally brief extended ending as extras. Kudos on the nice cover art, though, which suggests a far superior film.