Statuesque Valerie Leon is possessed by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian queen in this cult Hammer horror based on Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars. With hardly a bandage in sight, director Seth Holt tried to radically rethink the mummy genre, and largely succeeded in creating a fascinating fantasy with a uniquely menacing atmosphere dripping in delicious irony. Sadly, Holt died during shooting; Hammer boss Michael Carreras took over and the film is not as interesting as it should have been. The same story was the basis for The Awakening in 1980.

Two Egyptologists, Professor Fuchs and Corbeck, are instrumental in unleashing unmitigated horror by bringing back to England the mummified body of Tara, the Egyptian Queen of Darkness. Fuchs’s daughter becomes involved in a series of macabre and terrifying incidents, powerless against the forces of darkness, directed by Corbeck, that are taking possession of her body and soul to fulfill the ancient prophesy that Queen Tara will be resurrected to continue her reign of unspeakable evil.