The Tomb (1986)

Interesting facts

• Based on: The Jewel of Seven Stars

The Tomb is a 1986 American supernatural horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray and starring Michelle Bauer, Richard Alan Hench, David Pearson and Susan Stokey. Despite being respectively given first and second billing, Cameron Mitchell only has a supporting role, and John Carradine features in single scene. Sybil Danning also only appears in the prologue, despite being prominently shown on the poster. The plot concerns an ancient Egyptian vampire who kills those in possession of artifacts stolen from her and taken to the United States by grave robbers.

Production

The film's basic idea came to Fred Olen Ray when he learned from an insider at New World Pictures that the company was considering an adaptation of F. Paul Wilson's 1984 novel The Tomb. The director reasoned that if he managed to get a homonymous film into production before they made their own, his competitors might give him an easy payday to rename it and keep the title for themselves (New World ultimately passed on the adaptation).

Towards the end of 1984, a friend of Ray's opened to him about a problem. He had rented some set panels for a student film he was making at Columbia University, but the school had granted him restrictive time slots at their in-house film studio. The set, an Indiana Jones-inspired tomb, had been built by production designer Alan Jones and carpenters from Cinebar on behalf of advertising agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample.

Ray realized the production value he could get out of it, and offered his friend to rent a studio for two full days, on the condition that he could use the set during both nights to make a sizzle reel for a film of his own. The director quickly commissioned two sections of the screenplay, both taking place inside the tomb and bookending the central story arc.

The film marked Michelle Bauer's first lead role, and her first work with Fred Olen Ray, to whom she was introduced by a mutual acquaintance, producer Paul Hertzberg. She was chosen over one of Ray's established stars, who would have had to cover her blonde hair with a wig for the role.

Trans World Entertainment put up a modest $185,000 for Ray to shoot the rest of The Tomb. The second sessions spanned thirteen days and took place in April 1985. The land around Iverson Ranch, California, stood in for the Egyptian desert.

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