[Review]—"Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse" is a Scareless Mummified Tale

Finally, here it is—my final Dark Shadows review—Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse. No, this wasn't the last of Daniel Ross's novellas—written under his wife Marilyn's name—as it is only the sixteenth book in the thirty-two-book series, which does not include the novelization of House of Dark Shadows. You could ask, "Why not read the remainder of the series?" It's a simple answer—Amazon only has thirteen titles among the first sixteen books on Kindle.

The plot of Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse, initially published in April 1970, concentrates on Prof. Anthony Collins—this family has too many extended members—arriving in Collinwood to catalog his Egyptian artifacts, including the mummy of King Rehotiplater. Of course, the mummy is resurrected and unleashes horror upon Collinsport—seriously—vampires, witches, ghosts, serial killers, and now mummies—I wouldn't live there.

I'm taking a random guess that Daniel Ross must have run out of ideas with Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse because it's nothing more than a retelling of Univeral Pictures' The Mummy, but with fewer thrills and scares. Everyone's favorite vampire, Barabas Collins, is back as Maggie Evan's love interest and hero—and Quentin—the cursed werewolf—is also back—just in the nick of time as the corpses are piling up. Predictable beyond logic, there's something about Ross's Gothic aesthetic that affixes my mind, keeping me entertained to the end. ╌★★½✰✰