The Mummy features horror icon Boris Karloff in a legendary performance as the Egyptian Imhotep who is accidentally revived by a team of archaeologists after 3 700 years. It is revealed in a flashback that he was a high priest embalmed alive for trying to revive the vestal virgin whom he loved after she had been sacrificed. Alive again he sets out on an obsessive—and deadly—quest to find his lost love. Featuring groundbreaking makeup by Jack Pierce and artful direction by Karl Freud to achieve a mysterious atmosphere this terrifying classic inspired countless sequels spoofs and spin-offs that continue to fuel the legacy of the monster to this day.