Digital Reincarnation: The Mediated Bodies and Multiple Lives of The Mummy

Abstract

This article mobilizes the motif of digital reincarnation to examine the regenerating bodies and the multiple lives of the mummy in The Mummy franchise. I read the body of the mummy as a cyborg hybrid because it features enhanced powers of rejuvenation that are indicative of malleable, porous, and networked bodies of our digital era. This updated version of a computer-generated mummy infuses digital aesthetics and logic into the mummy complex of cinema. Assembled in the virtual production pipeline of global Hollywood, this contemporary mummy is a heterogeneous amalgam of media forms: organic flesh, synthetic prosthetics, and digital bytes.