The Pyramid (2014)

The Pyramid (2014) 💀

⚠️ Content Warning

This is a horror film. Expect discussion of violence, disturbing imagery, claustrophobic environments, and some truly baffling decisions that will make you question how these people made it this far in life.

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Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

Because apparently everyone and every studio wants to have their own mummy or egyptian movie.

Because immediately… we need to talk.

The trailer and poster for this movie are selling you something very specific. You see the sand, the pyramid, the mummy face buried underneath, all dramatic like something ancient is waking up.

You’re thinking:

👉 “Okay, this is gonna be a mummy movie.”
👉 “Ancient curse, something buried, something awakened.”

Cool.

Great.

That is not what this movie is.

If y’all are wondering why i’m reviewing these now, it’s because we’re getting a new mummy film that just released today by Lee Cronin, so I thought it’d be a perfect time to look back at some niche mummy, movies or egyptian movies.

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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

So the movie follows a group of archaeologists who discover a newly uncovered pyramid in Egypt. Not just any pyramid—this one is three-sided, which already makes it feel mysterious and different.

Leading the team is Dr. Miles Holden, played by Denis O’Hare, who is basically your classic obsessed archaeologist. You can tell immediately this guy cares more about discovery than, I don’t know… staying alive.

His daughter Nora is also part of the team, and she’s pretty much the only one trying to act like a normal human being. She’s the voice of reason surrounded by people who clearly woke up and chose bad decisions.

Then you’ve got a documentary crew filming everything, because of course we need that found-footage angle. And right away, you know what that means:

👉 shaky cameras
👉 people filming when they absolutely should not be filming
👉 “this will be great footage” energy

The military shows up at one point and basically says:

👉 “Hey, things are unstable, you need to leave.”

And the team responds with:

👉 “Nah, we’re good.”

So naturally… they go inside the pyramid.

And once they’re in, surprise—things go wrong immediately.

They get lost, tunnels collapse, exits disappear, and now they’re stuck underground in this maze of tight, narrow passageways with no clear way out.

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Tone & Atmosphere

I’m gonna give this movie credit where it actually earns it.

This thing can be creepy.

There are moments where the claustrophobia really kicks in. The tunnels are tight, the lighting is minimal, and you genuinely feel that panic of being trapped underground. There are scenes where they’re crawling through spaces that feel way too small, and you’re just sitting there like:

👉 “Nope. Absolutely not. I would’ve turned around immediately.”

The atmosphere is probably the strongest part of this entire movie. When it leans into that feeling of isolation and being buried alive, it works.

For a while, I was actually like:

👉 “Okay… this might be something.”

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Characters

Denis O’Hare as the dad is doing what he can with the role. He plays that obsessive, tunnel-vision archaeologist pretty well, but the problem is the writing turns him into someone who makes decisions that are just… wild.

There are multiple points where you’re watching him and thinking:

👉 “You are the reason everyone is going to die.”

And he just keeps going.

Nora, played by Ashley Hinshaw, is easily the most grounded character in the movie. She reacts like a normal person would, which honestly makes her stand out because everyone else is operating on horror movie logic at full speed.

The rest of the crew? They mostly exist to make bad decisions and then suffer the consequences of those decisions. You don’t really get deep character development here—it’s more like:

👉 “Who’s next?”

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Final Thoughts

This is one of those movies where you can literally see the better version of it sitting right there… and the movie just refuses to be that version.

Because everything is in place.

You’ve got Egypt.
You’ve got a pyramid.
You’ve got archaeologists digging into something they shouldn’t.

This should’ve been easy.

And for a while, it actually kind of works. The atmosphere is there, the tension is there, and it feels like it’s building toward something genuinely interesting.

But then it completely drops the ball on the one thing it promised:

👉 being a mummy movie

And that’s where it loses me.

Not because it’s the worst thing ever made… but because it’s not what it said it was. It sets up one idea and then goes in a completely different direction that feels way more generic and way less interesting.

And that’s frustrating.

Because this could’ve been really good.

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Final Rating

4/10

👉 “There’s a solid horror idea buried in here… unfortunately, it’s not the one they advertised.”

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SPOILERS

Alright… now we get into it.

Because once they’re inside the pyramid, the movie starts hinting that something is down there with them. You get these glimpses of creatures moving in the dark, crawling through tunnels, watching them.

And at first, you think:

👉 “Okay, maybe these are cursed guardians, maybe this ties into a mummy or some ancient ritual.”

Nope.

What we actually get is a bunch of humanoid creatures running around like this is some underground maze horror game.

And then the big reveal hits.

The thing behind all of this?

👉 Anubis.

Now that sounds cool on paper. That SHOULD be cool. But the way the movie handles it is just… disappointing.

Instead of this ancient, terrifying god tied to mythology and judgment, he’s basically just:

👉 a fast-moving monster chasing people through tunnels

That’s it.

No deep lore. No real buildup. No sense of “you have awakened something ancient and unstoppable.”

It’s just:

👉 “Run. It’s coming.”

And that’s where the movie completely loses its identity.

Because at that point, it’s not even pretending to be a mummy movie anymore. It’s just a creature feature set in a pyramid.

And that’s the biggest issue.

Not that the idea itself is terrible… but that it’s not what we were promised.

You marketed this like an ancient curse, like something buried coming back to life, like a mummy story.

And instead, we got:

👉 “you entered the wrong dungeon level, good luck”

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And yeah…

This is gonna be the one where you’re just sitting there the whole time like:

👉 “This could’ve been so much better…” 😭