The Mummy’s Most Terrifying Creature Is (Sort Of) Based On Real Life

The Mummy features many intimidating monsters, locations, and daunting scenarios to heighten the movie’s suspense, but one of its most terrifying creatures is rooted in reality. However, while The Mummy features fairly accurate portrayals of its timeline’s events, one terrifying thing depicted in the movie isn’t nearly as bad in real-life as it is throughout the first installment’s events. The Mummy franchise worsened over time, but one of the things that each installment in The Mummy franchise remained true to was its handling of the action, Egyptian lore, and mythology.

Although the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy innovated its portrayals of Egyptian culture, it was noticeably lacking in its depictions of convincing monsters and creatures. Additionally, the subsequent Brendan Fraser installments of The Mummy also suffered from less-believable interpretations of some of Egypt’s more recognizable monsters and creatures. The Mummy remains a classic entry in the franchise since it does an excellent job building tension and suspense with its portrayals of various creatures. As such, one of its most terrifying creatures actually exists.

The Mummy’s Scarabs Have Real-Life Inspiration

The scarabs in The Mummy are based on Dermestids, better known as skin beetles.

The Mummy‘s impressive CGI brought its scarabs to life in the 1999 action adventure movie, and because of the near-infinite number of them onscreen, largely contributed to some of the movie’s scariest moments. While the scarabs seen in the movie are absolutely terrifying, they are based on real-life creatures called Dermestids. Part of the Dermestidae family, Dermestids actually aren’t as harmful or intimidating as the scarabs in The Mummy. In fact, based on their habits and small size, Dermestids actually rank as some of the least harmful insects in the wild.

The Real Scarabs Are Way Less Scary

Dermestids are best known for scavenging.

While The Mummy depicts scarabs as vicious creatures that can crawl through human skin, their real-life counterparts have a better reputation for scavenging through forests for food, shelter, and any other means of survival. Although Dermestids do have a habit of crawling on human skin, they do so in order to eat microscopic organisms and dead skin. The decision to depict Dermestids as fearsome skin-invading scarabs with a tenacious killer instinct makes sense, as it raises the stakes for the protagonists while also paying homage to some of their real-life behavior.

Dermestids aren’t as dangerous as the scarabs depicted in The Mummy, and the creatures seen in the movie aren’t even scarabs. To the uninitiated, they could be, but keen-eyed viewers would notice that the creatures depicted in the movie are actually dung beetles. While the distinction between beetles might not immediately make sense, it does when one considers that dung beetles look more physically imposing than Dermestids. Due to their slick, all-black appearance, and the pincers in front of their faces, The Mummy made a wise decision to use them instead of actual Dermestids.