Kolchak: Demon and the Mummy

Like its companion feature "Crackle of Death," "Demon and the Mummy" (retitled for IMDB "Kolchak: Demon and the Mummy") is comprised of two episodes from the beloved KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER teleseries, the former showcasing episodes "Firefall" and "The Energy Eater," this one featuring "Demon in Lace" and "Legacy of Terror" (that was the reason these four entries were unavailable in syndication, either on THE CBS LATE SHOW or cable's Sci-Fi channel. In both cases, Darren McGavin's intrepid newshound (and Simon Oakland's Tony Vincenzo) ventures back and forth between two different plot lines, with new voiceovers attempting to bridge gaps in continuity (even Jack Grinnage as Ron Updyke was called in to add a single new line). "Demon in Lace" is the more satisfying of these admittedly weak story lines, almost too similar in the lineup of victims, young male college students succumbing to fatal heart attacks, those from "Legacy of Terror" found with their hearts cut out as sacrifices to the Aztec mummy Nanautzin (Mickey Gilbert). The early portion kicks off with the Demon, interrupted at 23 minutes by the entire Mummy outing, then by the 69 minute mark the final revelation of the female succubus bound to an ancient Sumerian tablet discovered in the Iraqi desert that has lured virile young men to their untimely deaths. With the entire series now easily available, viewing these four individual episodes is the best way to watch them intact, but these two hard to find compilations warrant a look for the curious, last seen on the Sci-Fi channel in 1998.