Characters from the Goosebumps novels The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and Return of the Mummy
Gabe Sabry and Sari Hassad
Portrayed By: Annick Obonsawin and Daniel DeSanto (TV)
Two Egyptian-American cousins who repeatedly find themselves getting lost in pyramids and mixed up with ancient curses and mummies being brought back to life.
- The Ace: Sari, big time. She's a straight-A student, is always finding ways to one-up Gabe, and is so competitive that she can literally turn eating breakfast into a contest.
- Butt-Monkey: Gabe constantly finds himself being the butt of his uncle and cousin's practical jokes.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Summoner, a mummy hand that Gabe keeps as a good luck charm. It seems like a cheap trinket, but ends up being a major plot device in both books.
- Clashing Cousins: Sari likes pranking Gabe and Gabe is frustrated by that and by how competitive she is.
- Competition Freak: Sari. Gabe says she can even turn breakfast eating into a competition.
- Daddy's Girl: Sari. Justified because her mom died when she was young and she only sees her dad during the holidays.
- Hidden Depths: Sari talks a big game, but is actually rather squeamish when it comes to the gory details of mummification. The second book also has a kind of sweet part where she confides to Gabe the reason she is being so annoying is she's worried the whole excavation will turn out to be a bust and Uncle Ben's reputation could be ruined.
- Insufferable Genius: Sari loves flaunting her intelligence to Gabe as well as her pranking him.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Despite being a Proud Beauty AND an Insufferable Genius she has some more endearing qualities, such as her bravery, and helps the three of them get out of danger multiple times.
- Missing Mom: Sari's mother died when she was little.
- Named by the Adaptation: Gabe's surname comes from the TV version of Return of the Mummy.
- The Prankster: Sari likes to prank Gabe whenever he visits her.
Uncle Ben Hassad
Portrayed By: Elias Zarou (TV)
Gabe's uncle, an Egyptian archaeologist who spends his days exploring pyramids. He does serious work, but that doesn't stop him from being a world-class practical joker.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He may have a major knack for jokes, but he knows when to be serious. Particularly when his daughter and nephew get lost in a pyramid.
- Cool Uncle: To Gabe, who doesn't hesitate to stay with him when his parents offer - of course, that changes when he hears that Sari is also with him.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Even after being told that Ahmed wants to kill and mummify Gabe and Sari, he still thinks he can rationally talk things over "as scientist to scientist". Needless to say, the Brotherhood of Man approach doesn't work too well. In the sequel, he's the same way with Nila, partly because he has a crush on her.
- The Prankster: A trait he shares with his daughter.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Like Dr. Deep, he does his best to protect the children, even if he's useless against the villains.
Ahmed
A superstitious scientist who takes ancient curses a little too seriously.
- Ax-Crazy: Anyone who violates the tomb is either mummified alive, or thrown into a flaming tar pit. Not to mention, he seems to REALLY love this job.
- Big Bad: Of The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The mummies are actually the victims and Ahmed is the one murdering anyone who invades the tomb.
- Karma Houdini: Other than being scared off by the mummies at the end he basically gets off scot-free. Even more weirdly, he is never heard from or even brought up again, even in the sequel. You would think one of the characters would say "hey, remember that guy Ahmed who tried to murder us last year"? Or something like that, but no.
- Knight of Cerebus: He's right up there with Mr. Toggle and the Lord High Executioner as one of the darkest villains in the series.
- Knight Templar: Claims to turn temple intruders into mummies to appease his ancestor's curse. It's not clear if the curse is actually real, but considering this is the Goosebumps universe...
- Pragmatic Villainy: His methods are unforgivably horrific, but Ahmed does try to warn explorers away when he can, and only resorts to murder if they breach the tomb.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Gabe inadvertently brings all the mummies to life, they threaten to throw him into the tar pit, but he ends up booking it out of the pyramid instead.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He speaks very calmly and quietly, even when informing Gabe and Sari of their imminent deaths.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: He seems pretty normal and nondescript when we first meet him. It becomes clear soon enough that his intentions aren't good, but there's no clue to just how deranged he is until the end.
- Would Hurt a Child: Even if you're a kid and stumble into the tomb by accident. He even shrugs this off by telling Gabe that plenty of pharaohs died at his age.
Priestess Khala
The titular mummy from the first book.
- Ambiguously Evil: While there is a lineage of people with Ahmed being the most recent who try to kill and mummify anyone who enters her chamber (even unintentionally), it's never stated if she would actually approve or not.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Her name apparently just means "maternal aunt" in Arabic (not Ancient Egyptian).
- Chekhov's Gun: The "Summoner", a mummy hand Gabe found at a garage sale, turns out to be her real hand, and really does have magic powers.
- Posthumous Character: She has been dead for millennia at the start of the first book.
Princess Nila
A reporter from the Egyptian newspaper, "The Cairo Sun", Nila befriends Gabe and his family in "Return of The Mummy." In reality, she's actually a thousands year old Egyptian princess who hopes to use the Hassad family as a means to resurrect her brother. A character resembling her appears in a promotional shot for the Goosebumps movie. She's not particularly strong, but the lengths and steps she takes to find her brother are impressive.
- Ambition is Evil: Wants to resurrect her brother, Khor-ru, so they can make a comeback and take over Egypt together.
- Animorphism: Can transform into a scarab, which is somehow connected to her amber pendant.
- Big Bad: Of Return Of The Mummy.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To Gabe and Sari's horror.
- Cain and Abel: Her brother tries to strangle her after waking up. Admittedly, it's less out of hatred and jealousy and more because he didn't want to be reanimated by anyone.
- Femme Fatale: She uses Uncle Ben's crush on her to gain his trust before knocking him out and stuffing him in a sarcophagus.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She may be a sociopath, but Nila was willing to go to extremes to bring her brother back so they could rule together. She also mentions her mother as the one who named her.
- Incest Subtext: She's driven to resurrect her brother above anything else in order that they can "rule together". It's not elaborated upon since it's a children's book, but considering that Egyptian royalty practiced dynastic incest... and to make matters worse, Prince Khor-ru is a desiccated corpse by that point.
- Really 700 Years Old: Pretty awkward, considering Gabe's uncle had a crush on her...
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Her ultimate fate, after Gabe smashes her pendant.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Waits for thousands of years to begin her plan, creates a new identity, manipulates an archaeological dig, harnesses Gabe's power, brings back Khor-ru... only for her brother to want nothing to do with her, and then gets trapped in scarab form thanks to Gabe's interference. Though it seems thanks to the movie, she'll get another chance.
- Soul Jar: Her scarab pendant. It's apparently what allows her to maintain human form.
