There had better be extra credit for this.
Crypt Keeper: (wearing glasses, a wool hat, and a college sweater, surrounded by Ancient Egyptian artifacts and looking over a collection of books, atop which lies a dead professor) Hello, creeps! I'll be with you in a moment. I was just in the middle of cramming for my final exams. (he crams a ball of paper into the professor's mouth) Bet you didn't know your pal the Crypt Keeper was still in s-ghoul. As a matter of fact, I'm at the top of my class at Horror-vard! (cackles) Which brings us to tonight's all-frighter. It concerns a couple of college kids who've got their own ideas about higher dead-ucation, in a bit of hack-edamia I call: Creep Course.
The pompous Professor Finley (Jeffrey Jones) teaches a class on Egyptology, teaching his students about Ramseth, a bloodthirsty mummy who was said to return from the grave every year on the date of his death to search for Princess Nefra, his long-lost lover, prompting the villagers of his kingdom to keep him at bay by offering a virgin sacrifice to him. During his lessons, Finley primarily picks on Reggie Skulnick (Anthony Michael Hall), a dumb-but-charismatic jock who never pays attention to his lectures. On the contrary, Finley is consistently impressed by Stella Bishop (Natalie Siemaszko), a nerdy bookworm who takes excellent notes. When Finley threatens to fail Reggie and revoke his football scholarship, the jock tries to seduce Stella into helping him study for the mid-term exams in their class. Stella initially assumes that Reggie wants her to give him some tutoring, but he actually wants her to meet Finley at his place and distract him while Reggie steals the answer sheets.
Stella initially refuses, but Reggie promises that he will take her to a campus party and lays it on thick until she reluctantly agrees. She soon discovers that Finley's grandfather, an archeologist who was said to have explored Egypt's Valley of the Kings, had Ramseth's burial chamber excavated from his tomb in Egypt and exported to his basement in America. Stella soon discovers the chamber, and that Ramseth came with it. Reggie is revealed to have been working with Finley (having been bribed with a passing grade on his exam) to dupe Stella into the chamber so she can be Ramseth's latest sacrifice. Fortunately for Stella, she remembers everything Finley taught her in class, and decides to use his lessons to her advantage.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the comic, Stella was a Dumb Blonde who aimed her feminine wiles on a professor to get an A. In the episode, she's a studious bookworm who takes lengthy notes.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Zigzagged with Stella. The comic version of her was a co-ed who coasted on her looks, but the episode has her start off as generally nerdy, typically beneath a handsome jock's notice. However, she dolls herself up as Nefra to dupe Ramseth into sparing her life, becoming pretty attractive in the process.
- Bandage Mummy: Stella dresses Finley and Reggie's corpses in this manner for her class project. She gets a perfect score for the project, but she's taken away for questioning soon after.
- Bittersweet Ending: Stella may have gotten her revenge on Finley and Reggie, but by presenting their corpses as her class project, she is taken away for questioning. She did get a good grade on said project, though.
- Blackmail: Reggie tries to blackmail Finley into giving him a better grade than the one he initially gives him by threatening to steal and sell his ancient artifacts.
- Blackmail Backfire: Reggie's blackmail attempt on Finley goes south when he ends up spewing something black from his own body.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Reggie tells Finley that his attempted blackmailing should be considered "a last minute renegotiation."
- Blind Without 'Em: Stella admits that she's blind as a bat without her glasses on.
- Blunt "Yes": In regards to how Stella survived her encounter with Ramseth.Finley: You mean that you and he—?
Stella: (bitterly) Yes! - Bookworm: Stella, who both looks the part and actively pays attention in Finley's class, even using the villainous professor's lectures against him.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Reggie's pants begin darkening as his dissolving organs leak out through his anus and crawl down his legs.
- Butt-Monkey: Stella can be seen as one of them in the second half of the episode, where she's tricked by a jock and her own professor into becoming a virgin sacrifice for a mummy, is forced to make love to said mummy to get him to spare her life, and ends the episode being taken away by the police.
- Chekhov's Classroom: Everything Finley teaches at the beginning of the episode is used by Stella to survive her encounter with Ramseth. As she herself says, "I take excellent notes."
- Chummy Mummy: Ramseth grows rather attached to Stella once she dresses herself up as Princess Nefra.
- Cigar Chomper: Reggie puts an ancient roll of tobacco in his mouth when he gets confrontational with Finley.
- Contrived Coincidence: Stella finding the disguise she wears to become Nefra completely by chance inside Ramseth's tomb.
- Covered in Gunge: Finley gets a bit of Reggie's dissolved organs on his person when Reggie barfs them up.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Ramseth was known to react violently toward any man who so much as laid eyes on Princess Nefra. Stella uses this to her advantage by dressing herself up as Nefra and flirting with Finley.
- Crazy-Prepared: Finley and Reggie have been prepping to lure Stella to Ramseth for a while, even lighting the torches in the pharaoh's burial chamber in anticipation for the night of his death, and blowing a sacred horn to awaken him.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Reggie ends up being tricked into drinking a potion that liquifies his internal organs, causing him to puke them up as a mass of black bile.
- Deadpan Snarker: Finley becomes one of these whenever he deals with Reggie.
- Death by Irony: As he kills him, Finley rebukes Reggie for being too stupid to pay attention in his class and miss important details. In the basement tomb, Stella reveals she survived by actually paying attention and reminds Finley about what he said about Ramseth's jealous streak, just before he gets his brain ripped out with a brain screw.
- Denser and Wackier: There are definite shades of this trope in the episode, largely dealing with how improbable it is, such as Finley's grandfather moving an entire Egyptian burial chamber, completely intact, into his basement, and Ramseth easily falling for Stella's Nefra disguise, even though she's speaking English and is Caucasian.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Ramseth was apparently referred to by the people of his kingdom as "The Mummy who wouldn't Die."
- Disposing of a Body: After killing Reggie, Finley tries to hide his body inside a sarcophagus in his basement.
- The Dog Bites Back: After Finley tries to give her to Ramseth as a sacrifice, Stella turns the tables on him and sets Ramseth loose on him with a brain screw.
- The Dreaded: Ramseth was one of these to the people of his village, who annually sacrificed a virgin to him so they would be left alone.
- Dumb Jock: Reggie is a personification of the trope, usually daydreaming about football (which he says is the only thing he's good at) during Finley's lectures and missing all kinds of important details. The reason he even decides to work with Finley to lure Stella into his basement is so he can pass the professor's class and keep his football scholarship. And then he gets his organs liquified by an ancient potion Finley tricks him into drinking, rebuking him for never paying attention.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Trying to evade Ramseth, Stella spots an ancient headdress similar to Princess Nefra's, and decides to impersonate Princess Nefra to calm him down and seduce him.
- Evil Is Hammy: Finley, both while he's giving his lectures and in the privacy of his own home.
- Evil Redhead: Finley, since he's played by Jeffrey Jones.
- Fatal Flaw: Reggie's inability to pay attention to anything around him, which leads to his death.
- Flat "What": Finley's reaction when Stella reveals how she survived being Ramseth's latest sacrifice.
- Foreshadowing: Stella finding the illustration of Nefra in one of her books reveals that she and Nefra look uncannily alike. She later dresses up as Nefra herself to fool Ramseth into letting her live, after they have sex.
- For the Evulz / For Science!: Finley has both tropes covered. His grandfather, purportedly one of the first archeologists to explore the Valley of the Kings, had a live mummy brought back from Egypt, and he spent a majority of his life duping female students of his class to be virgin sacrifices for the mummy, initially to keep the mummy from killing him and keep it locked in his basement, since he's a living connection with Ancient Egypt and therefore the greatest historical treasure in antiquity (that he plots to take all the credit for). Once Finley gruesomely kills his Reggie after helping him lock Stella in Ramseth's tomb, it's gradually revealed that he also gives virgin sacrifices to Ramseth for his own sadism.Finley: All in the name of history...
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Reggie removes Stella's glasses to persuade her that he thinks she's beautiful. She later removes the glasses herself as part of her Nefra disguise.
- Grave Robbing: Finley proudly admits that his grandfather wasn't an archeologist, but a grave robber "who looted tombs up and down the Nile." The prizes that the old man got from said tombs were pretty hefty and valuable, including an entire intact tomb from Ramseth's castle.
- Hate Sink: Finley is meant to be seen as one for his constant ridicule of Reggie and his shamelessly luring Stella (and presumably other female students) to Ramseth to keep him at bay for another year. The ending reveals that not even Stella, his most intelligent student, can stand him, his lectures, or his attitude.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Finley's lessons allow for Stella to trick him into being killed by the mummy he's been housing in his basement.
- Hooks and Crooks: Ramseth is tricked into killing Finley, who Stella (dressed as Nefra) flirts with, by removing his brain through his nose with a brain screw.
- Identical Stranger: Stella discovers an illustration of Princess Nefra in one of her books that looks eerily similar to herself, and she uses this to her advantage by pretending that she's the real Nefra to get Ramseth to spare her life.
- Idiot Ball: After surviving Finley's attempts to sacrifice her to Ramseth, Stella promptly incriminates herself by displaying his and Reggie's corpses, dressed as mummies, for her class project. Naturally, the police are called and she's taken away for questioning. She doesn't even seem to notice anything's wrong with her project when she's introduced to the cops, only wanting to see if she got a good grade.
- I Love the Dead: A variation. Stella didn't actually want to have sex with the mummified Ramseth, but she didn't really have a choice.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Finley invites Reggie upstairs for drinks, saying that he needs one after summoning Ramseth.
- Jerk Jock: Reggie, who agrees to work with Finley to sacrifice Stella to Ramseth in exchange for passing his class.
- Karma Houdini: Even though he helps kill Finley, Ramseth remains unpunished for his yearly killing of virgin sacrifices, and now that the man who kept him locked up is out of the picture, there's always the possibility that he could break out and continue his rampages, especially now that Stella (having fooled him into thinking she's Nefra) is locked up as well.
- Les Collaborateurs: Reggie is revealed to be in league with Finley when the two of them dupe Stella into entering Ramseth's tomb and becoming his latest sacrifice.
- The Lost Lenore: Princess Nefra, Ramseth's one true love, who motivates him to return from the dead once a year to search for her, bringing untold destruction with him.
- Malicious Misnaming: Finley calls Reggie "Mr. Numbskull" at one point early in the episode.
- Meaningful Name: Reggie "Skulnick" is a dumb jock who has more skull than brain in his head.
- Mummy: Ramseth, one of only two mummies ever featured in the series, the other being Myrna from Lower Berth.
- Neck Lift: Rameth does one of these to Stella before she pulls her ruse, and he later does it to Finley before he kills him.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Reggie and Finley work together to lure Stella into being Ramseth's latest victim. When Reggie asks about the mid-term answer sheet he was supposed to receive for helping him, Finley gives him a C+ grade. Then, when Reggie tries to get a higher grade by threatening to take some of his artifacts for the cash, Finley poisons the guy with a liquifying potion that dissolves his innards.
- Nothing Is Scarier: According to Finley, the way in which the enraged Ramseth would murder the virgins offered to him when he would discover they aren't Nefra was "really too horrible to describe."
- Nepharious Pharaoh: Ramseth was described by Finley as a jealous, possessive, and bad-tempered pharaoh in life, and this trait carried over in death, as he ritualistically killed virgin sacrifices and destroyed everything in his way in his unending search for Nefra.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Reggie is hinted to have faked his stupidity (or at least part of it) to help Finley lure Stella into Ramseth's clutches. It wasn't enough to save him from drinking Finley's potion, though.
- Oh, Crap!: Reggie's stoic attitude towards Finley crumbles once Finley reminds him about the embalming lecture he zoned out on, as well as the reveal of what he actually drank.
- One True Love: Princess Nefra was the one true love of Ramseth, and he returned from the dead every year on the day he died to search for her, destroying everything and killing everyone who stood in his way.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Ramseth was noted to be one of these in Ancient Egypt, destroying everything in his path while searching for Princess Nefra.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: After Ramseth grabs Finley, Stella presents the mummy with a brain screw and sarcastically remarks, "Look what I found."
- Properly Paranoid: Stella asks Reggie why a charismatic jock like him would want to go out with a geeky, nerdy wallflower like her. She had every right to be suspicious once she's thrown into Ramseth's tomb.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Finley kills Reggie by tricking him into drinking a potion that the Ancient Egyptians used to dissolve a person's organs. In the run-up to this reveal, Finley chides Reggie for never paying attention in his class.Finley: Even the dimmest, bovine-brained nitwit usually perks up during the embalming lecture, it's so gross!
- Resurrected Romance: Ramseth died before he could consummate his relationship with Princess Nefra, his true love, and he returns from the grave once per year on the anniversary of his death to find Nefra, leaving a path of destruction in his wake.
- Sadist Teacher: Professor Finley, who works with his dumbest student to dupe his smartest student into becoming the latest sacrifice to the murderous mummy that his grandfather brought over from Egypt, then kills said dumb student in a hideously gruesome manner to "thank" him for doing so. It can also be assumed that he's done the same to at least one female student in his class every year.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the comic, Finley successfully kills and mummifies Stella. Here, she manages to turn the tables on him thanks to some help from Ramseth... and then gets taken in for questioning by the police.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Stella, for the majority of the episode, is shown to be pretty mousey looking with her baggy clothing and thick glasses. After encountering Ramseth, she dresses herself up in revealing Egyptian garments and eyeshadow to disguise herself as Nefra, and she looks smoking hot as a result.
- Super Gullible: Ramseth easily falls for Stella disguising herself as Princess Nefra, even though she doesn't speak his language or share his ethnicity.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When your class project is the corpses of your professor and another student, don't expect to get away with it without being taken by the police (whether you get a good grade or not).
- Villain Ball: Finley is killed by Stella and Ramseth when he tries hiding Reggie's body in the basement, where the pharaoh's tomb is, after he poisoned him.
- Virgin Sacrifice: One of these was used in Ancient Egypt to lure Ramseth away from his village every year. Finley and Reggie dupe Stella into entering Ramseth's tomb so she can be the next sacrifice, as he says to Reggie that they're getting harder to find these days.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Reggie puking his rotted organs out after he drinks Finley's potion.
- Wham Line: "What's the matter with you? Can't you do anything right?!" Said by Reggie to Finley, revealing that the two have been working together to lure Stella into Ramseth's clutches.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ramseth disappears after he kills Finley. Since Finley was the only one bringing the mummy his yearly virgin sacrifice, he's likely to break out of the basement and continue his rampages, especially now that "Nefra" has been locked up.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Given how its main characters are college students who end up dealing with an undead mummy, this episode could be seen as a remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "Lot 249", which was adapted for Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, released three years before this episode.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With the sacrifice seemingly accomplished, Finley poisons Reggie with a potion used in Ancient Egypt to liquify and dissolve a person's innards.
- You Monster!: Reggie outright calls Finley a sick man for luring virgins to Ramseth for the sake of riches and fame.
- Zombie Gait: Ramseth moves and walks in this manner, befitting his undead state.
Crypt Keeper: (seated behind piles of books) Ew! I guess that's a wrap for Reggie and Professor Finley. You know what they say kiddies, Nefra say "Nefra" again. (cackles) As for me, I've got to get back to my corpse catalog and decide on a major. I thought about going pre-dead, but I think I'd be better at Shriek-onomics. (cackles)
