Lee Cronin's The Mummy digs up a horror franchise and brings it back to life
- Kazdyn Pierce
- 21 hours ago
- 4 min read
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, starring Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, and Natalie Grace, tracks an up-and-coming journalist relocated to Cairo with his young family. His oldest daughter Katie is plucked from their home and disappears into the unforgiving desert. Eight years later, back in the states in Albuquerque, Katie is discovered buried in a coffin and somehow miraculously alive, but as her family rejoices in bringing her home, a sinister evil is bubbling, looking to leave the family tattered in its wake.
Mummies have long been a part of the horror lexicon. An original monster derived from genius Boris Karloff in 1932’s The Mummy and part of the Universal Monsters catalogue, the creature has graced our screens for nearly an entire century. The wrapping of the corpse, the removal of the brain through the nose, the elaborately built structures designed to keep unwanted visitors out, or even in, these mummification rituals have lived rent free in our American brains for decade after decade. In 1999, we saw a reinvention of the great monster, taking the concept of the mummy and creating an Indiana Jones-esque action adventure that still contains the spooky qualities but is much more accessible and fun for the general audiences. Stephen Sommers, with the help of Brendan Fraser, elevated the classic scare to new levels with 1999’s The Mummy, which became such a smash hit and a mainstay in the zeitgeist, that it clogged up the mummy airwaves solely for about two decades.
The film became the monster. When you said mummy, you thought of Fraser gallivanting around Egypt and those creepy little scarabs. It even got its own ride at Universal! It became time to make the Mummy terrifying again, and who better to drag a concept into filth than Lee Cronin? Just to differentiate himself with the franchise, Lee even had to throw his name on there, promising a return to horror form for the iconic wrapped undead with Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. Fresh off the gore-saturated success of Evil Dead Rise, Cronin wasted no time bringing this concept back firmly into the horror genre.
Conceptually, people are going to say this isn’t a mummy movie proper. To that I would say, did we really need another archaeologist digging up a tomb and a shambling wrapped mummy popping out of a sarcophagus? At a time where originality in filmmaking is at a premium, Cronin took massive swings at the reinvention of a classic concept. Much like the modern Invisible Man, this film utilized modern times to breathe new life into something that has been tackled over and over, something that already has an established franchise. Is it similar in some ways to Evil Dead Rise and the Deadites? Yes, here and there, but its cultural flair and narrative drive distinguish it clearly to me. All the way from the streets of Cairo to a spin on the ‘unwrapping of the mummy bindings,’ I think Cronin bakes in plenty of mummy lore that legitimizes this under its monster banner.
This film is unapologetically foul. It gives you little warning because it starts tame, a family wracked by the loss of their daughter, their joyful reintroduction, and then the swift devolution into blood-splattered chaos. They ratchet up the levels of disgust quickly and once he has you in his grip, Cronin rarely gives an inch. This is incredibly visually assaulting. His personal close up camera work is invasive and I love that when he wants you to look at something awful, he not only shows it, but he zooms in as close as he can to ensure you can’t miss it. The sound design is aligned with that, the crunching, the wet sounds, the breaking, all enhance the already aggressive film. There are a few scenes that are entirely overstimulating in a good way. The funeral scene underlines the levels at which Cronin can reach when he is at a full fever pitch. Practical effects are appreciated when they are used throughout, and when they aren’t used, it becomes painfully obvious at a few points. The coyotes stuck with me as looking particularly out of place and CGI, oddly slapped right in the middle of the film.
Jack Reynor (Midsommar) is a fantastic choice as Charlie, the once heralded journalist who has now heartbrokenly settled in New Mexico to heal his shattered family. He has, and I mean this in the most complimentary way, an incredible terrified dumb guy face, a face where he is just conveying that he is helpless and terrified with big bulging eyes. All the kids are great in their respective roles, with the highlight being Natalie Grace as Katie. This is an Exorcist level possessed performance from Grace where she runs the gamut from biting, crawling, bug eating to peacefully sleeping. She looks fantastic in the most horrific ways.
While the length was never painfully obvious as a result of high-level pacing, this was a touch long, and while the rumors the original cut running nearly four hours are rampant, some more editing could have tightened this up by about 15 minutes and made it much more effective. However, I think as far as horror endings go, this was uniquely cathartic and satisfying. As the final credits wrapped, I could only find myself grinning after taking Cronin’s wild ride. You can just tell how much fun he is having directing these films, and it's contagious to feel the joy he gets in terrorizing his audience. Rather than resting on the laurels of guaranteed ticket sales, the rehashing of old nostalgic hits, we need filmmakers who aren't afraid to wrestle down in the muck and come up with something fresh and exciting. That is exactly what Cronin did here and if I were him, I would be happy to slap my name on the front of this film as well. Go check out Lee Cronin’s The Mummy on the biggest and loudest screen you can this weekend.
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