Lee Cronin's The Mummy

Lee Cronin's The Mummy
Starring Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace
Directed by Lee Cronin

Before 1999, when someone mentioned the Mummy, people would connect it with the Universal monsters of yore, the 1932 classic starring the legendary Boris Karloff as Imhotep, the titular Mummy. However, everything changed in 1999 with the release of "The Mummy" starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz that has remained a classic today - so much so that anyone who makes another Mummy movie has to distinguish itself from the trilogy, otherwise people will think Fraser is in it. That's what happened with "Evil Dead Rise" director Lee Cronin, who wrote and directed his own Mummy movie but couldn't call it "The Mummy" because people would think it was a sequel of Fraser's franchise. Released as "Lee Cronin's The Mummy," this film is vastly different from any Mummy movie that came before, and tells more like an "Evil Dead" spiritual sequel than anything else - filled with cringe-worthy gore (in the best way), a silly story, offbeat effects and dark humor that would have you thinking Katie had turned into a Deadite rather than a Mummy.

While living in Egypt, journalist Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor), his wife Larissa (Laia Costa), his son Sebastian (Dean Allen Williams) and daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell) are living a happy life. Katie, unbeknownst to her parents, has been playing with a friend in the backyard, and one day she's abducted. It seems that the chief of police thinks Charlie and Larissa did something to her, but detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy) believes someone did indeed abduct Katie, but there's little to no clues to her whereabouts.

Eight years later, the family now lives in New Mexico, and Larissa has given birth to a daughter named Maud (Billie Roy), and along with their now teenage son Sebastian (Shylo Molina) and Larissa's mother Carmen (Veronica Falcon) they haven't given up hope on finding Katie. In Egypt, an airplane crash results in a sarcophagus being found, and inside is the mummified body of Katie, but she's still alive. Charlie and Larissa fly to Egypt to be reunited with Katie, but there's something obviously wrong with her. They think she's mute because of the terrors she went through, but in reality her body is the vessel for an ancient evil that wishes to destroy the family from within.


The Good:
Lee Cronin took the horror community by storm in 2023's "Evil Dead Rise," which transferred the setting of a cabin in the woods to a high-rise apartment, and the result was nothing short of amazing. The movie garnered critical and audience acclaim and had some of the best effects and gore that the long-running franchise had to offer, so everyone was eagerly anticipating his next move. With "The Mummy," he capitalized on what made him a household name, and in every aspect this feels like an "Evil Dead" sequel. His filming technique mirrors "Rise" so much you can put them side-by-side and think it's the same movie. The makeup of Katie is reminiscent of Deadites in "Rise," and the dark humor is there as well. The gore is fantastic and cringe-worthy, and although the movie is 134 minutes, there doesn't seem to be a lot of time wasted.

Natalie Grace shines as the elder version of Katie, much like Alyssa Sutherland's Ellie in "Rise." Not only did she have to endure makeup and prosthetics, but had to give a chilling performance to boot - and the young actress succeeded on both counts. She is a force of nature in the movie, being able to command others to do her will and showing no remorse for her actions - because while Katie is still in there, she's controlled by an evil that wants to destroy her family.

The visuals are jarring and the story has some truly hilarious dark moments that, again, are reminiscent of an "Evil Dead" movie. Essentially, there's no way to talk about this movie other than to say, for some reason, he didn't make this an "Evil Dead" movie when all the ingredients were there.


The Bad:
Jack Reynor isn't really a household name, and the only other movies I saw him in were "Kin" (which I don't remember at all) and "Midsommar." While his work in "Midsommar" is excellent, playing the doucebag boyfriend of Florence Pugh's Dani, he really didn't have a lot to work with in regards to his performance. Basically, he just looked shocked and surprised a lot. That signature look transferred here, where he is basically just a man who is continually looking shocked and surprised by everything, and not really having a sense of urgency to find his daughter nor tend to her once they do find her. It's an odd performance that doesn't play well on screen.

Likewise, Laia Costa doesn't really seem to have a lot to do as Larissa, other than dutifully tending to her daughter, yelling at Charlie, and just basically looking like a wreck. They face the generic pitfalls of a movie like this, and neither one really dominates the screen like they should.

The story is convoluted and haphazardly done, with a subplot where Charlie visits a local archaeological professor to translate some of the writings found on Katie's skin leading nowhere. He does come up with the film's purpose, but we also find that out later as well when Detective Zaki retells it in her own words. This could've been cut to provide a leaner movie, but its inclusion is puzzling especially Charlie doesn't do anything with the information given to him.

The editing is strange as well, with the movie moving forward before suddenly coming to a stop before picking back up again, with characters moving from scene to scene like there was something missing in-between. The characters' actions as well don't make a lick of sense, especially during a funeral where all literal hell breaks loose and Charlie and Larissa just act like it's another day before the next scene seems to come out of left field.


The Verdict:
Playing more as an "Evil Dead" movie, "Lee Cronin's The Mummy" has sparks of excitement, dread, and downright terror, but an overly long story delves into subplots that aren't necessary and off-kilter pacing that starts and stops with moments that appear to have longer versions edited out for time.


The Score: A-