Movies
‘The Mummy’ Director Isn’t Making Movies for Critics
In an interview with Business Insider, The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman was asked about the critical reception of the film, which went as far as to call it ” the worst Tom Cruise movie ever .”
“Obviously, that’s disappointing to hear,” he explained. “The only gauge that I really use to judge it is having just traveled around the world and hearing the audiences in the theaters. This is a movie that I think is made for audiences and in my experience, critics and audiences don’t always sing the same song.”
True. Hollywood blockbusters aren’t for critics because it’s a business, which is why originality dies at the cinema. Kurtzman doubles down:
“I’m not making movies for them,” he said of critics.
“Would I love them to love it? Of course, everybody would, but that’s not really the endgame. We made a film for audiences and not critics so my great hope is they will find it and they will appreciate it.
“It is the thing that kills your soul when you have just gone through an experience like this one we just went through,” Kurtzman added of the critics devouring the film. In fact, hit-pieces have started to be aimed at Cruise, who allegedly had “excessive control” over the entire production.
While The Mummy is a dud here in the States, it’s doing quite well internationally. It’s hard to know what’s to blame for the film coming unwrapped domestically but one thing is for certain, The Mummy wasn’t exactly pushing the envelope by any means and was absolutely targeting general audiences by being a dumbed down popcorn muncher.
And that’s the biggest debate that will never end; who are the studios making these movies for? Obviously “art” is compromised when targeting the majority of audiences, which cause films to become watered down for the masses (hence why “R”-rated films scare the majority of studio executives). On the juxtapose, don’t look to independent films to save your cinema-going experience. I find that many independent films are just as bad at knowing their audience. In fact, at times they’re even worse. Why? Because the majority of indie films aren’t mad for anyone but the filmmakers behind the camera.
The point is, there’s no winning this battle. Sure, Kurtzman isn’t making movies for critics but he should be cognisant of criticism because that’s one way to learn from your mistakes. Films should be personal as much as they should be for an audience. Land somewhere in the middle and a filmmaker can at least look themselves in the mirror at night…
(L to R) Director/Producer ALEX KURTZMAN and TOM CRUISE as Nick Morton on the set of “The Mummy”.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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