Of all the classic monsters, mummies tend to be the more overlooked and underexplored, making the cinematic creature ripe for reinvention. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy eschews the traditional ancient Egypt mythology and the slow, lumbering undead wrapped in papyrus for a faster, gorier, and modern interpretation. It’s so far removed from convention, though, that this Mummy movie winds up unwrapping a standard possession story with a nihilistic streak.
Writer/Director Lee Cronin employs all the Evil Dead Rise tools in his arsenal, including a rather strong affinity for the split diopter shot, as he centers another family in a harrowing demonic nightmare. This time, it’s the Cannon family, who, when we meet them, are living in Egypt for work when young Katie Cannon (Emily Mitchell) gets snatched up by a stranger. Yet the senior detective dismisses Katie’s parents, journalist Charlie (Midsommar‘s Jack Reynor) and nurse Larissa (Laia Costa), suspecting them as prime suspects in a disappearance case that spans eight years, at the end of which Katie’s discovered alive (now played by Natalie Grace) but unwell in a nondescript sarcophagus near Aswan.
In the first of many moves that stretch plausibility and suspension of disbelief, Katie’s doctors immediately discharge the catatonic and traumatized girl back to her parents, who have since relocated from Egypt to New Mexico along with Katie’s brother Sebastian (Shylo Molina), younger sister Maud (Billie Roy), and abuela Carmen (Veronica Falcon). It doesn’t take long for Katie to throw the household in disarray with creepy behavior that continues to escalate as Charlie seeks answers regarding her disappearance.
Logic and rational behavior become nonexistent as the Cannon household descends into, essentially, another Evil Dead movie. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy owes great debt to it as well as The Exorcist, as Katie slowly emerges from her catatonic state, emulating the similar telltale signs of possession that Regan MacNeil exhibited before ramping up to full-blown Deadite mayhem. Imagery plays a far more prevalent role than mythology here, which simply trades Kandarian demons for an Egyptian demon without much depth.
The lack of depth or fleshed out lore and themes becomes glaringly noticeable in a runtime that stretches past the two-hour mark, especially when the story feels more like a series of unconnected horror scenes meant to test your mettle. It’s here where Lee Cronin’s latest has the most fun, unleashing a variety of freakouts, including a toenail clipping moment meant to rival Cronin’s attention-grabbing cheese grater moment from his previous film. But for every inspired bit of gore or cruel carnage unleashed, it’s often offset by illogical choices.
The discovery of a particularly nasty bit of bile and viscera under a rug should trigger alarms in a concerned parent, for example, but simply gets forgotten for a much larger payoff later. The scene does make for a demented bit of fun, but it flattens its characters in the process. Not helping is the Mummy design. Cronin’s approach to the wrappings is novel and yields skin-crawling body horror moments, but SFX Creature Designer Arjen Tuiten evokes a sickly possessed girl that calls his work on Wolf Man to mind, another too-far deviation from source material.
The Cannon family isn’t very smart, nor are the parents all that observant or aware of their own children. Finding rooting interest or connecting with any central characters in this story is tricky, making May Calamawy‘s Detective Dalia Zaki, who’s resolve to course correct for her partner in Katie’s disappearance, a revelation. Calamawy’s character isn’t just responsible for driving the story forward in her quest for answers; she quickly becomes the cultural bridge and the trustworthy authority with the determined physical prowess to see The Mummy through to its big exorcism finale. Calamaway isn’t just an engaging and nuanced performer; she fully commits to the grotesequeries Cronin subjects her character to in the demonic confrontation.
Despite its namesake and occasional Egyptian imagery, Cronin’s latest is less a reinvention of the Mummy and more a conventional possession horror movie with an Egyptian twist. One that bears all the familiar earmarks of Evil Dead Rise, complete with an expositionary tape recording and a cameo by Lily Sullivan. Cronin succeeds in topping the viciousness of his previous effort, but sacrifices nearly everything else in the process.
It’s gross and gory in all the right crowd-pleasing ways, but it completely forgets to define its new Mummy, one that instantly breaks its first tenant: this Mummy isn’t even dead, let alone mummified, really. Perhaps it should’ve been titled “Evil Dead Unwrapped” instead.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy releases in theaters and IMAX on April 17, 2026.
