Title: Lee Cronin’s The Mummy
Describe This Movie In One H.P. Lovecraft Quote:
HPL: That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.
Brief Plot Synopsis: This never would’ve happened with a KISS Kasket.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3.5 nail clippers out of 5.
Tagline: “Some things are meant to stay buried.”
Better Tagline: “15th time’s a charm.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Charlie (Jack Reynor) and Larissa (Laia Costa) Cannon are temporarily raising their two kids in Cairo while Charlie the journalist waits for his big stateside break. But when their daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell) is kidnapped, they move back in with Larissa’s mother (Verónica Falcón) in Albuquerque. Eight years pass, and news comes from Cairo: Katie has been found alive (in a sarcophagus, but still). The Cannons, initially overjoyed, soon discover that older Katie (Natalie Grace) may have issues besides claustophobic PTSD.
“Critical” Analysis: Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (which will simply be referred to at The Mummy from now on, because give me a break) is the latest in a line of films about reanimated Egyptian monsters that stretches all the way back to 1932. Some of these (Karl Freund’s original, the 1959 Hammer remake, Stephen Sommers’s 1999 version) are superior to others (any of Sommers’s sequels, the “Dark Universe” stinker starring Tom Cruise). All, however, demonstrate the enduring power of the mummy myth.
As well as the perennial Hollywood budgetary allure of public domain IP.
Lee Cronin came to prominence as a director (and landed this gig) thanks to 2023’s Evil Dead Rise. That movie was a nasty surprise, taking the franchise in new, moist directions and establishing Cronin as a capable horror hand. That Evil Dead DNA is all over The Mummy, which turns out to be a good thing.
Consider: are mummies really scary anymore? In the old days, as with zombies, the mere thought of an undead creature implacably plodding towards you was enough to trigger paralytic terror. In today’s world, however, we live fast-paced, frenetic lives. Monsters have had to play catch-up (literally). And so, mummies and zombies underwent upgrades to turn them into proper threats.
For zombies, that meant making them run. Not too complicated. Mummies, on the other hand, needed a little more oomph. In 1999, that meant giving Imhotep power over weather and the weak-minded. Here, it mostly translates to demonic powers of possession. The Mummy, at times, plays like an Egypt-coded The Exorcist.
Except Cronin doesn’t treat Egypt as mere window dressing, for a change. A key ally in the Cannons’ attempts to understand what happened to Katie is Cairo detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy). Zaki plays a pivotal role, and helps keep the Egyptians in this version of The Mummy from being mere background characters.
Bracketed by more horrific elements, there’s an interesting theme running through The Mummy. What should be Katie’s joyous return gets clouded by her very obvious … deficiencies. It’s not a deep dive, but Cronin does touch upon the difficulties parents face in those situations. And one that goes a bit beyond the usual “child in peril” tropes.
Cronin — who wrote and directed — performs another rare horror feat: he gives us a family we actually care about. Reynor is what you’d get if you could surgically extract the douchebag gene from Chris Pratt. Costa runs the emotional gamut well, and all the kid actors are on point. The MVP, however, is Falcón. The abuela gets some of the best lines (in Cronin’s often blackly amusing script) and pairs well with Grace in Evil Dead-ing things up.
Because if we’re being honest, Katie is basically a Deadite. The Venn diagram between Sam Raimi’s Necronomicon and Cronin’s Egyptian demonology may not be a circle, but it’s close. Even so, The Mummy is goopily satisfying, and packs a surprising emotional punch.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is in theaters today.
