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Review: ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Offers a New Twist on a Classic Movie Monster, but Fails to Make the Most of Its Disturbing Premise
April 17, 2026Ben MK
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As far as Hollywood movie monsters are concerned, the Mummy is an all-time classic. First brought to life on the big screen in 1932, the bandaged antagonist has gone on to terrify cinema-going audiences for nearly a century, from Boris Karloff's iconic portrayal in Karl Freund's The Mummy to modern-day remakes like The Mummy franchise starring Brendan Fraser and the 2017 Tom Cruise reboot. Now, Evil Dead Rise writer-director Lee Cronin is unleashing a twisted new take on this fan-favorite horror villain. But does this latest reimagining live up to the legacy left by its predecessors? Or does it all come unraveled faster than you can chant the words from an ancient Egyptian curse? Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor) is an American journalist based out of Cairo, Egypt who's looking for his big break. But when his nine-year-old daughter, Katie (Emily Mitchell), is kidnapped, it sends Charlie's career screeching to a halt and sends him, his pregnant wife, Larissa (Laia Costa), and their young son, Sebastián (Dean Allen Williams), down the tragic path of grief. Fast forward eight years later, and the family has now moved back to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Charlie and Larissa have done their best to create a normal life for a teenage Sebastián (Shylo Molina) and their youngest daughter, Maud (Billie Roy). So, when they receive a phone call one day informing them that a now-17-year-old Katie (Natalie Grace) has been found alive, it seems like the five of them will finally get their chance at a happy ending. It's a short-lived feeling, unfortunately, as they're soon reunited with Katie, who exhibits signs of severe trauma, after being found entombed in a 3000-year-old sarcophagus. What the Cannons soon realize, however, is that Katie's condition is a symptom of something much more sinister — the result of a ritual meant to prevent an ancient demonic entity from wreaking havoc on our world. Tasked with solving the mystery of who kidnapped Katie is Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy), a detective determined to help bring the family some much-needed closure. Dalia's investigation leads her to the mother of a teenage girl named Layla (May Elghety), who, like her ancestors before her, has been tasked with performing the ritual on a new human host each time the entity has exhausted the life force from its current one. What neither Layla nor her mother could anticipate, though, is what would happen if the host — in this case, Katie — ever broke free. And while that precise scenario is what Layla's family have been trying to ensure doesn't happen, Charlie and his family are about to discover firsthand just how bloodthirsty this demon really is. Over the next few days, a maniacal Katie will toy with their minds and bodies, psychologically manipulating them and even forcing them to commit violence against themselves and each other. But can Charlie put a stop to all of it before everyone he loves meets a gruesome end? Or will the demon claim not only Katie, but her family as well? More of a slow-burning supernatural tale with the occasional jump scare as opposed to a blockbuster extravaganza full of action-packed set pieces, Lee Cronin's The Mummy doesn't conform to the general formula that Mummy fans have come to expect from the character's recent big screen outings. Still, while the comparisons between this film and Cronin's previous genre endeavor, Evil Dead Rise, are easy to draw, the result never quite makes good on its disturbing premise, devolving into a mishmash of generic horror tropes and swirling VFX sand in its third act, rather than a climax genuinely worthy of everything that has come before it. Suffice to say, viewers in the mood for a traditional Mummy movie will likely be disappointed by the lack of conventional thrills to be found throughout Lee Cronin's The Mummy, whereas audiences anticipating a finale as creepy as the film's middle section may not be entirely satisfied either. To its credit, however, this latest take on the Mummy mythology does, for the most part, manage to succeed at putting a uniquely different spin on the source material. It's just too bad that Cronin and company don't end up seeing that vision through to its logical conclusion; because that would have actually been a fitting way to wrap things up. Lee Cronin's The Mummy releases April 17th, 2026 from Warner Bros. Pictures. The film has an MPAA rating of R for strong disturbing violent content, gore, language and brief drug use. Its runtime is 2 hrs. 14 min. |
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