Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) - It Could Have Been Great

Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) received criticism for attaching the director's name to the title, saying such an honour is only reserved for horror legends such as John Carpenter. However, since everyone I spoke to about seeing this film replied, "The one with Brendan Fraser?", I think the distinction is sorely needed. (This included the couple who sat directly next to me whilst I was gorging on nachos like a seagull, but they seemed to enjoy the film even without Fraser's appearance.)

Cronin's The Mummy follows Whannell's renditions of The Wolf Man and The Invisible Man in recreating Universal's classic collection, with modern subtext.

The film follows Charlie (Jack Reynor) and Larissa Cannon (Laia Costa), whose daughter Katie (Natalie Grace) disappears whilst they are working in Egypt. Eight years later, a Katie is found mummified in a sarcophagus, still alive, and is returned to her family, leaving everyone to ask 'What happened to Katie?'

The best word to describe Cronin's rendition of The Mummy is frustrating. Not just because the parents, who lost their child because they weren't watching her closely enough to realise she had a friend at the bottom of the garden, routinely leave their severely unwell child alone as if they haven't learnt any lessons, but because there is a glimmer of a good film with interesting ideas here. Unfortunately, it's been as wrapped up as Katie herself.

For instance, Katie using her teeth to give a morse code clue is a clever idea that should have been utilised more. It would have given us the audience an insight into her possessed condition, and allowed the real Katie to still have agency in the story. Grace's performance is standout, and these small touches would have elevated it even higher. The film was also doing well in not showing Katie speaking for most of the movie; hiding her behind her bedroom door, which helped to deliver on the scare. Unfortunately, the build up of all of this is thrown away the moment the let the little dead girl say something 'disturbing,' that deflates all her menace.

Cronin employs The Mummy mythology from the 1932 rendition well, with the mummy's main trick being to create thralls, which in turn create chaos in the family. Unfortunately, this is once again let down by just dropping scenes. The initial time we cut away from something spooky happening, this works well - the payoff is finding out what happened to Maud (Billie Roy) later. However, the other times it happens, it feels more like Cronin's had the idea for a cool scare, but doesn't want to deal with the consequences. After a particularly stand out and disturbing scene, the film moves on like nothing happened. It doesn't even acknowledge what happened to Maud's teeth!

Whilst it delivers on the scares and a gory scene gives Cabin Fever a run for its money, it's the story elements such as these that let the film down. The lack of logic - the hospital not keeping Katie in for longer to recover, or sending anyone to help with things like physical therapy - start to become difficult to move past, even with the grace of horror-logic. There are moments that feel like they shouldn't be played for laughs, and yet the parents bumping their severely fragile daughter's wheelchair, on every step is absurdist. This isn't aided by the slightly strange performance choices between Charlie & Larissa, and how their conversations don't really flow naturally. At least Charlie's investigation, and him joining forces with the Egyptian police add a much needed interesting subplot; it, admittedly, would be more interesting if much of this subplot hadn't been given away in the first ten minutes of the movie. As it happens, when we finally answer the question of 'What happened to Katie?' the answer is left in our imaginations.

At times, it feels as though the movie is trying to say something deeper. It's perhaps trying to have a conversation about parenting children with high additional support needs (similar to Wolf Man exploring toxic masculinity), and yet it focuses too much on the supernatural elements for this to truly land. It, again, becomes absurdly comedic for Larissa to keep insisting there's not a demon possessing her child. It also begins to touch on how a missing/dead sibling can effect the other siblings in the family, particularly with the thrall aspect, and yet, this drops so easily when its easy for the plot that it doesn't truly explore that element either.

At least the ending breaks out of the expected and turns something saccharine and bittersweet to something delightfully dark.

Overall, Cronin's The Mummy isn't terrible. It's a decent popcorn flick that delivers on scares and gore. However, it could have been a lot better, if it had been given a little more work to properly mummify.