Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) New Line/Horror RT: 133 minutes Rated R (strong disturbing violent content, gore, language, brief drug use) Director: Lee Cronin Screenplay: Lee Cronin Music: Stephen McKeon Cinematography: Dave Garbett Release date: April 17, 2026 (US) Cast: Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, Shylo Molina, Billie Roy, Veronica Falcon, Hayat Kamille, May Elghety, Husam Chadat, Mark Mitchinson, Lily Sullivan.
Rating: *** ½
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is unlike any mummy movie I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing like the original Mummy with Boris Karloff. It’s nothing like the Hammer version with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It’s nothing like the Brendan Fraser ones. It’s nothing like the Tom Cruise one. Thank the movie gods for that. It’s an animal of a color all its own. It’s a total gross-out horror flick.
Written and directed by Lee Cronin (Evil Dead Rise), The Mummy is a mess of a movie in more ways than one. It has a lot of grody body horror and gore, but it also has a messy screenplay. It’s all over the place in terms of plot. While technically a mummy movie, it more closely resembles The Exorcist with a child possessed by an evil spirit that allows her to levitate, move objects with her mind, contort her body into unnatural positions and crawl on the ceiling like a spider. I kept waiting for her to violate a crucifix. That’s not all. Cronin throws in a healthy dash of The Evil Dead with some of the zaniest horror slapstick this side of Sam Raimi.
Charlie Cannon (Reynor, Midsommar) is an American journalist living in Cairo with his pregnant wife Larissa (Costa, Victoria) and two children. One day, daughter Katie vanishes while playing in the garden. The authorities don’t offer much in the way of hope of ever finding her. The devastated family moves back to the States.
Eight years later, the Cannons now reside in Albuquerque at the home of Larissa’s very Catholic mother (Falcon, Queen of the South). There’s been an addition to the family, daughter Maud (Roy, See You When I See You). One day, Charlie gets a call from the US Embassy informing him Katie (Grace, 1923) has been found alive. Notice I didn’t say well. She’s far from well with her withered skin, gnarly toenails and emaciated appearance. Basically, she’s a living, breathing mummy. Her parents don’t care; they’re just glad she’s back. Against sound judgment, they take the catatonic girl home where she proceeds to terrorize the family. Before you ask, NO. They don’t call in a priest to perform an exorcism. Her grandmother attempts to pray over her only to be assaulted for her efforts.
SPOILER ALERT! So what’s wrong with Katie? She’s possessed by an ancient Egyptian demonic entity named Nazarenian, a destroyer of families. How did she come to be possessed? She was subjected to a ritual by the cult tasked with keeping the demon at bay. The ritual involves transference from its previous host to a new one, binding the host with script-laced wrappings and keeping her in a sarcophagus. When Katie is found and freed from captivity, it sets Nazarenian free. This information is uncovered by two parties, an American archeology professor (Mitchinson, Evil Dead Rise) and the Cairo detective (Calamawy, Moon Knight) investigating the facts surrounding Katie’s disappearance.
And now a few words about Nazarenian. This is one powerful demon. It gives Katie many abilities including the power to take over the minds of her siblings. She takes possession of sweet-natured Maud who instantly transforms into a foul-mouthed brat with a predilection for pulling out her own teeth. Yes, it’s as lovely a sight as it sounds.
I don’t understand all the bad reviews of The Mummy. I thought it was great. Sure, the storyline is a mess and the plot is derivative and it’s overlong. So what? It’s fun, thrilling and never boring. It goes way OTT more than once. The wake scene is an instant classic moment. It leans aggressively into the body horror aspect of the story while serving up a fair amount of Egyptian mumbo jumbo and Evil Dead reanimation action and topping it off with a police investigation that turns up a grainy video tape. It’s a movie with many identities. It eschews Indiana Jones derring-do in favor of terror and makeup effects designed to turn stomachs. Theaters ought to be giving away barf bags to patrons entering the theater.
What is there to say about the performances? They’re fine I suppose. It has a good cast that might be taking the material a bit too seriously on occasion. That’s where The Mummy runs into a small problem, one of tone. Cronin appears to want it to be taken seriously, but then he has moments of high camp and plot holes big enough for a pyramid to pass through. Take the video tape. The detective shows to the Cannons at their home. How? Who even has a VCR anymore? Then there’s the wake sequence. It’s a great bit, but how is it none of the mourners notice a child crawling on the ceiling? Then there’s the whole idea of taking Katie home even though it’s clear she poses a danger. Come to think of it, how do they get her from Egypt to the US in her state? It’s not like she can fly commercial without frightening the other passengers. So many questions, no answers.
You know what? I don’t care about the plot holes. It didn’t spoil The Mummy for me. I enjoyed it all the more for its silliness and refusal to adhere to logic. It has awesome special effects with all the gore and the sandstorms that materialize at the beginning and end. Plus, it’s nice to see a good, old-fashioned gross-out horror playing in cinemas. We need more of that. Keep ‘em coming!
