Lee Cronin's The Mummy
Rating: 2/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
I genuinely wanted to like Lee Cronin's take on The Mummy, and I genuinely had a lot of high hopes for it. I had heard that test screenings gained negative reactions from the audience, but after what Cronin was able to do with Evil Dead Rise, I thought there was simply no way that his take on this classic film would be lackluster. While I may have missed this one while it was in theaters, I finally checked this one out when it came to HBO Max. This movie simply did not work much at all for me, and I was incredibly disappointed on where he decided to take this film. Sure, a lot of the special effects and horror elements work for the most part, but why does this feel more like a desperate attempt to craft another Evil Dead film than making a movie about what the film's title is suggesting it will be about?
The movie follows the Cannon family, as they are figuring out how to live through a tragedy that struck their family. Their eldest child, Katie (Natalie Grace), is kidnapped and presumed dead by the detectives in Cairo, forcing the family to move back to New Mexico to try and put the pieces back together of their family. Now eight-years after Katie's disappearance, parents Charlie (Jack Reynor) and Larissa (Laia Costa) receive the news that they have found Katie, and are returning her to New Mexico. What should have been a long-awaited family reunion turns into a nightmare from Hell as Katie is not who she was when she returns, possessing a centuries-long curse that will stop at nothing to kill anyone and everyone in their path.
I wonder if the reason why this movie didn't work well for me is because I'm a huge stickler when it comes to franchises and IP's like this. The Universal Monsters is one of my favorite franchises of all time, so to see Cronin try to craft a story that doesn't fit into this sort of world at all is really disheartening. I'm all for filmmakers trying to breathe some new life into long-running franchises, but I truly don't think it worked here. Cronin already made an Evil Dead movie, and it was fantastic. He was able to capture the horror and grisly images that make the franchise so popular. So, why is he trying to capture the same thing here? In fact, I would say the story isn't much different than his story for Rise.
It honestly scares me as both a critic and a fan of Cronin to see this. Is Cronin simply a one-film wonder and that's the only sort of movie he can make? I truly hope not, and I have my fingers crossed he is going to learn from his mistakes and try to craft something new and unique compared to what he has done before. At the same time, this movie simply isn't very enjoyable. I don't know if I have ever seen a recent horror film that contains characters that are as idiotic as the ones here. I know the name of the game for horror is pitting these evil forces against characters that aren't very bright, but this is honestly a slap in the face to the horror genre and audiences. What do you mean this girl is literally peeling her skin off and stabbing herself and the mom thinks that's normal? It's ridiculous. In addition to this, there isn't really a story. We are following the plot devices used in his previous film, and that is pretty much it. It's a boring, sloppy mess.
The only thing I think truly saves this movie from being a complete dumpster fire are the special effects and how he is able to craft the horror sequences, and the jaw-dropping performance from Grace. Unfortunately, none of the actors here do anything special, and I don't think the actors are to blame for their lackluster performances. I truly believe they did everything they could with the material they were given. The only performer here that made me actually enjoy something in this film was Grace, who is just fantastic as being creepy. I think if they gave her this character for a completely different film, it would have worked so much better, in my opinion. In terms of the special effects, I'm a sucker for the gore effects and how they are able to terrify the audience; I think Cronin does understand the idea that less is more in certain scenes and when he needs to turn the volume up on the gore effects. There are great moments in the background that can easily freak you out, and then he lets the blood and gory effects flow through certain scenes at the best moments. There is no doubt in my mind that Cronin is a terrific horror director, but I don't know if he is great as a filmmaker or storyteller unfortunately.
I find myself at a loss of words to really describe this movie due to how bland and uninspiring it really is. We have seen this sort of horror film numerous times already, and there is truly nothing really special about it. It's not as terrible as some horror movies out there, but it's simply not good at the same time. Like I said, if Grace wasn't in this film or the special effects weren't something to be visually inspired by, I don't think there is much of a saving grace for this film. Not only am I disappointed by what they crafted here, but I simply don't understand where it went wrong.
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