Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Review | A Hop, Skip And A Jump From The Usual Mummy Fare

The Mummy, along with Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and the Invisible Man remain iconic monsters, frequently brought to life for different intents and purposes. These monsters are storytelling vessels that come with the necessary basic ingredients on which filmmakers can craft their specific vision. Curiously, out of all these monsters, the Mummy remains one that has received the short end of the stick in terms of ambition in recent times, often broadly following similar settings and tropes as the first screen adaptation of the story in 1932. The most recognisable adaptation of the classic story in recent times was the Stephen Sommers trilogy starring Brendan Fraser, which steered the franchise towards a different direction, resulting in three Indiana Jones-coded action spectaculars set in exotic locations.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (produced by Warner Bros., not Universal, which owns the rights to the original characters) radically reimagines what can be done with a mummy film, bringing the character back towards its roots in body horror. Unlike so many of the cold opens in most of the mummy films that begin with a back story of how and why the mummy was created and/or was cursed, this film begins with a cold open, not in the ancient past, but in the recent past, where a family encounters a tomb in their basement. The story then shifts to a different family, whose members we follow for the rest of the film. This family includes a father who is an investigative reporter (Jack Reynor), his pregnant wife (Laia Costa), and their son (Shylo Molina) and daughter, who are all temporarily living in Cairo. The story kicks in after Katie (Natalie Grace), their daughter, disappears from their backyard one day, only to be found in a mysterious sarcophagus eight years later, deformed and pale. Once they bring their daughter to their current house in Albuquerque in the United States, Katie slowly starts to reveal much more about what she has transformed into.

While the time jump of eight years initially throws the film a little off-balance, things pick up once Katie starts living with her family. The film also trades in the spectacle of the recent mummy films with a tendency to pick different elements from different horror genres. So, the film genre-hops between a haunted house story, a classic monster story, an exorcism film as well as a throwback to the occult films of the 1980s, where the material memory of those films is referenced via the use of a VHS tape recording of a ritual akin to satanic practices. Therefore, the film’s thrills can sometimes feel derivative of the other films that belong to those genres. The genre-mixing is both a boon and a curse, updating the grammar of a mummy film but also making it feel similar to films from other genres. There is also a parallel track in the film which concerns an Egyptian police officer (played by Marvel alum May Calamwavy) investigating this case of the missing child. This parallel track adds an additional layer of intrigue to the proceedings as this is where a lot of the lore of this mummy comes to the fore—as a character that doesn’t just have a singular goal that went unfulfilled in his life but partakes in mischief of its own.

It was reported that the filmmakers wanted to use practical effects as much as possible and it shows, because the film excels at providing toe-curling sequences of body horror. There is a scene involving nail clippers that is a standout, as is a memorial service that goes horribly wrong as blood and guts start spilling. These sequences are in some ways, a welcome return for the mummy as the perfect site for squirm-inducing sounds and sights as layers of skin, bones and teeth peel off in different ways. For those not attuned to gore, this might be sometimes difficult to watch, especially because a lot of it also happens to children, but this is not Saw or its sequels. Considering that the last few mummy films have been made to showcase cutting-edge visual effects, Lee Cronin’s version uses visual effects in service of the body horror and not to overwhelm us with them, in addition to the fantastic sound design that makes sure that each squelchy sound effect is felt on your skin.

The mummy films also often play out as allegories. In particular, they can be read as critiques of Western imperial loot, perhaps best exemplified by the sections on Egypt in western museums. Lee Cronin’s version also has a political undercurrent—the reporter, a white man, mentions the Arab spring in one of his reports. But considering the smaller scale of the film, it does feel like a missed opportunity that the film does not make its politics sharper, which sometimes makes you question why this monster needed to be a mummy, on a thematic level. But for a fun romp at the theatres with a bucket of popcorn and amongst audience members turning in their seats every few minutes, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is mostly worth it.