By George & Josh Bate
After Leigh Whannell brought The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man into the twenty-first century and as a new adaptation of Frankenstein, ranging from magnificent to monstrous, arrives seemingly every other weekend, Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin teams up with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster for a contemporary reimagining of another classic movie monster – The Mummy. While Cronin may misunderstand the assignment of tackling a Mummy movie, creating a film far more akin to an Exorcist film than a Mummy film, the director crafts an intense, gross-out horror movie filled to the brim with grisly violence, piercing sound design, and more split diopter shots than you’ve ever seen.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy begins in Cairo, Egypt as Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor) and his wife Larissa (Laia Costa) care for their son and daughter while Charlie works as an investigative TV reporter. One day, their daughter Katie is abducted by a mysterious woman and, despite the best efforts of Detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy), is not recovered. Eight years later, Charlie and Larissa are shocked when news arrives that their long lost daughter has been found. But as Katie is brought home and reintegrated into the family, it becomes increasingly clear that her erratic and unpredictable behavior may be the work of a sinister force.
What comes to mind when you think of a Mummy movie? Some may think of the iconic Boris Karloff film from 1932 or the Hammer production starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, both of which are horror movies about the resurrection of and subsequent destruction caused by an ancient Egyptian. The 1999 movie starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz took the bones of earlier iterations and wrapped them in the tone and pacing of an Indiana Jones-esque adventure film. Then there’s Tom Cruise’s 2017 movie, which tried to do a bit of Karloff, a bit of Hammer, and a bit of Fraser/Weisz, but the less said about that the better. Nearly 10 years later, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy arrives and, despite being a fairly effective and stomach-churning horror film, marks a stark departure from what one would expect from a Mummy movie.
Beginning in Egypt and shrouded in ancient Egyptian mythology, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy exhibits a willingness to tap into some of the visuals and tropes of previous Mummy movies, but, overwhelmingly, it feels mischaracterized as a Mummy movie. The narrative bears more of a resemblance to an Exorcist movie, namely the poorly received The Exorcist: Believer, than it does any previous Mummy movie. Taking place largely in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the film couples its abandonment of an Egyptian setting with a story that, while novel for a Mummy movie, is certainly not novel for a horror movie. Cronin turns The Mummy into an evil child horror movie, one actualized with impressive filmmaking and yet lacking in many of the bare essentials of a Mummy movie – almost as if it is ashamed to be a Mummy movie. In turn, viewers expecting an adventurous romp akin to the Fraser/Weisz movies or the slow-burn suspense and quiet tragedy of the Karloff or Hammer movies will likely come away disappointed that a movie with ‘Mummy’ in the title feels so different from previous iterations.
Although casting doubt as to whether it should be called a Mummy movie in the first place, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy allows the Irish filmmaker to flex some of the same dread-inducing muscles that made Evil Dead Rise so compelling. With a fairly bulky 133 minute runtime, the film takes its time getting gross, but, once it does, it doesn’t stop. Far more grisly violence can be found in the Terrifier movies or even Evil Dead Rise, although Cronin’s film definitely evokes a distinct flavor of nauseating disgust that will appeal to the more bloodthirsty corners of horror fandom nonetheless.
Perhaps more unsettling than the violence, however, is the film’s piercing sound design. Even in fairly innocuous scenes devoid of anything particularly sinister, Cronin keeps the audience on its toes with jolting and oftentimes abrasive sound effects. In doing so, the director imbues his film with an unrelenting intensity that never, even for a moment, lets up. When even the sound of a car door closing or a bath turning on can cause a jolt, the audience quickly internalizes the sentiment that no moment, however menial, is safe.
It’s not all sickening violence and aggressive sound design, however. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy also features a fairly interesting plot to follow. As Katie’s behavior grows increasingly concerning, her father Charlie (played by Jack Reynor) tries to uncover exactly what happened to his daughter in the eight years that she was gone. Charlie’s investigation runs concurrent with queries made by May Calamawy’s Detective Dalia Zaki, who is also perplexed by the girl’s mysterious disappearance and sudden reemergence. In making the nature of Katie’s disappearance a mystery, Cronin ensures that his film is more than just a gross-out horror movie. Leaning into the mystery of the story allows the audience to couple its disconcertment with intrigue. While the ultimate answers to the questions posed aren’t the most unexpected, Cronin manages to keep a firm handling of the film’s lore and mythology, never allowing it to become convoluted or incomprehensible.
With an intriguing mystery to unravel, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy manages to, for the most part, distract from the lack of emotional investment in its characters. Reynor and Costa deliver serviceable performances as the parents of Katie, and it’s great to see the superb May Calamawy in a major Hollywood project, but the performers are hindered by a screenplay that doesn’t afford their characters with enough personality, nuance, or empathy to make us truly care. Seeing a child and her family endure untold horrors certainly proves disturbing, and yet the film never forges an emotional bridge between its characters and its audience – we watch (and cringe) as the characters suffer, without necessarily feeling our hearts break at their misery.
On a final and perhaps rather nitpicky note, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy features a distracting amount of split diopter shot. One or two well-conceived split diopter shots would be fine, but Cronin seems overly eager to populate his film with this cinematography technique, almost as if he just learned about it and can’t stop himself from using it. The frequency of such shots never truly deters from the film’s effectiveness as a horror movie, although its unfortunate over-inclusion overshadows the otherwise strong filmmaking on display.
VERDICT: 7/10
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy may have more in common with an Exorcist movie than a Mummy movie, but the Evil Dead Rise director manages nonetheless to craft an intense, gross-out horror movie filled to the brim with grisly violence, piercing sound design, and more split diopter shots than you’ve ever seen. Viewers expecting an adventurous romp akin to the Fraser/Weisz Mummy movies or the slow-burn suspense and quiet tragedy of the Karloff or Hammer movies will likely come away disappointed by a film that feels mischaracterized as a Mummy movie and shies away from some of the franchise’s signature elements. In the absence of such elements, Cronin uses a narrative that parallels that of the poorly received The Exorcist: Believer as the backdrop for a gnarly, gross, and, at times, nauseating film. While the violence never goes as extreme as the Terrifier movies or even Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, it more than delivers on providing bloodthirsty horror fans with a distinct flavor of disgusting to feast on. More effective than the visual horror, however, is piercing, abrasive sound design that renders even the most innocuous scenes intense and unsettling. Allowing the film to provide more than just scares by exploring questions surrounding a young girl’s disappearance means Cronin’s film operates well as a mystery too, albeit one that resolves rather predictably. A screenplay that fails to consider emotional investment in the characters prevents the audience from deeply connecting with the turmoil and anguish on-screen, while Cronin’s overuse of split diopter shots proves a tad distracting and overshadows the otherwise strong filmmaking on display. As a Mummy movie, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy misses the mark. But as an intense, gross-out horror movie, it makes for a journey worth unwrapping.