‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ review: Gore and bores galore

The Bad Dead Rise director Lee Cronin brings his trademark creepy children and wild animals Lee Cronin’s The Mummywith mixed results.

On the other hand, the gore, when it comes, is amazing. On the other hand, it is embedded in a sad story that doesn’t really let go.

What Lee Cronin’s The Mummy about?

Cronin’s take on the mother story has no prior ties to other mother-related films, be it the 1932 Universal Monsters film, the Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz franchise (with a fourth installment yet to come), or the 2017 Tom Cruise flop.

Instead, it presents a new maternal tale centered around a bereaved family. Charlie and Larissa Cannon (Jack Reynor and Laia Costa) are stationed in Cairo for Charlie’s journalism job. While there, their daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell) went missing, kidnapped by a mysterious woman (Hayat Kamille) who was hiding near their garden.

Eight years later, the Cannons have traded the deserts of Egypt for those of Albuquerque, where they live with their children Sebastián (Shylo Molina) and Maud (Billie Roy), and Larissa’s mother Carmen (Verónica Falcón). Their grief over Katie still lingers. They kept her bedroom intact, preserved in all its pink glory. They have not gone on vacation since she disappeared, fearing that something bad will happen to their other children.

However, the Cannons receive miraculous news when Katie (now played by Natalie Grace) appears alive, having been found in an ancient sarcophagus. It’s clear that he’s been through a lot of trauma while he’s gone: His skin is scratched and peeling, his limbs are twisted in a weird way, and he can only communicate through a series of clicking teeth and gasps.

Faced with their daughter’s deteriorating physical condition, Charlie and Larissa are prepared to do whatever it takes to help Katie feel safe again. Maybe that’s why they’re willing to ignore the few disturbing things Katie does, from sneaking into their house’s crawl space to headbutting Carmen. It’s textbook possession, but Charlie and Larissa’s love for their daughter and the relief of having her overshadows any fears they might have about her… up to a point. However, that point is coming away it’s too late Lee Cronin’s The MummyIt’s a punishing 135 minutes, making these two look less like concerned parents and more like horror movie idiots who make every bad decision until the movie tells them not to.

Also, bereavement gives Charlie and Larissa others excuse here. Cronin, who also wrote the film, does a solid job of exploring their guilt over Katie’s disappearance, and their attempts to establish normalcy as a supernatural evil wreaks havoc on their home. Yet after a while, their willful ignorance becomes almost comical.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy it is as frustrating as it is painful.

Billie Roy in “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.”
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Despite being presented as a reimagining of Mother, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy frustratingly formulaic. It draws heavily on the strings of children who crawl, including others Exorcist-backbends and level curses, twisting them a bit to combine with the mother story. Scenes where the skin peels back like a mother’s bandages are relentlessly stomach-churning, but other than that, we’ve seen this bag of tricks before.

It’s the same with classic mother stories, including a trip to an archeology professor that unlocks many of the film’s secrets. The most interesting thing happened on the ground in Egypt after Katie returned home. There, Detective Zaki (May Calamawy) revisits Katie’s missing persons case, hoping to solve the mystery she began looking into eight years ago. His journey leads to a truly intense chase, until you wish this was a detective thriller instead Exorcist rehash.

Lee Cronin’s The MummyIts saving grace – and the reason it will appeal to so many – is its punchline, which pulls no punches. Every tear on Katie’s skin or the gnashing of her bloody teeth is a visual nightmare, and Grace is as uncomfortable as the latest creepy kid in the Cronin arsenal.

However, all this speculation rarely leads anywhere. Even after a set of particularly annoying pieces (one involving nail clippers comes to mind), everything resumes on a low note of concern. A family gathering reveals a serious rage involving teeth and vomit and shriveled flesh, resulting in an impossible carnage. Instead, we cut to a self-absorbed Katie, unaware of the wider impact of her abuse. To someone in my theater who let out a confused, “That’s it?” after that incident, I’m right there with you.

That scene feels like an unfulfilled promise, as does the rest of the film. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy in the end it doesn’t feel like a brave new saga as many better films do. Maybe some horror franchises, like the cursed sarcophagus, are meant to stay buried.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy opens in theaters on April 17.