Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) Review

Blumhouse’s latest take on a classic Universal monster has a lot to live up to seeing as the popular horror studio has already delivered two amazing re-imaginings. Leigh Whannell’s creepy and creative movies for the company took the iconic Wolf and Invisible men and dragged them from the 1930s straight into the 21st century.

Lee Cronin’s meteoric rise from 2019’s The Hole in the Ground to helming the fifth Evil Dead instalment in 2023 makes him exactly the kind of bold and daring director to take on a horror character whose name, look and legend is so familiar even to those outside of the genre. Here he rips off the dusty old bandages to expose something fresh and foul in equal measure.

After a cryptic opening in a partially buried black pyramid, we meet the Cannon family who consists of American reporter father Charlie (Midsommar’s Jack Reynor), pregnant nurse mother Larissa (Laia Costa) and their two children Seb and Katie, who are all living in Cairo for Charlie’s work. When Katie is abducted by a mysterious woman who claims to be a magician (Hayat Kamille), the parents seek the help of the police who tragically fail to find their precious daughter.

8 years later the family have relocated to New Mexico to live with Larrisa’s mother, and their 3rd child Maud (Billie Roy) is now the same age Katie was when she was kidnapped. Fractured and over-protective, the parents still mourn the loss of their daughter while desperately trying to shelter the kids they have from a wicked world that has stolen something precious from them.

Everything changes when a plane crashes in Egypt, carrying a strange basalt sarcophagus with Katie mummified inside, wrapped in parchment covered in ancient inscriptions and somehow still alive. Although physically healthy she is in a semi catatonic state, prone to outbursts of self harm, shocking screams and insane bodily contortions. Told by doctors that a familiar family environment will help heal her mind, Charle and Larissa take her to New Mexico but her homecoming is not the happy event they hope.

As time passes it seems there is something very wrong with Katie. As her mother tries to deal with the damaged and unrecognisable being she has become her father searches for answers on what happened and who took her away. However, neither can be prepared for the truth as Katie’s unhinged and inhuman behaviour starts to affect everyone around her and they wonder what cost her return will have on the family.

Let’s get straight to the point here… The problem with Mummy films is that Mummies are simply not that scary. From Universal’s 1932 movie starring Boris Karloff – which started it all – to the Hammer movies of 60’s and 70’s like The Mummy’s Shroud, right up to Tom Cruise’s epic fail in 2017 (which led to the end of the Dark Universe), none of these films were terrifying enough.

Perhaps its the fact that they are mostly just mindless zombies wrapped in first aid gear, but as monsters, Mummies just don’t inspire fear and the best Mummy films have either been action adventures like Stephen Sommers late 90’s series staring Brendon Frasier, or comedy horrors like the barmy and brilliant Bubba Ho-Tep.

Thankfully, Lee Cronin who wrote and directed the movie, has managed to find a way to inject a large amount of horror into his film through a number of different means. From jump scares to creeping dread to body horror to straight-up gross-out blood and guts, with some truly terrifying and sickening scenes that will stick in your mind for sure.

What amps up the fear, especially for anyone watching who is a parent, is the set-up which plays on one of the worst nightmares anyone with children can have. The emotional impact Katie’s disappearance has on her Mum and Dad is huge, but interestingly and ironically her reappearance introduces a whole new type of pain as they realise they are unable to help her or handle her new form.

Taking traditional Mummy lore like scarab beetles, sand storms, hieroglyphics and sinister ceremonial rights and adding a whodunnit storyline alongside some darker demonic elements, Cronin weaves a tale that feels both familiar and original all at once.

This is predominantly due to Cronin taking influence not only from himself and Evil Dead Rise but other evil kid flicks, especially The Omen and The Exorcist with the older Katie, played with aplomb under a ton of terrifying make up by Natalie Grace, swearing, vomiting and physical and psychologically attacking her family in more and more extreme ways as the movie progresses.

Building to a truly brutal and upsetting climax Lee Cronin’s The Mummy definitely delivers not just a reinvention of a classic monster, but a genuinely scary horror flick. That, for me, is more than enough to make it worth a watch.

Movie Rating:

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy trailer