Lee Cronin’s The Mummy

Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Lee Cronin's The Mummy. Fun Fact: In Egypt, dead bodies were wrapped, not to keep evil in but to keep evil out and protect people on their journey to the afterlife. Funerary literature that was created to magically protect the deceased on their journey to the afterlife. This film came out in 2026 and stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, and May Calamawy and was directed by Lee Cronin. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy follows the Cannons, whose daughter goes missing while they are in Egypt. 8 Years later, she is found in a tomb, and while they are excited she’s alive, they don’t realize the monster that lies within her.

The Mummy is a supernatural Horror film about possession. It has similar vibes to Evil Dead Rise, Sinister, or The Exorcist.

Lee Cronin's The Mummy caught my eye because Evil Dead Rise is a favorite, and it seemed like this one would lean more heavily into the horror aspect, which I loved. If you have seen the Evil Dead movies, you'll see some comparisons, but obviously not the same franchise, so it still stands on its own. It’s a slow burn, but it really builds up to a great conclusion.

The film had a cool title reveal. I think Evil Dead Rise still is one of my favorites, but I loved how in this film, the lights go out, and you hear knocking, and with each knock, a piece of the title was revealed. It was an inventive way to drop the title when I wasn’t expecting it.

Obviously, a missing child is sad, and you want to find them, and finding them is exciting, but at some point, you do have to recognize that your child is not the same if they are acting weird. Like, look at Katie, something is clearly off, and if the skin and heavy breathing aren’t enough, the attacking people should be. There was a lot of grace given to Katie, but she was possessed and turning this family upside down.

While I do think the beginning of the film was a bit slow, considering there was so much to learn, once it picks up the pace after Katie is found, then it really had me locked in.  I loved them learning what they were dealing with and seeing how it is very serious. I do wish the parents weren’t so naïve because I get that you haven’t seen her in years, but you can’t just ignore all these things going on, especially the violence towards poor Grandma and how it is affecting the others.

Charlie, played by Jack Reynor, is shown to be a news producer, and he’s done reporting and knows how to research stuff, as shown in the first half of the film I wish they tied that more into the story because they do a little bit, but he never brings it up with his wife, and he never really uses what he learns to make better decisions. I think it was important for the viewer to learn more about what was going on, but it’s like he learned all this stuff about the possession and then didn’t use his brain to connect the dots on all the weird stuff going on. Even if he and his wife were beefing, it’s a matter of safety, so that should be the top priority.

Thank god for Detective Dalia Zaki, who is played by May Calamawy, who really put in the work to find answers. I loved her inclusion because she seemed like a woman who was doubted from the beginning, but that just made her work harder. I honestly thought she died in the scene with the scorpion, but I’m so glad that she made it out alive and did the spell. She was a highlight of the movie, and the only complaint about her character is that I wanted more of her in the film because, clearly, she was the only one who was good at communication and finding answers. Like, all the stuff with the dad going to the professor should have been given to her, and to be honest, they could’ve cut out that professor and maybe had the people examining the body tell her what was going on since he seemed like an archaeologist. She was the MVP, and I admired her dedication to continue looking into the case after Katie was returned home.

Later, after learning that there is a powerful entity in Katie and ripping off a layer of wrapping, I love how we see more of the mummy’s powers manifesting after the first bandage was taken off. She starts influencing the other kids’ decisions, kills the grandma, but later brings her back to life, and is influencing the weather, which looks like it will wipe anyone off the face of the earth. I thought it was smart that the way to "defeat" the evil is actually to just pass it to someone else and lock it away again. 

There’s a filming technique that I love that Lee Cronin uses in his films where there is a person or something very close to the camera, and they might not fully be in frame, and then you can clearly see the background, and someone might pop up. The filming technique is called a Split diopter shot, which is used in Evil Dead Rise as well, and is a technique that I really like in both of these Lee Cronin films. It makes me feel uneasy partly cause the monster looks up to no good, but also it feels like the possessed is closer to me.

My favorite part of the film is the ending, where they go back to the cell where the magician is, and karma comes for her as they give her the curse that she gave to their daughter. I think it’s fitting since she caused the family so much trauma from the kidnapping to almost getting them all killed. I was very satisfied with her shock and the camera backing away as we hear Dalia saying the incantation.

The Mummy got off to a slow start, but it picked up and really had me intrigued. The cast was great, and I like tying in these horror aspects to this mummy film that shakes up this family.