Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026)

“Don’t worry, grandma, it’s fun to be dead!”

Calling this film Lee Cronin’s The Mummy was a smart move on the part of James Wan, Jason Blum, and Kevin Keville, who produced the film, because this ain’t no mummy I’ve ever heard of before! Written and directed by Cronin, the film is a reimagining of the classic The Mummy horror tale. Whether you cut your teeth on either Universal version of the story or the Hammer version, none of them resemble Lee Cronin’s take on the tale, which is essentially a demonic possession film.

In the film, a young couple, Charlie and Larissa, and their two children, Katie and Seb, are living in Egypt while working. Katie is abducted and goes missing. Charlie is the prime suspect in her disappearance, and a new detective, Dalia Zaki, is out to prove his guilt or innocence. Eight years later, the couple, Seb, and their youngest daughter, Maud, are living with Larissa’s mother, Carmen, in Albuquerque, NM, when they receive a call that their daughter has been found alive but in a terrible state. She has been kept in a sarcophagus and wrapped up in a manner similar to a mummy. After Katie is brought home, she begins to display erratic behavior and strange things begin occurring around the house. Charlie believes that she needs intensive medical treatment but Larissa won’t hear of it and demands that Katie stay with them despite her bizarre actions. Charlie continues to work on his own with Detective Zaki and with a local professor in order to find out who kidnapped Katie and what they did to her. Things continue to get more bizarre until a tragedy pushes Larissa over the edge. This forces her to join up with Charlie and Detective Zaki in an attempt to save Katie. You’ll have to watch the film to find out what happens next.

The film is nothing more than a good ol’ fashion demonic possession tale wrapped up in a mummified curse. There’s no pharaoh, no high priests, and no forbidden love or plagues. Heck, there aren’t even any tana leaves or the Scroll of Thoth. Nope, it’s just your run-of-the-mill demonic possession story featuring the fictional “destroyer of families,” Nasmaranian. Nasmaranian latches onto a human body, apparently destroys families, and then moves on to the next host. In order to keep the demon at bay, a host, preferably a young one, must be used to entrap the demon. The host is then wrapped in parchment with sacred scriptures written on them, sealed into a sarcophagus, and kept there until a new host is needed. This cycle will apparently continue for eternity, but when an accident allows Katie to be discovered, Charlie and Detective Zaki take matters into their own hands.

Cronin drags the story along at a dull pace, with only the performances of Jack Reynor as Charlie, May Calamawy as Detective Zaki, and Veronica Falcon as Carmen keeping me interested in the film. I have to admit that it was refreshing to see a father figure be the hero without making him an idiot or buffoon. Charlie was the only person to keep a level head throughout the film, only becoming violent when he is accused of doing something to his daughter. Laia Costa didn’t do a bad job as Larissa. The character was just poorly written. The rest of the cast, Shylo Molina (Seb), Billie Roy (Maud), and Natalie Grace (Katie), all gave solid performances. The film is just boring even with its cool visuals and excellent special effects.

Speaking of the effects, they are cool, but I felt like Cronin just tossed them in just to gross out the audience. There’s nothing new or original about them and, to be quite honest, they weren’t that gross.

The only saving grace of this film outside of intelligent characters like Charlie and Zaki, was the very satisfying conclusion of the film. It made it worth sitting through the rest of the film and I do recommend checking this one out for the representation of a good father and a smart detective.

There might be bandages and a bit of Egypt in this film, but it’s not a mummy movie. Thanks for checking out my post.