Time: 134 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – Graphic violence, horror and gore
Cast:
Jack Reynor as Charlie Cannon
Laia Costa as Larissa Cannon
May Calamawy as Detective Dalia Zaki
Natalie Grace as Katie Cannon
Verónica Falcón as Carmen Santiago
Director: Lee Cronin

I was interested in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. I liked Cronin’s work on Evil Dead Rise and so I was interested to see his take on The Mummy. Despite some of the mixed reactions of the movie, I actually quite liked it, if not as much as his last movie.

Lee Cronin’s latest film is very different from any previous take on The Mummy, resembling something closer to The Exorcist and Evil Dead (unsurprisingly). As such, it feels a little familiar and derivative of those movies, but I thought that it worked overall. It is quite lengthy at 2 hours and 15 minutes, that runtime is felt and it could’ve been a little tighter, but I don’t think that it dragged. Once it gets to the point where the daughter/mummy is returned to the home of the main family, that’s where the movie picks up. Part of that long runtime is the fact that a fair amount happens in the movie; there is a plotline about the family and their daughter who is behaving strangely, but there’s also a mystery aspect with the characters played by Jack Reynor and May Calamawy trying to figure out what is going on and how the girl ended up in a sarcophagus in the first place. In most cases, the investigation aspect would be the worst aspect of a horror film, but I thought that the mystery was intriguing and well handled, and definitely stronger than the family drama. Not that this aspect was necessarily bad, but it felt like the acting and the direction and grotesque moments were carrying the passable writing for this plotline. There’s some similarities with Evil Dead Rise that can be seen here, including some sprinkles of dark humour, while also not holding back on the gore. However, it also feels even more grimy, mean spirited, and is fittingly uncomfortable at times. It really goes all out in the third act with the gore and horror imagery, and was satisfying after all that build up.

The acting is quite good. Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, Shylo Molina, Billie Roy and Verónica Falcón give believable performances as a family going through all the horrors. One of the standouts for me was May Calamawy as the main investigator, she carries the mystery plotline so well. The other standout is Natalie Grace as Katie, the daughter of the family and the titular mummy. She’s effectively creepy and darkly comic, very akin to Linda Blair’s Regan in The Exorcist.

Lee Cronin’s direction is strong, creating a heavy atmosphere and carrying the above average script. The visuals are top notch with dark and immersive cinematography, there’s plenty of effective techniques with zoom-ins, split diopter and camera movements. There’s a lot of gnarly practical effects and gore that don’t hold back at all, and it is paired with some stellar sound design. There are times where it unfortunately relies too much on heavy CGI, mainly with an early scene and in the third act. Thankfully, in the latter case it is easy to look past that.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is a little overlong and the pacing has some issues, but overall, it is a very effective, atmospheric, visceral, and gnarly horror film.