They Made a Lackluster “Evil Dead” Sequel and Called it “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” (Movie Review)

It has been decades upon decades since audiences got a normal, straight-up-the-middle Mummy movie. Ever since director Stephen Sommers famously said of the iconic monster while making his beloved 1999 The Mummy remake, “Nobody wants to see a guy wrapped in bandages; they’re going to laugh at it,” viewers have been served all kinds of zany, offbeat takes on the classic creature, but very few that fully embrace the, you know, mummy side of things.

The ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s were packed with wild Mummy antics, but ever since Sommers’ reboot, no one seems interested in making a straightforward Mummy movie anymore. Every version needs a gimmick attached. The sequels to the 1999 remake leaned heavily into action-adventure, drifting away from the franchise’s horror roots. The The Scorpion King spinoffs pushed even further in that direction, with far less success. Then 2017’s The Mummy starring Tom Cruise spent so much time trying to launch the ‘Dark Universe’ that the title monster barely mattered in her own film.

Now, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy once again avoids giving audiences an actual mummy movie, instead choosing a story more rooted in possession-horror tropes and supernatural clichés than in anything truly mummy-related.

TOP FIVE OF “LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY”

5. It’s Not The Mummy

This film has far less in common with any of the dozens of prior Mummy films than it does with The Exorcist, The Omen, or, most notably of all, a latter-day Evil Dead sequel. It’s not exactly surprising that Cronin, fresh off directing Evil Dead Rise, would bring a little of that gnarly energy to the proceedings, but the sheer prevalence of Evil Dead-related imagery, narrative developments, and even lines of dialogue is kind of baffling. Beyond this, the overarching story at play here is essentially just a light riff on William Friedkin’s original The Exorcist, taking entire swaths of that film’s plot and thematic material almost verbatim.

This is disappointing in a number of ways, most significantly in how it keeps the film from ever feeling like it is really engaging with what it’s about. All of the themes and ideas at play here feel like surface-level skimming, leaving precious little room for me, as an audience member, to feel invested in the purportedly emotional elements of the film.

After decades of waiting for a good Mummy movie again, audiences are instead treated to something that feels far more like Cronin wrote it as a potential Evil Dead follow-up and then doctored it up with a few Egyptian elements when offered this project. Add a sarcophagus here, change the exterior shots of the detective subplot to Cairo instead of Seattle, add sand to a few scenes, etc.

4. Grimy, Guttural Stuff

For as disappointing as the central narrative’s reluctance to embrace the more mummified elements of this larger franchise may be, let it never be said that Cronin and company don’t know how to fuck some shit up. From the very beginning, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy goes for the jugular in terms of gore, intensity, and the sheer amount of unpleasantness it can cram into any given scene.

There’s a lot of spectacular craft behind most of this, especially with regard to the practical effects work and Cronin’s hyper-tightened visual style, as well as the pace set by Bryan Shaw’s distinct editing. Does it always work? Definitely not. It often feels like the ways these sequences might shock were a much higher priority than how they would fit into the story’s gradual escalation. There’s even an entire bit in the third act where the movie stops cold for an extended scorpion-related gag that feels especially gratuitous.

That said, it is all still worth admiring on some level.

3. The Sound Design is Insane

Something that serves to amplify the horror in truly palpable ways is the sound design. Sound designer Peter Albrechtsen was clearly given carte blanche here to create something as invasive, unsettling, and upsetting as humanly possible, and he succeeds in that regard. I wanted to catch the film in Dolby, where sound is often far more pronounced, but wound up settling for a standard screening. Even in a standard theater, though, the sound design was so clearly cranked up to 11 in terms of volume, intensity, and presence that I can only imagine the kind of auditory experience it delivers in premium formats.

This blends well with Stephen McKeon’s musical score, which leans heavily on reversed tracks. It all becomes especially potent in the go-for-broke third act, where the sound design and score essentially merge into one all-encompassing sonic landscape of disorientation in some genuinely creative ways.

2. The Visuals are Ambitious

One does not necessarily think of a Blumhouse-produced monster movie as being particularly visually ambitious. In fact, the studio largely made its name by producing low-budget films that could turn substantial profits. That is by no means a bad thing, and many great filmmakers have done stellar work within those modest means. However, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is notable for just how big it feels in terms of both scale and production.

Sure, the film’s action predominantly takes place inside a house in Albuquerque, but there is a much grander sense of scope to the proceedings than I expected. On top of that, Cronin and cinematographer Dave Garbett craft an audacious visual language full of insane close-ups, gratuitously wide-angle lenses, and more split-diopter shots than you can shake a stick at.

All of it makes for one hell of a viewing experience, so much so that even when the film isn’t working, it is difficult not to admire what it is aiming for.

1. An Incredibly Inconsistent Tone

The real thing that sinks Lee Cronin’s The Mummy for me is the incredible inconsistency in tone that the film grapples with over the course of its bloated runtime. As mentioned, this is a film that is gnarly, extreme, and eager to be exceedingly in-your-face much of the time. It goes out of its way to deliver big, mean-spirited shocks whenever possible, yet bewilderingly juxtaposes that with lighthearted observational humor. It aims for a grounded, gritty kind of intensity, but then is more than happy to veer into over-the-top gore and gags à la Evil Dead for a scene or two whenever it suits its interests.

All of this makes for a whiplash-inducing viewing experience that feels like it is constantly keeping audiences at arm’s length. The worst part of it all is the ending, which feels tested and reshot to death, where the film’s central hook becomes so convoluted that it is difficult to even parse what any of it is ultimately trying to say or do.

If Cronin wanted to make a feel-bad, shock-jock possession movie, I would be all for that. But this version of the film feels entirely compromised by a reluctance to ever fully commit to that idea, whether because of The Mummy title or the inconsistency of the tone itself.

RGM GRADE

(C)

There’s a lot to enjoy about Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, even if those pleasures are predominantly oddities. It is not the return to form I was hoping for and it leaves plenty to be desired, but I also found a lot of ambition and gonzo craft on display to appreciate. A mixed bag for sure, but nothing deserving of mummification.

All in all, I kind of love the idea that audiences heading into theaters this weekend may only know The Mummy through the much more blockbuster-friendly, PG-13 efforts of the past few decades, only to be greeted instead by this gnarly, oppressively unpleasant R-rated horror film.