Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace-eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.

My Take – As audiences continue to reminisce about the 1932 Universal monster classic, anticipate the return of Brendan Fraser’s globe‑trotting adventures, and try to forget the ill‑fated Dark Universe experiment with Tom Cruise, a new re‑imagining arrives under the Blumhouse banner.

Much like the bold contemporary remixes of The Invisible Man (2020) and Wolf Man (2025), this version twists the familiar concept into a fresh nightmare.

Guided by writer‑director Lee Cronin, best known for Evil Dead Rise (2023), the film blends grotesque body horror, exorcism‑driven madness, and an undercurrent of family drama. And the result is gruesome in its imagery, deeply unsettling in tone, and unflinching in its brutality. Something that insists on being a different kind of experience, and it delivers on that promise.

Although the Irish filmmaker’s inspirations often stray beyond the traditional Mummy mythos, leading to questionable detours such as extended melodrama and a drawn‑out runtime that begins to stall early, the film still follows the successful Blumhouse formula of tweaking the original idea, injecting modern relevance, and amplifying the scares.

Ensuring fans of the studio’s earlier remakes will find plenty to appreciate. The film is at its strongest when it embraces its mean‑spirited edge, unleashing vicious bloodshed and showcasing a fiercely committed performance from Natalie Grace. For genre enthusiasts, those moments alone will make the journey worthwhile.

The story follows the Cannon family, American expatriates first introduced in urban Cairo. Ascending journalist Charlie (Jack Reynor) teaches Morse code to his daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell), their lesson interrupted when one of his reports appears on television. His son Sebastian (Dean Allen Williams as a child, Shylo Molina as a teen) teases him for his constant hand gestures, establishing an easy, engaging rapport among the three.

That warmth vanishes quickly when Katie is abducted under mysterious circumstances. Charlie and his wife Larissa (Laia Costa) file a missing person report with detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy), but the Cairo police suspect familial foul play and little progress is made.

Eight years later, the Cannons have returned to Albuquerque, now living with Larissa’s devout mother (Verónica Falcón) and raising another daughter, Maud (Billie Roy). It is then that Katie (Natalie Grace) is discovered, decomposing yet alive, inside a 3,000‑year‑old sarcophagus unearthed near a plane crash site.

Her sudden reintroduction into the family is anything but joyous. Something is profoundly wrong. Though doctors describe Katie as catatonic, her increasingly horrific actions inside the Cannon home suggest a darker, possibly supernatural force at work. The family soon realizes that the girl they recovered is not the same child they lost.

Indeed, this premise marks a sharp departure from the familiar Mummy mythos. Universal’s continued hold on the rights to the traditional monster depiction might explain why this version feels closer to The Exorcist (1973) than a classic creature feature.

Thankfully, director Lee Cronin, already versed in demonic incantations and unsettling children through Evil Dead Rise (2023) and The Hole in the Ground (2019), leans into what he does best. The first half hour drags slightly, but once the narrative locks in, the film becomes relentless. Katie’s rediscovery and reintroduction deliver some of the tensest sequences, and from that point the horror escalates with disturbing intensity.

Certain moments are genuinely shocking, others grotesque enough to leave viewers queasy. Visually, his eye for horror is undeniable. Cinematographer Dave Garbett employs frequent split‑diopter shots to capture both Katie’s condition and her family’s horrified reactions. The nauseating makeup work on Grace underscores the terror, while practical effects linger long enough for audiences to absorb every grisly detail. However, the film falters when it comes to narrative focus.

Roughly two‑thirds of the story centers on the Cannon family, while the remainder follows Dalia’s investigation. Ironically, her subplot proves more compelling, as the family’s arc leans too heavily on familiar exorcism tropes like floating children, possession spreading from host to host, something that reduces the tension to imitation.

And by the middle act, repetition sets in, and the dramatic writing lacks the strength to sustain emotional investment in the family’s plight. Ultimately, the film succeeds most when it embraces director Cronin’s flair for mean‑spirited horror and grotesque spectacle, even its uneven narrative and reliance on genre clichés prevent it from fully realizing the bold reinvention it promised.

Performance wise, Natalie Grace delivers a brilliantly twisted performance as the possessed Katie, one that rivals Linda Blair’s iconic turn in The Exorcist. She is genuinely haunting, anchoring the film’s horror with unnerving conviction. Jack Reynor carries much of the narrative with confidence, while Laia Costa provides steady emotional grounding as Larissa.

May Calamawy offers a committed and compelling effort as detective Dalia, and Verónica Falcón adds an intriguing presence that lingers beyond her screen time. The supporting ensemble contributes effectively: May Elghety makes a brief but memorable impression, Shylo Molina and Billie Roy provide solid support, and Hayat Kamille’s short appearance is nonetheless noticeable. On the whole, ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy‘ is a viciously brutal horror thriller whose uneven narrative and genre clichés keep it from fully achieving its bold reinvention.