lee cronin's the mummy
★★★.5
starring: jack reynor, laia costa, may calamawy, and natalie grace
REVIEWER: lyall carter
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.
From the dawn of cinema, mummy movies have very much been a part of the movie going experience. From the original mummy film starring Boris Karloff in 1932 to the Hammer Horror productions starring the legendary Peter Cushing and Sir Christopher Lee and the action adventure Mummy trilogy of my youth starring the wonderful Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, mummy movies have enraptured and horrified generations of audiences of movie goers.
And now we have newly crowned horror king Lee Cronin’s modern take on the mummy story. Creepy with a splash of gore all wrapped up in a new Egyptian mummy mythos, Lee Cronin's The Mummy will crawl deep under your skin and stay there awhile.
The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace. Eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she's returned to them. However, what should be a joyful reunion soon turns into a living nightmare as she starts to transform into something truly horrifying.
Lee Cronin’s vision of the mummy veers slightly from previous iterations from the off. Set in modern day Egypt instead of the past and focusing more on family relational dynamics than straight out possession, Cronin has a new canvas on which to create his horror.
And the first act plays just like a family drama, marred by the tragic abduction of their daughter Katie. This is where the film is at its strongest as it explores strained family dynamics of guilt, grief, and brokenness.
As the film speeds towards its final acts, Cronin ratchets up the horror with some truly disturbing and disgusting scenes that will equally make you squirm in your seat and laugh at some of the absurdity of it. The film’s emotional core wobbles a little in the middle of the film but the ending (which I won’t spoil here) is just perfection and one in which I didn’t see coming.
The production design is utter perfection with the locations of Spain and Ireland feeling like you were in the middle of a bustling Egyptian street or the desert of New Mexico. The sound design, cinematography and editing will drag you right into the story itself, wrapping you up tight, refusing to let you go.
Creepy with a splash of gore all wrapped up in a new Egyptian mummy mythos, Lee Cronin's The Mummy will crawl deep under your skin and stay there awhile.
★★★.5
