Lee Cronin's The Mummy: A New Take on the Classic Monster Goes Terribly Wrong (4K)

The Film:

Like most of the classic monsters of the '30s, "The Mummy" is one that's been done to death over the subsequent decades, with highlights including the original Boris Karloff classic (which is more of a melodrama than a horror film), the 1959 Hammer film with Sir Christopher Lee, the action-filled 1999 rendition with Brendan Fraser, and the 2017 outing with Tom Cruise, which was such a disaster that it killed an entire planned universe of films before it could even get off the ground. Now writer/director Lee Cronin, who made some waves just a few years back with "Evil Dead Rise," has decided to throw his hat in the ring and take a shot at giving audiences a thrilling take on a mummy concept by embracing the horror aspect much more than recent iterations have done. Will he be able to tap into it successfully in order to deliver the chills that fans of the genre long for?

Starting in 2018 Cairo, we follow TV reporter Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor), his pregnant wife Larissa (Laia Costa), and their young kids Katie (Emily Mitchell) & Seb (Dean Allen Williams). One day, Katie is lured away by a strange woman with candy and kidnapped. Charlie tries to give chase, but gets caught in a sandstorm and loses them. The parents take the case to the local authorities, which includes Detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy), but her superior merely casts his suspicion on the parents, leaving the case at a dead end.

Eight years later, the family has moved to New Mexico and now includes their second daughter Maud (Billie Roy). Out of the blue, they get a call telling them that Katie (Natalie Grace) has been found wrapped up and entombed in a sarcophagus being transported by a plane that crashed. Her condition has left her catatonic, with some major skin problems, but her parents are shocked & overjoyed to have her back home. However, it's not long before Katie's behavior starts to become more erratic, with her harming herself and others. When inscriptions on her bindings & skin start to point to a dark explanation of what happened during her disappearance, Charlie soon suspects that what they've brought home is not Katie.

When it was announced that Lee Cronin would be giving us a "Mummy" film that intended to go full-horror, it felt like something of a breath of fresh air. He had done a decent job of taking the "Evil Dead" franchise in a better direction after the dreadful 2013 remake, so having him tackle a film like this had some intriguing potential. There's also the fact that it had been quite a long time since anyone really tried to take it back to the proper genre, with the more recent takes being far more action-oriented. The Mummy, in any form, was always meant to be seen as a rather terrifying creature, but sadly that has not been the case for quite some time, at least until now.

However, with all of the anticipation that the above brings, it only ends up making the result all the more disappointing. "Lee Cronin's The Mummy" is not so much a horror film as it is a gross-out film, for where there should be terror, thrills, and plenty of scares, we find only attempts to make the audience sick with peeling skin, vomit, teeth extraction, disgusting things happening to food, and more. The concept is there, but Cronin is surprisingly at a complete loss as to how to bring out the terror of the situation, so he simply settles for trying to gross us out instead, which naturally doesn't work when you're supposed to be making a horror film.

To make matters somewhat worse, it's not even much of a "Mummy" film at all. In fact, it would ironically, and more accurately, be called an "Evil Dead" film given the amount of demon possession that occurs throughout. The particularly ironic part is that Cronin turned down doing the latest entry in that franchise in order to make this, but apparently he wasn't quite ready to be done with it after all. That's a particular shame because, as noted, he had really helped get the "Evil Dead" series back on track, so it would've been fascinating to see where he would have taken it next, instead of making this bizarre amalgamation of that & what should've been a chilling "Mummy" outing.

What "Lee Cronin's "The Mummy" really boils down to is an idea that had a fair amount of potential, but it's one that Cronin ended up taking in all the wrong directions. Where there should've been scares, there's nothing but gratuitousness. Where there should've been better use of its "Mummy"-esque character, there's nothing but a rehash of another franchise. This was his chance to resurrect the truly terrifying aspects of the classic monster, an idea that hadn't really been done since the days of Hammer, but in the end, he was sadly unable to get there, instead leaving us with a bland take that should've stayed buried.

Video/Audio:

"Lee Cronin's The Mummy" comes to 4K in a 2.39:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfer of outstanding quality, presenting a beautifully sharp picture throughout the entire 134-minute duration, even during the multitude of darker scenes. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos-TrueHD audio track is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in excellent quality. Overall, Warner Bros. has done a marvelous job in both departments for the film's 4K debut.

Special Features:

Commentary by Director/Writer Lee Cronin

The Making of Lee Cronin's the Mummy (11 Minutes): A featurette that goes behind the scenes of the film, featuring interviews with the cast & crew.

A Bloody and Grotesque Spectacle (8 Minutes): A featurette that explores the film's various special effects.

Producing Possession and Ancient Demons (6 Minutes): A featurette that delves into the film's lore.

Deleted Scenes (7 Sequences, 10 Minutes)

Conclusion:

"Lee Cronin's The Mummy" has the writer/director attempting to take the classic monster back to its horror roots with a idea that had some potential, but sadly it's one that he ends up taking in all of the wrong directions, replacing scares with gross-out moments and turning what should've been a film about a mummy into a rather sub-par "Evil Dead" entry instead, ultimately leaving us with a completely misguided outing that fails to elicit the chills it so desperately wants to provide.

Score: 2/5

Available on 4K starting tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter @BeckFilmCritic.