Lee Cronin‘s The Mummy sits in an unusual place. It isn’t wholly inspired by the mythology of Ancient Egypt, and that’s a problem. When the spirit that possesses Katie (Natalie Grace) does not hail from this world, this filmmaker misses what makes the very word meaningful. The word alone carries weight, and most people will connect it to legends of yore, ancient curses, and maybe hope Anubis makes a cameo to fix what’s wrong.
What this writer/director offers feels more in tune with Evil Dead Rise than a true reinvention of the genre. For fans of the Universal and Hammer cycles, these films usually centre on the resurrected’s longing for a reincarnated soul. This storyteller pivots entirely away from that romance because Blumhouse gives him complete creative freedom. Instead, the result is a mashup that blends The Exorcist with Evil Dead, with a dash of Hausu for good measure. When the action takes place in an enclosed space and gets almost comedically gross, that Japanese film came to mind.
As for the entity known as the Nasmaranian, the naming convention is a critical miss. The name phonetically hints at a Mesopotamian or Amarnian past rather than something proto-Egyptian. While the idea isn’t inherently bad, I was left scratching my head. It’s a bit like saying the Scorpion King sequels were meant to exist in the same world as the original, except they’re really about his adventures around the Mediterranean Sea. The Fertile Crescent is arguably older than Egypt and has its own rich architecture, but that depth only works when the filmmaker builds the world rather than improvising it.
Once the cosmology is stripped away, why the terrors from the Two Lands matter doesn’t carry the same weight, and the result feels more Arabic than truly Kemetic. We aren’t given enough time to feel the weight of the parents’ love for Katie before the terror starts, so her kidnapping doesn’t land with the impact it should. Years have passed and the family has moved on, to New Mexico of all places, resigned to never finding their youngest. When they learn she’s still alive, I’m surprised they have the money to travel far to verify what the authorities have found, and what they bring home is a terror waiting to tear the Cannon family apart.
What remains is a half-told tale about why cultists are desperate to prevent an entity’s attempt to gain power. The Magician (Hayat Kamille) leads this group and I’m sure shades of Lovecraftian style worship are painted all over them. They believe mummifying young souls is the only way to stop it. At first, I assumed the kidnapping was tied to something larger, namely the drought conditions facing communities near the Nile that reporter Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor) is signalling. I can accept sacrificing a soul to incite Sobek to raise the waters of the Nile, and it’d be a welcome change. Sadly, this film is more interested in torture than resolving the problem hinted at by the news.
And when the reasons behind the embalming ritual are finally revealed, they have no connective tissue to anything familiar. Usually those bandages include protection spells written on them to help a soul’s transition into the Afterlife. The fact that idea is totally reversed might get some Egyptologists crying foul, and honestly, I’m ready to smack my head.
Instead, what I’m reading from Cronin’s logic is that he’s borrowing from H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmology. When the film has that feel, hearing Al-Azhar University cited as an authority becomes a clever “if you know, you know” nod to Abdul Alhazred, the fictional author of the Necronomicon. But when expectations lean toward a story about a family being torn apart by ancient evil, there is no “Hail to the King” moment. I’m sure Bubba Ho-Tep would also complain!
Cronin treats the Mummy as a disease. When the coffin is opened, the plague unleashed will poison the souls of everyone nearby. As for who gets their dues, I’ll leave for you to find out. As for the creature design itself, the infected very much looks like a Deadite, and it seems there’s no escaping the black gaseous vapour trope either. If I had to guess, this filmmaker made an Evil Dead sequel wrapped around a bandage.
Thankfully cinematographer David Garbett is able to bring that style to life with his technical flourish. Had it not, this movie would be more honest if it were simply titled The Ghoul. After all, this creature hails from Arabic folklore, which fits the story far better than anything out of the Kemetic tradition. It has plenty of bite for gore-hounds, but for anyone looking for the soul of Egyptology, it’s just empty wrappings.
3 Stars out of 5
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Trailer
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