Who’s the Boss? Can Lee Cronin’s The Mummy or Universal’s Sand the Test of Time?

When Lee Cronin’s The Mummy leaves theatres as fast at arrived, what’s presented is better off set to unwind as a pulp piece to put in the VCR.

Lee Cronin's The Mummy Movie PosterLee 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.

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The Mummy (2026) Trailer Analysis: Ancient Gods, Ritual Horror, and a Corrupted Afterlife

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) teaser hints at ritual horror, corrupted afterlife myths, and an unsettling procedural mystery rooted in Ancient Egyptian belief. This isn’t a nostalgic revival, but a darker reckoning with gods, death, and what should stay buried.

Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026)After watching the teaser trailer for Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) several times, there’s enough on screen to start forming a clearer theory beyond what’s been officially published. I’ve deliberately avoided forums and fan speculation, so this read comes purely from what the trailer itself is offering.

I’ve always had a soft spot for The Mummy as a concept. Even in its earliest versions, including the Hammer era, it functioned as a love story filtered through horror. That emotional spine gave the zombie myth a strange elegance. Stephen Sommers later pushed the material into camp and spectacle, turning it into pulp adventure. This new iteration appears to reject both approaches entirely. Sitting outside Universal’s legacy plans, it feels safe to assume Blumhouse has given Cronin the freedom to rebuild the myth from the ground up.

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When Evil Dead Rise Takes the Franchise to New Places, the Results are…

All I can hope for is that we have more details in Evil Dead Rise unfold in the same vein as Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Evil Dead Rise PosterSpoiler Alert

Lee Cronin‘s Evil Dead Rise takes the Sam Raimi’s horror franchise to all new places, and there’s no rhyme or reason behind it. There’s no mention of the deadites, and some new world building has me believing they’ve existed since time immemorial! Even though plenty of character and visual aesthetics from the classic exist in this latest, they felt tacked on than worked into the tale.

A certain formula has to be followed. Characters have to be introduced, the Naturom Demonto needs to be found, and the terror gets awakened. The early movies didn’t go far in terms of what it means to unleash the demons in the psychological sense, but here, we’re treated to a deeper story:

Beth (Lily Sullivan) is pregnant, and she hopes to get some help from her sister. Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) may well not be the right person. She’s a single mother raising three kids–Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher). She’s not without her problems too; her husband left her, and if that’s not enough, the L.A. apartment she lives in is condemned, and she really should move.  Continue reading “When Evil Dead Rise Takes the Franchise to New Places, the Results are…”