Review: Lee Cronin’s The Mummy – “Scary, sickening and no-holds-barred, horror fans will have an absolute blast.”

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, not only to differentiate it from Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy movies, but also because Lee Cronin is a modern master of horror who deserves his name in the title.

Too much too soon? Nope. As well as the nightmare fuel that is The Hole in the Ground, Cronin directed a hell of an Evil Dead movie in Evil Dead Rise, and has now surpassed the rocks and shocks he blew audiences away with in the latest instalment of that franchise, with another fresh and fab spin on another legendary horror series – The Mummy.

An iconic horror monster that hasn’t been scary in 80 years, with later instalments focusing more on action-adventure, The Mummy is a cinematic bogeyman ripe for a terrifying overhaul.

Scary, sickening and no-holds-barred, horror fans will have an absolute blast with Cronin’s Mummy movie, which features familiar elements but takes things not only in a different direction, but far further than you could ever expect.

The Cannons are an American family living in Egypt, while dad Charlie (Jack Reynor, Midsommar) pursues his dream of being a TV news reporter. His dream turns to a nightmare when, on the day he gets a sought-after promotion, his daughter Katie is abducted.

The broken-hearted family retreats to Grandma’s house in New Mexico, flash forward eight years, and the phone rings with news. Katie has been found. In a sarcophagus. In the wreckage of a plane crash. In a near catatonic state. With occasional flashes of fierce feral freakiness that require her to be constantly sedated.

Keep her in the hospital or somewhere secure where she can get the round-the-clock care she needs in a safe environment? Nah. The Cannons jet her home to New Mexico (that must have been a fun flight) and set her loose on their poor kids and elderly mother (a scene-stealing Veronica Falcon, Ozark).

Fans of the Evil Dead will quickly realise what’s happening here. Cronin has made a Mummy movie with Evil Dead energy, and Katie is a manipulative and maniacal little deadite with what is left of her soul set on ripping her family apart. Literally and figuratively. A reel-to-reel tape player is even used to dispense exposition.

The horrifically and amazingly gory set pieces are wonderfully staged and always go one or more steps further than the boundaries of taste or decency would usually allow. Nothing is sacred. Everything and anyone can be literally ripped to pieces, cruelly taunted, their body then violated even further before an insane and disgusting death – if they’re lucky. It’s an absolute blast.

Yes, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is a hard 18 horror film that possesses a shuffling dusty horror character with the brutal, gnarly, delightfully mean-spirited energy of Raimi’s demonic teasing terrors and Cronin’s own spin on them that he already spent a film perfecting and now unleashes in polished and petrifying pint-sized form.

If you are a horror fan, you owe it to see this one on the biggest screen, as loud as possible, as many times as you can while it’s out. A balls-to-the-wall barnstormer like this does not come along every day, so make the absolute most of it while you can, while also letting the studios know that THIS is what we want lots more of, please. Anyway, I gotta go – I’m going to go and see it again now myself.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is on general release now.