Directed By Lee Cronin

Starring – Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, Natalie Grace

The Plot – The young daughter (Grace) of a journalist (Reynor) 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.

Rated R for strong disturbing violent content, gore, adult language and brief drug use

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

Despite an overly flawed and patiently prodding execution that almost entirely eviscerates the tangible familiarity of this time honored property, in favor of a freshly contemporary outpouring of a variety of differing kinds of horror, there are some credible aspects and ideas to the execution of this newest remake of the classic Universal monsters property that at least allows Cronin to emphatically stamp his name to the unmistakable distinguishing of the product, particularly in the gross-out kind of revoltingly disgusting horror that will immediately divide audiences in their initial interpretation of the film. Cronin wastes absolutely no time establishing a stomach-churning precedent for what’s to follow, both with gruesomely grotesque imagery of top-tier practically enacted special effects work, as well as a thoroughly intricate detectability in the sound mixing, to continuously gnaw at the sensibilities with overwhelmingly nagging persistence, and considering they both go a long way towards vividly articulating the decomposing elements of the movie’s sharply-stinging body horror from a child’s perspective, it’s all the more unnerving when the supernatural forces that condemn her start to take shape in the household of this family dynamic, especially once Cronin and cinematographer, David Garbett, take aim at the claustrophobic proximity of the movie’s photography fleshing out horrifying realities with unflinching focus. Garbett cleverly utilizes a fish eye lens throughout sequences involving horror, as a means of placing us as close to the dreadful devastation as artistically imaginable, and considering so much about Cronin’s direction already revolves around the invasiveness of capture that other filmmakers would likely shy away from, it doubles down on the elemental urgency of the enacted conflict, inscribing a punctuating emphasis to moments of revolting vulnerability, the likes of which there are no shortage of throughout this 128-minute experience. Beyond some of the film’s technical components, there are some allegorical aspects to Cronin’s screenplay that at least attempted emotionality when the majority of the performances and ensuing characterization fell so flat, with Katie’s eight year disappearance and resurrection utilized to channel the very toxically crippling ways that a family contends with overwhelming grief. This is especially resonant in the atmospheric illustrating that Cronin lends to our centralized household, featuring natural lighting schemes and coldly damp set designs that fail to fill the void of what’s missing from this family’s lifeless interactions with affectionately exuding warmth and evidential connectivity, and though the inconsistencies of the script’s eventual execution doesn’t completely capitalize on everything attained from the ghosts of the past that haunt these survivors with unsuppressed trauma’s, it does utilize the irresponsibility of a provider and protector who is given a second chance to make matters right, testing the extent of their unwavering love and compassion in unjustifiable ways that put their other children in danger, in turn cementing that the humanistic element is the most effectively unnerving aspect of the ensuing exploration. Lastly, while so many of the characters are tragically miscast, it’s 16-year-old, Natalie Grace, who makes the most of her impactful screen presence, with menacing psychology and committed physicality that conveys the extensive magnitude of the vulnerable struggle from within, all the while garnering a gravitational magnetism that many of the surrounding characters orbit around. Grace isn’t given the most subtle or substantial of material, especially in the dialogue department, but her undisturbed connection to the placement of the lens far transcends the limitations of her minimized experience in the industry, cementing a breakthrough antagonistic turn that can earnestly be compared to Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist, or Jennifer Carpenter’s in The Haunting of Emily Rose, in terms of resilient grit and relentlessness that make Katie the ferociously unflinching embodiment of evil in its purest form.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, while The Mummy does elicit some compelling ideas in the form of its experimental creativity, it’s anything but a smoothly seamless experience, particularly as a result of an overstuffed script that continuously builds to an overlong runtime testing the patience of its paying audience, in turn leaving a finished draft that definitely could’ve used another trip inside of the editor’s room. When the movie begins, it’s jumping between a variety of characters and locations, the likes of which make it impossible to properly digest just what’s transpiring in the franticness of the storytelling, but even when it eventually settles down, there are tremendous logic leaps in the realities of this family bringing home this evidentially dangerous girl, that would be impossible to buy in even a National Lampoon’s movie, where the laws of reality and even responsibility don’t ever seem to take shape in a film this grounded by stupidity, in turn resulting in the limitless kind of unintended hilarity that doesn’t match up with the stern sensibilities of the movie’s tone. If I haven’t expressed enough, the intention is that there are too many individualized arcs in this finished product to attain either the urgency in the narrative or the meaningful merit of the established family dynamic, especially considering the film’s second half is dominated by this detective in Egypt who is taking away so much time and exposition from the centralized focus among its main characters, as well as an increasingly extensive ending that refuses to finish, and in utilizing the aforementioned detective as a convenient plot device to flesh out the litany of tropes that Cronin absolutely cannot resist in its sampling of predecessors, whether in the knowledgeable professor whose only purpose of value is to tap into the history of the Mummy’s lore, or a litany of aforementioned illogical character motivations that isolate the very clunkily surreal plot mechanics of what’s transpiring. It wouldn’t be as heavily oppressive if the frights were certainly there, but the attainable scares are at an all-time minimal for Universal monsters, as a result of loudly obnoxious sound mixing during the movie’s orchestral score, and an abundance of predictably timed jump scares, proving so very little effectiveness to keep an audience entertained, despite an R-rating that allows for limitless possibilities in the expressive avenues of Cronin having so much free reign during the movie’s execution. If this wasn’t enough, the lifelessly dull performances from Jack Reynor and Laia Costa, whose lack of emotionality has them feeling as soulless as the entity that has enveloped their missing daughter, prove how tragically miscast that each of them were in the exploits of their respective roles, with Reynor especially devastating the much-needed humanity factor that a movie involving terrifying aspects requires to surmise the necessary stakes. Considering I am a longtime fan of Reynor’s, it’s downright painful to see how coldly uncalculated his responses to tragedy leave a vapidness among the much-needed humanity involved in the plot, where we fail to meet this tenderly ailing father at eye level, as a result of deliveries that feel like questions rather than astute assessments, and with very little time and creative energy already deposited towards fleshing out this family dynamic, as a means of essentially deviating away from the constant consistency of so many supernatural set pieces, the likes of which there are far too many of, the performances fail to muster any semblance of compelling chemistry to invest in this family, and for Reynor, it wastes away a chance to capitalize once more on the leading man status that I know he’s capable of. Aside from tethered patience and prudish performances, this is also a film that so obviously wears the badges of its creative inspirations on its sleeve, evoking the likes of many notorious predecessors, the likes of which aren’t actually Mummy movies. Considering Cronin is the very man who helmed the latest Evil Dead movie, Evil Dead Rise, that film, The Omen, and especially The Exorcist feel like the tangible influences to this movie’s execution, and in deliberately absorbing ways that beat-for-beat mirror many of the executive actions and conflictual aspects of those cherished properties, and with Cronin already deconstructing so many of the vital aspects of the Mummy lore, in favor of an engagement that samples strands of the subgenre, it feels like a legacy remake purely in name alone, and one that can’t live up to the enormous shadow an evolving franchise whose best days are clearly behind it.

OVERALL
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy entombs the ambitious outlook of a once heralded franchise among horror fanatics with unregistered performances, undercooked thrills, and such on-the-nose derivativity that allows it to stand as a legacy remake on name alone, without anything that drove the excitement or anticipation factor of the films that came before it. Despite a gravitationally committed performance by Natalie Grace, as well as the production fleshing out some gruesomely gnarly aspects to its stomach-turning gore, the film lacks an emotional compass to draw heart and humanity from its most compelling angles of storytelling, in turn unearthing an unrecognizably sluggish shell of a soul whom we once loved and promised to protect

My Grade: 5.4 or D