#REVIEW: “LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY”

Review by David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong

Katie, the young daughter of Charlie (Jack Reynor) and Larissa (Laia Costa) has been abducted from the home their family is renting in Cairo. She practically vanished into the desert sand. Eight years later, they are trying to push forward when they find out Katie (Natalie Grace) has been found wrapped in cloth in an ancient sarcophagus. But the young woman they bring home to their family in Albuquerque may be more than just a little troubled and traumatized.

LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY (not to be confused with The Mummy starring Tom Cruise nor The Mummy starring future Oscar winners Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz) is a bit of a curiosity. It is at once a devastating drama about a fractured family trying to become whole again at the same time as it is a gritty procedural about missing children as well as a gruesome possession flick that wears its influences on the sleeves of the tattered and archaic cloth Katie is found in. Often it is all of these things at once, feeling scattered at best and nearly incomprehensible at worst. It jumps from point to point recklessly, and never seems keen on sticking to one tone throughout its lengthy 134-minute running. The shifting pendulum act worked wonders in Cronin’s last film, Evil Dead Rise, yet makes the proceedings here feel increasingly exacerbating.

What makes LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY even more disappointing is the fact that so many great pieces are scattered throughout the Film. The anger and regret Charlie and Larissa have over the loss of their daughter and the state she returns in is palpable and heartbreaking (and Reynor and Costa get some genuinely impactful moments), but they mostly feel glazed over and completely underutilized (which makes some late in the game emotional turns feel unearned). The often nasty makeup effects and scares are solid – particularly the ones involving a long overdue pedicure and how one speaks with a pierced hole through their throat – but are undone by CGI enhancements that are not nearly as polished. Grace’s tormented performance as the older Katie is great, but it feels at odds with the movie surrounding it.

And while I have always had an aversion to children being forced into harrowing and horrific moments on film, Emily Mitchell does very well for herself as the young Katie.

I think the long and short of it is that I was expecting more fun from LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY and what I got was a mixed bag of parts that belong to a stronger movie and do not quite coalesce into a cohesive final product. Gorehounds may still find a lot to like about this one, as will those who love films that skirt the line around what constitutes “bad taste”. Even those looking for something mean-spirited and ruthless may find parts of this movie to be exactly what the doctor ordered. For everyone else though, it may be wise to seek out another reco from their resident mummy.

Warner Bros. Pictures Canada release LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY on Friday, April 17, 2026.