LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY movie poster | ©2026 Warner Bros.

Rating: R
Stars: Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, Shylo Molina, Billie Roy, Veronica Falcón, Hayat Kamille, May Elghety, Emily Mitchell, Dean Allen Williams
Writer: Lee Cronin
Director: Lee Cronin
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: April 17, 2026

The intent behind the full title of LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY seems less to emphasize the writer/director, who is a very good filmmaker but not at present a marquee name, but rather to differentiate this MUMMY from the franchise starring Brendan Fraser or the one starring Tom Cruise.

Nobody seeing more than the first fifteen minutes or so of LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY is liable to confuse it with any of those others. This is not so much because it is contemporary (although it is), but rather because the tone is neither adventurous nor quasi-comedy. This is straight creepy horror that, if anything, slightly resembles THE EXORCIST, minus the Christian religious aspects.

We meet an Egyptian family of five bouncing along a dirt road in their car, with Dad and the three kids all cheerfully singing a pop song (in Egyptian) together. Only Mom (Hayat Kamille) is serious and stern.

When the family pulls up to their isolated but sunny farmhouse, their pet canary is dying of something odd. Mom and Dad take this as a cue to check on something in a basement room that contains a small four-sided pyramid. It holds a sarcophagus, which holds, well …

Then we are introduced to the Cannon family. Mom Larissa (Laia Costa) is pregnant with a baby girl, Dad Charlie (Jack Reynold) is a TV journalist, and kids Katie (Emily Mitchell) and Sebastián (Dean Allen Williams) are both under ten. They are all happy in their temporary home while Charlie is stationed in Cairo. We learn the house is not far from the home with the pyramid.

To say where LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY goes from here gets into spoiler territory quickly, as the twists are frequent. Cronin has put together his story very well, providing answers to questions about who, what, why, and why now that all work in genre terms.

As far as metaphors, LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY has obvious parallels to real-life situations where families struggle to care for, comprehend and withstand an extremely sick child, although the comparison breaks down where the supernatural comes into it.

Cronin’s horror emphasis is less on jump scares and more on atmosphere, sorrow and dread. The horror here is emotional as much as it is mythological, though the imagery is richly disturbing.

Reynor and Costa are both effective as the increasingly anguished protagonists. Mitchell, Williams, Shylo Molina, and Billie Roy are all very good as the young people caught up in what’s happening, and Natalie Grace gives a sterling, ever-unnerving performance as the primary title character (there are more than one).

Veronica Falcón puts humor and heart into Larissa’s good-natured mother and May Calawamy impresses as a dedicated Cairo police detective.

There are a couple of quibbles, starting with the fact that suspension of disbelief goes only so far before we have trouble accepting that certain characters survive what would appear to be fatal injuries. There are also a few “wait a minute” moments, including a videotape that is labeled in a way that is convenient for our main characters, but not so much for its intended recipients. Still, Cronin does better than most in crafting a throughline that accounts for all the moving parts.

Mainly, LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY sustains its intensity throughout, resulting in a gripping, visceral horror experience.

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