Following the director’s standout sophomore outing in “Evil Dead Rise,” “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” unravels the legend in dull fashion, reshaping the classic creature feature into an uninspired slog, haunted by every “creepy child” troupe imaginable.

When the family of a broadcast journalist (Jack Reynor) moves to Cairo, Egypt, for an international assignment, the youngest daughter (Natalie Grace) goes missing after being abducted by a mysterious cloaked woman.

It’s only eight years later, when a plane crashes in Aswan, Egypt, that she is found once again – wrapped up within a lead-lined tomb. Now living in New Mexico, the family embraces the daughter with open arms, unaware of the terror and gore that will follow in her wake.
Having made 2019’s “The Hole in the Ground” and 2023’s “Evil Dead Rise,” director Lee Cronin has made a name for himself within the 90-minute horror space. Yet the newcomer’s signature style of gross-out-gore and mind-bending cinematography is pushed to its limit in “The Mummy,” stretching what should have been a quick feature into nearly two and a half hours of slow, monotonous scares and domestic quarreling.

Unlike his previous films, Cronin attempts to turn the mummy from mythical creature to a slowburn, intellectual film – it fails to capitalize on either.

None of the questions that the Blumhouse feature proposes are all that intriguing, and it lacks any interesting twists or reveals to justify its trudging first hour – leaving viewers grasping for anything remotely intriguing.

The movie – heavily inspired by horror classic “The Exorcist” and modern masterpiece “Hereditary” – tries to rewrap the tale of the mummy into an emotional devastating family drama, but its cliche-ridden script and dodgy performances turn the film tiresome.

The screenplay feels flimsy at best, providing audiences with the bare minimum in terms of emotional connection between the leading father and his titular daughter, forcing audiences to try and bond with a pair that have no chemistry whatsoever. It doesn’t help that Jack Reynor, the father, turns in on the stalest horror performances in quite some time. Every line delivery is as bland as a saltine cracker, and his expressions throughout the feature remain stoic or angry, with the occasional tear shed to spice things up. Luckily, Natalie Grace is here to give the film’s acting some kind of life. She’s no Regan MacNeil from “The Exorcist,” but Grace does a fantastic job as this reinvention of the mummy. Is it ever scary? No, but you can tell that the actress gave it her all nonetheless, especially underneath the layers of grim, deathly makeup.

While the film lacks real scares, it provides decent thrills in terms of gory carnage, even if it takes some time for the blood to start flying. However, “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” can never decide on how it wants the violence to affect its audience. In some sequences the brutality feels pulled back and toned down – namely one of its final, gory set pieces – yet other scenes feel unnecessarily mean spirited, especially with multiple instances to one of the film’s central family members.

Although his writing chops appear to be lacking, Lee Cronin’s directing skills still seem to be as strong as ever. Albeit not as memorable as his work in “Evil Dead Rise,” Cronin still creates a rather suffocating atmosphere with a nice eye for visuals. If the gore and scares don’t interest audiences, then perhaps its decaying ambience will offer something to chew on.

Blumhouse’s latest horror retelling attempts to make up for poor scares with memorable gore, but its below-average screenplay, lifeless lead performance and dreadfully long runtime puts into question whether this adaptation should have stayed in the tomb.

“Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” released April 17 and is in theaters now.