THE STORY – The young daughter of a journalist 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.
THE CAST – Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace & Verónica Falcón
THE TEAM – Lee Cronin (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 133 Minutes
There’s something comforting about the old “Universal Monsters” continually being resurrected throughout cinema. These are properties that are nearly a century old, more than that, if you count their original source materials, and watching them adapt just as the movie landscape has evolved can offer a fascinating insight. There may be some room for experimentation here or there, but it’s a solid foundation that keeps being returned to for a reason. You almost have to applaud Universal for trying something even more daring when they attempted to jump onto the bandwagon of connected cinematic universes when they launched the “Dark Universe” venture. A colossal disaster, for sure, but one that eventually would inspire yet another inspired rebrand with a shift in tone. “Lee Conin’s The Mummy” represents another entry into this new avenue, and there’s plenty of ghoulish fun to admire. It unfortunately isn’t quite enough to sustain a brutally dull story that feels needlessly padded.
As one would expect, the story begins in Egypt. The Cannon family has been living there for the last few months as the father, Charlie (Jack Reynor), has been on assignment as a news reporter, and his wife, Larissa (Laia Costa), is stationed there as a nurse. Their idyllic family life is thrown into disarray when their older child, Katie, disappears. They hope and pray for any sign of her whereabouts, but there are very few signs of her return. That is, until eight years later, when the wreckage of a plane crash reveals a sarcophagus that is thousands of years old, carrying the missing girl. This older Katie (Natalie Grace) has disfigured skin, overgrown nails, and fits of contorting her body. What starts as relief to have this missing family member return morphs soon to great concern as her behavior becomes more sinister and violent. Investigating her condition reveals an ancient evil entity that has been buried within Katie as a means of containment. Now the levees have been breached, and an insidious infection spreads, threatening more than just this single family.
This has been a property throughout the years that has sought to provide a different interpretation that has landed with wildly different results. The original Mummy films hewed much closer to traditional horror until the 1999 Stephen Summers film, which blended more action/adventure into the narrative and became a celebrated classic. The Tom Cruise reinvention tried for something similar, but a horrendous screenplay was an anchor that ultimately was too heavy to bear. With the success of “Evil Dead Rise,” the addition of Lee Cronin now at the helm certainly signals a return to the horror roots, but one with the jovial self-indulgence he displayed in that previous effort. Indeed, his sensibilities bleed through much of the filmmaking, as in the many scenes of Katie shot with uncomfortably close macro lenses to emphasize the body horror. The violence can be impactful (anyone with an aversion to anything related to the removal of nails is warned). Still, you can also sense the delightful glee that’s being taken with such a showcase. Indeed, much of this movie feels like another entry in the “Evil Dead” franchise, as Katie’s powers and manipulation feel more like taunting a Deadite than a millennia-old haunting creature. Those who enjoy such relishings will ultimately find those sequences the film’s purest highlights.
However, such moments come across as desperate attempts to elevate a poorly conceived screenplay that crams way too much into this storyline and bloats it to an immeasurable length. Coming in at well over two hours, the storytelling is overstuffed with weak character motivations and uninteresting tangents, mostly meant to expand the narrative’s mythology, but that ultimately contribute to the stagnant momentum. For every scene that can provide a cheap thrill that’s still engaging, it hard cuts to another mundane scene of drab family quarreling or tedious exposition. The worst of it has to be the sidequest by the Egyptian detective who was first assigned to this case, who ends up exposing the deeper mystery behind her disappearance. Every instance reveals laborious details that don’t add much to the plot, beyond blatant underlining that isn’t necessary for a premise with such fantastical elements. Besides providing some crucial dialogue in Arabic, there isn’t much to this character or storyline that feels important, so it lands with a thud. Cronin’s last film was not a particularly strong writing effort either, but it was streamlined enough for the heightened horror to be impactful. There’s far too much dead space surrounding the fun that could be had for this endeavor to be entirely successful.
Kudos should be lauded for Grace’s effort in delivering a physically demanding performance that is by far the most compelling showcased within this ensemble. It’s a mostly silent role that’s buried in makeup, but she absolutely sells the traumatized figure, which mostly masks the terrifying soul waiting to burst out. It can be a bit tiresome that most of Katie’s antics follow a pattern of subtle taunts before truly exploding in the finale. However, it’s still impressive work, particularly for a debut performance. The more seasoned actors, like Reynor and Costa, really aren’t given complex roles, which can be forgiven in this kind of feature. The problem is that what little is thrown their way mostly relies on them giving terrified looks as a stable foundation as events escalate around them. It’s serviceable work that doesn’t amount to much more than that. The same goes for Verónica Falcón, the doting grandmother, who is part of one of the film’s more entertaining scenes, but not much is added to expand the character. One mostly just feels sorry for May Calamawy as that detective because her talents may indeed be noteworthy, but they are wasted in an absolutely uninteresting story element.
What’s most frustrating about “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” is how tonally inconsistent it becomes. Yes, it finds a way to inject some delightful horror imagery that’s captivating, at least in the way that repulsive acts of over-the-top carnage can appease those sickos out there. However, this story does not come across as if that tone was top of mind. Had it committed to such convictions, perhaps a breezier pace would have been instilled and a more entertaining effort would have been seen. Instead, those instances of punctuation are more like desperate attempts to infuse some energy into a narrative that is lethargically paced. Not even the alluring central performance can elevate this material. It is still commendable that this new direction has provided a wider variety of storytelling with these familiar tales, but the heights of “The Invisible Man” have not been met with “Wolf Man” or this particular outing. The beauty of horror is that it allows for variation, and that’s certainly the case here, with results that are less than desirable.
