The Mummy

Mummies are finally scary, thanks to Lee Cronin. This iteration of The Mummy is a well-orchestrated and ambitious update to the ancient Egyptian evil, transplanted to modern American culture. It feels familiar enough to the established lore but also leans heavily on modern horror tropes. There are many nods to other films, and this feels like a spiritual sequel to Cronin's Evil Dead Rise.

In this movie, a family in peril is beset by a sinister entity with no way out. It's grim stuff where Cronin once again pits a likable family against a darkness so cruel and brutal it's a harrowing experience. At 2 hours and 14 minutes, it takes time to establish the two families and two locations on either end of the world, Egypt and New Mexico. It's a slow burn that will be off-putting to some, but the dread builds incrementally until hell is unleashed. The film really pivots during a delirious funeral scene where so much is going on it's difficult to track.

Cronin, much like Sam Raimi and James Wan, is developing a visual language with his camera movements and perspectives that short circuit your brain. With something grotesque in the foreground just off frame and a background that features a hapless victim, it's like he draws you right into the mayhem. It's diabolical.

The cast leads with conviction. Laia Costa is the checked-out mom blind to everything unraveling around her. Jack Reynor is the wide-eyed father searching for his daughter’s assailant. Veronica Falcon is the hyper-religious mother-in-law who believes Jesus and a dye job will fix her granddaughter. But it's Natalie Grace as Katie who anchors the film's darkness with a chilling performance, aided of course by spectacular makeup and prosthetics that deliver some genuinely nauseating body horror.

This is a gut-punch of a film and one of those rare horror movies with grandiose set pieces and effects. It's unpleasant, gory, and unsettling, and surely for those with kids, this will be a devastating experience. I can't remember a movie that so viscerally answers its own tagline: What happened to Katie? You'll wish you never find out. For horror fans waiting for the next event movie, this is it. It grabs you by the neck and shoves a scorpion down your throat.