Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) is written & directed by Lee Cronin. It stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, Shylo Molina, Billie Roy, Veronica Falcon, Hayat Kamille, May Elghety, Emily Mitchell, Husam Chadat, Tim Seyfi, Mark Mitchinson, and Gideon Emery. 8 years after their young daughter, Katie (Grace), goes missing, the Cannon family is shocked when she’s found alive. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that whatever Katie experienced in those 8 years has taken a significant toll, both physically and mentally. As Katie’s troubling behavior takes on supernatural overtones, the family enlists a local detective (Calamawy) to discover what’s cursing their beloved daughter.

The film is mostly well cast, and the resulting performances are more than serviceable. The expectation, however, is Jack Reynor as a globetrotting journalist/committed family man. I think he works pretty well as the caring father type, but I can’t for a second believe him as some kind of successful, scholarly journalist. His natural tough-guy vibes clash with the idea that he’s also a thoughtful, sensitive writer. I’m not saying these two qualities can’t co-exist, but Reynor never sells it. Thankfully, his role as a father is the bulk of his characterization, so he works more often than not. 

The film’s family-centric ‘possessed child’ setup is painfully familiar, but is often kept palatable by its unique setting and bold approach to scares. The film often equates grossing the viewer out with actually scaring them, which only works in its favor about half of the time. The film is at its best when Cronin takes advantage of the setting, conveying the unique horror of its relentless sunlight, suffocating sandstorms, and ancient mythology. Unfortunately, his use of the “The Mummy” branding feels somewhat underutilized, like it’s mostly just a delivery mechanism for yet another generic exorcism film. There’s enough of an Egyptian flavor to set it apart, but not nearly enough to justify its title. If you hate gross-out gore in any form, this will be an unpleasant experience. If those things don’t really faze you, you might find it a nice surprise compared to last year’s Wolf Man (2025).

Despite its length, the film doesn’t drag as much as I expected. That said, I still think it could lose about 15 minutes. The ending is a tad too crowd-pleasing and convenient for what I tend to desire as a horror fan, but it doesn’t necessarily leave a terrible taste in one’s mouth. It pretty much exemplifies the overall experience of watching the film – a palatable version of the genre’s most worn-out tropes. It’s gross, occasionally effective, familiar, and never particularly boring. It’s a classic ‘mixed bag.’ 

Overall, the film is mostly just a familiar, Blumhouse-style crowd-pleaser that works as a nice showcase for Lee Cronin’s particular brand of gross-out body horror, but never fully justifies its connection to anything Mummy-related. It’s ultimately inoffensive and occasionally fun if you can stand the gross-out gore, but there are very few people I’d recommend it to. Considering all of the other great horror movies released so far in 2026, this is an easy one to recommend you skip. That being said, if you eventually find it on a streaming platform, I wouldn’t say to avoid it completely; just know what you’re getting yourself into. C+