Latest / Film Curious / The Mummy (2026) Review - Is Lee Cronin's Take Just an Evil Dead & Exorcist Movie in Disguise?

Transcript

The Mummy (2026) Review - Is Lee Cronin's Take Just an Evil Dead & Exorcist Movie in Disguise? · Film Curious

0:00
I'm Ashley. I want the demon loose.
0:02
I know, you know, I get it, I get it.
0:04
You enjoy kidnaping children.
0:07
It's fine. It's good.
0:09
On record, but put that on record.
0:11
Clip it.
0:13
No, no.
0:14
Yeah.
0:14
I'm like, who's gonna who's gonna take care of this as Moroni?
0:17
And then, you know, somebody care for this has no radio.
0:30
Hello, and welcome to film Curious Ashley here.
0:33
I'm joined by Pete, and we're going to do a little brief
0:36
discussion on The Mummy, the most recent movie under that title,
0:41
not to be mistaken, by the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss.
0:47
This is written and directed by Lee Cronin.
0:49
He also did Evil Dead Rise.
0:52
I'll be honest, I don't know his work very much.
0:55
Not seen Evil Dead, right?
0:57
I have not I'm not I'm not a.
0:59
Big spectacular.
1:01
It really okay. It is. Well.
1:03
It might be my favorite Evil Dead movie.
1:05
Well, yeah.
1:06
Then I'll, I'll have to have to see this one then, because I'm not a big
1:10
I won't I won't go see every horror movie that comes out.
1:14
I'll be honest, I'm a little bit of like a high brow
1:18
type when it comes to horror movies.
1:21
But this one, The Mummy, the basic plot.
1:23
I'll read the synopsis.
1:24
It's funny, when I read synopsis, I always just feel like I have to mention
1:28
that I'm reading it because sometimes, like the marketing esque like.
1:32
Tagline will.
1:33
Pop up in the synopsis, and it's really funny,
1:35
and I just want to be like, I did not write that.
1:37
I'm not summarizing a movie like this,
1:41
but for this one, the young daughter
1:43
of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace.
1:46
Eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as
1:50
what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.
1:54
This film stars Jack Reiner.
1:57
Few probably know him from Midsommar
2:00
plays the I call him the bad boyfriend.
2:03
Who's the the father in this unfair.
2:07
He deserved what he got.
2:11
Leah Acosta, who is playing Larisa
2:14
the mother may Calum, Molly
2:18
if I'm pronouncing her name, her last name correctly, I know her from Rami.
2:22
And you, the audience most popularly probably know her from Moon Knight.
2:25
If you saw Moon Knight, who's playing Detective Dalia Zaki.
2:30
Natalie Greece.
2:32
Yeah, I loved her on Rami, honestly.
2:35
And she was great on Moon Knight and Moon Knight, and then Natalie Grace
2:40
to mention the daughter who plays Katie as the
2:46
The Mummy version, because then there's a child actor
2:48
who plays her in before,
2:51
beforehand, and then Hyatt.
2:55
I'm going to mention her too, because I think she does have a pretty big role.
2:58
Hi Kamal, who did I on IMDb?
3:03
They named her as the magician,
3:06
which is interesting in the casting in the credits on IMDb.
3:09
And she's the the Egyptian mother.
3:14
Is the.
3:15
Opening scene.
3:16
Yeah, that's what they label her as.
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It was super interesting.
3:21
Technically correct.
3:24
I guess they don't.
3:25
They felt there was no other way to describe her without spoiling things.
3:29
Maybe is why she's listed as that, but that seems unnecessary, I don't know.
3:35
Very funny.
3:37
Yeah, at that now I sure, sure, whatever.
3:42
That's fine.
3:44
Yeah. Why not?
3:45
I guess she does one.
3:46
One magic trick, maybe several, I don't know.
3:51
But yeah.
3:51
So that's that's The Mummy, the latest Leigh Cronin film
3:56
that we were able to get to see this past week.
3:59
I, I think we're probably on the same page about how we felt about this.
4:04
Maybe I'm a little bit more lukewarm than Pete is, but
4:10
it was fun.
4:11
I think I was kind of hoping for a little bit
4:14
more of the mystery reveal, instead of a lot of like, I feel like it
4:20
fell on a lot of horror tropes or check boxes.
4:25
I feel like it was very, you know, sound effect heavy, intense, music heavy.
4:30
You could kind of know
4:33
when a jump scare was coming or something scary was coming
4:37
based off of the music, cuz, you know, so
4:41
but it was still like conceptually, I was, I was in like I bought in
4:46
especially the trailer cap captured my attention and this is why
4:50
I did actually want to see it, because like I said, I'm not I'm
4:53
not a super horror genre fan, but I like to give things a shot.
4:58
So, Pete, how did.
5:00
How did you feel about this one?
5:01
So this is like this is the third universal,
5:05
you know, retake of some classic horror films with Invisible Man,
5:10
The Wolfman and now Leigh Cronin's The Mummy.
5:15
I like the approach of it.
5:17
It is 2.5 hours long though,
5:21
215 and. 215.
5:24
But it's really interesting that when you look it up in other places,
5:27
it says two and a half, and then sometimes it's 250.
5:30
Two and a half.
5:31
When I said the actual, I felt it felt like
5:34
two and a half to think it needed to be.
5:37
I have no problem with long movies, but I don't think it needed to go on
5:41
for that long because it had a cool little story.
5:46
It is a nice, interesting, different take on The Mummy,
5:49
but was what I felt really interesting though, was as I was watching it,
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you know, being a fan of Evil Dead Rise and of the franchise,
6:00
it struck me of how much
6:03
The Mummy like in theory, it's just is an Evil Dead movie.
6:07
Or I guess, how much an Evil Dead movie is The Mummy.
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Someone unearths something they shouldn't and they read something they shouldn't,
6:16
and that unleashes a dark energy that brings in, you know, they wind up
6:21
getting cronies to do what they want for them and to try to destroy the world.
6:26
And I was like, oh, this guy really stayed like, right in that lane.
6:29
So it felt I think that was the thing is that it felt too much
6:34
like an Evil Dead movie that just happened to have a different title at the front.
6:37
And at the same time, it also felt like an Exorcist movie.
6:43
So yeah, I could see that.
6:44
So I don't know if, if throwing if while the idea of it being this child
6:50
and stuff gives it a new angle, but in giving it a new angle,
6:54
it felt like a lot of other things that I had already seen just with other titles.
6:59
So that kind of really distracted me, actually, for a while
7:04
when I was watching it, I was like,
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I can't believe how much this is like an Evil Dead movie.
7:09
So that that was a bit of a downer for me.
7:13
Otherwise, though.
7:14
Yeah, if it was 25 minutes shorter, I think I would have liked it a lot more.
7:18
I think this is like a solid, you know,
7:21
like six and a half low seven out of ten.
7:26
But there's some good stuff here to work with.
7:29
There's some baffling stuff in here. Also, though,
7:33
what hospital is letting this kid go
7:35
home is he might not what I'm supposed to.
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I know you're not supposed to worry about that stuff when you're watching,
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you know, a horror movie in particular.
7:44
You got to really throw some reality out the window.
7:48
But this child needs 24 seven over watching.
7:52
They have no idea what's wrong with her.
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No one does.
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Yeah, the vitals are fine.
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You look. You're fine.
8:00
Oh, no. We don't know what's going on in her brain.
8:02
We haven't. Checked brainwaves. Apparently,
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we have to sedate her. But, you know.
8:06
We'll send you home with some. Drugs and.
8:08
Her loose. Good luck. But that's okay.
8:12
And, you know, things happen later that you're like, did you not take an x ray?
8:17
Because, you know, again, like, this is all logic brain stuff
8:20
that you're really not supposed to worry about when you're watching it.
8:23
But it's it's tough when it's right in front of you sometimes.
8:27
And yeah, that was one of the big things.
8:30
I was like this, I should not be letting this girl go home.
8:33
It's clearly something wrong with this child.
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And it's not. Just.
8:37
You know, oh, they you know, she's a little
8:39
she's been a little kept out of the.
8:40
Seven ticks. Yeah. Well there was.
8:42
Yeah. You.
8:43
She's developed some weird tendencies, but,
8:46
you know, nothing a little love can't do, you know, just some.
8:49
If they were just been. You could. Fix that.
8:52
You could fix that by.
8:54
Because there there is a there is an ongoing thing
8:58
in the movie of the mother being very, very strong on.
9:03
No, we can we can take care of this.
9:06
So if you have like a short scene, which, you know,
9:09
the movie was as long as it was,
9:11
I don't think I don't think making 30 minutes 30s would have mattered.
9:15
You could have had a scene where she
9:18
insisted upon,
9:19
no, we're taking her home now, you know,
9:22
and then you justified that whole thing, and that's 10s 15 seconds.
9:27
You can do that in.
9:27
And then it wouldn't have been again.
9:30
It's it's logic brain stuff and it doesn't matter.
9:32
And I know your thing towards the end where it's.
9:36
You know, we'll do it. We'll do a spoiler. Why not.
9:38
I mean, this is going to be.
9:39
A do you think anyone really gives I don't
9:41
I don't think if you haven't seen it yet I don't think anyone's like man.
9:44
Although that said, I just read this today.
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Actually the movie made 100 million now,
9:51
so on a on a box office on a budget of like 22 million,
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they have now crossed over $100 million globally.
10:01
Wow. So people showed up and to be honest, good.
10:05
I like when horror movies do well.
10:08
And even though this one wasn't, you know, everything that I really hoped for, it's
10:13
something that I'll probably watch again
10:15
at a curiosity to see if certain things work better for me.
10:19
I don't want to watch Wolf Man again.
10:21
I really didn't enjoy that one.
10:23
Invisible man I really liked Lee one.
10:26
I love Invisible Man with Elisabeth Moss.
10:29
Yeah, but this one, I'll revisit it at some point.
10:33
I'll also revisit it
10:34
because I went to an AMC theater and the picture looked terrible, so I'd actually.
10:39
Yeah, it was it was actually visually out of focus.
10:43
I don't know if that's a whole movie, I doubt it.
10:45
No. Yeah.
10:47
I didn't have any. It was pretty crystal clear at my theater.
10:49
Yeah, I will, I will probably, depending on what the price is
10:53
when it hits 4K, I'll pick it up and I'll watch it at home again.
10:56
So yeah it's a missed it's miss overall for me. But
11:03
it's kind of a fascinating miss
11:07
just because if you watch it and just imagine it's called Evil Dead
11:11
Mummy Rises, you'd be like well shit, yeah, this is all right, you know?
11:15
So I had to look up the this is going to be
11:18
let's just spoiler spoilers on for the next five minutes
11:21
because I just have to I have to get it out.
11:24
I looked up the name of the demon for this
11:29
film, what turns out to be like the van, the villain.
11:33
Even though they try to make they try to make them the magician.
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The mother kind of the villain, which I think is strange.
11:38
But anyway.
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Children, her entire life.
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Her entire life, or the entire family legacy life of, she said, 82.
11:47
Yeah, I.
11:47
Know mummification for the legacy.
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Of her family did it.
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You know, she could have been like, this is a. Family, but like,
11:54
somebody has to
11:55
be sacrificed to keep the is it.
11:58
Okay, let me get the name of this thing, the net.
12:01
Let me get the name of this thing right.
12:03
I wrote it down.
12:04
Where the heck. Is it as Namor?
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Yeah, I really just stupid thing down.
12:10
It's like.
12:11
It's really. Oh, here we go. As Merania.
12:13
As Marina. As Marina? Yeah.
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Destroyer of families.
12:18
Okay, so I look this thing up.
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It's not an Egyptian demon.
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This is not like
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if you're thinking that this thing is like a real Egyptian mythology.
12:28
Now, it is not.
12:30
This is made up for the film.
12:32
Okay? So just.
12:34
Mummies aren't real either.
12:37
No, I mean, the concept, but, you know, I don't know, so that's fine.
12:42
It's is fine.
12:42
It's just funny that it's like it's this whole thing is totally there's no
12:47
if you're thinking that you're seeing anything based off of,
12:51
like, an Egyptian myth or, or, you know, folklore or something.
12:56
This is this is not it.
12:58
So I just feel like I want to state that, but that kind of lens to like,
13:03
you're like, oh, it's just a, it's an Exorcist movie, you know, like.
13:08
Yeah, it's.
13:09
That's fine.
13:10
It's just a made up Egyptian exorcist, that's all.
13:12
Yeah, it's very much an Exorcist movie.
13:16
That's how I felt.
13:18
And with Mike Flanagan film
13:21
or just wrapping up on his Exorcist movie.
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Not that I think anyone, when that comes out will be like,
13:27
well, this reminds me of Lee Cronin's The Mummy.
13:29
I don't think that's going to happen, but I'll be curious
13:34
to see if there's any kind of
13:35
crossing of the streams there in approach.
13:39
Just because this is coming, this is now, you know, it's out right now.
13:43
And I want to say his exorcist is next year,
13:47
if not even maybe later this year.
13:51
Let me take a quick look at that. Actually.
13:53
Anxious is.
13:56
Yeah.
13:58
Flanagan
14:00
because he's got the whole crew 2027.
14:03
So it'll be next year.
14:06
So yeah, I'm curious what the hell that's going to look like around the same time.
14:10
Full confidence.
14:11
Yeah I'm excited I'm excited him.
14:14
But okay. So you think so?
14:17
You think that this mother, the magician,
14:20
should be a total villain?
14:24
Look who's going to keep the.
14:27
You know that.
14:27
You're just gonna have to get somebody else to then put it in its body.
14:30
You're in there if you're so worried about it.
14:33
Yeah. I mean, she should have.
14:34
That's where she's. Well, there. We go wrong.
14:36
But like anybody who decides any like that's still not good.
14:40
That if she put her own sacrifices, her own child, you know.
14:46
She's not the family by any means, you know.
14:49
No, no, I'm not.
14:50
I'm not trying to say that either. I mean.
14:52
I. Can't find her alive.
14:55
But, like, I want the demon loose, and I don't, you know, I get it, I get it.
15:01
You enjoy. Kidnaping history.
15:04
It's fine.
15:04
It's good.
15:06
On record, but put that on record.
15:08
Clip it. No, no. Yeah.
15:12
I'm like, who's gonna who's gonna take care of this?
15:15
Then? You know somebody.
15:17
After this in the question.
15:20
I don't know.
15:21
Apparently the family then think of a.
15:23
Way of doing it then I don't know.
15:25
I like how the family was all on board to like,
15:28
there seemed to be like, other people in the video.
15:30
Oh, yeah? Yeah. No. But then the husband is.
15:32
And they've passed it down like, through generations.
15:35
You know, she's, Oh did fare in in The Mummy.
15:39
Right.
15:41
But I don't think she's a positive person.
15:45
She just tried to kill the father.
15:47
No, no. No, I mean, you know.
15:48
Right, right.
15:49
When she goes out, she's, like, ready to murder everyone.
15:52
Maybe these people. That's true.
15:55
She's like. Kill her own.
15:57
That'd be.
15:58
That's what have been better if they would have just been like,
16:00
can we just discussed this for a minute so we can understand
16:02
what the hell is going on, and then they all want.
16:05
To figure. It out.
16:06
Let's find another kid.
16:07
Like not one. Not mine together.
16:10
Yeah, well, you need them young, she said.
16:12
You need the body fresh last longer so they don't have to continuously
16:16
do this, you know? Yeah.
16:17
You could just grab some old people in hospice, but,
16:21
you know, they're not going to last you very long.
16:22
You're going to have to continuously perform this ritual.
16:25
I was curious, though, of how long that is.
16:29
Like, is it a lifetime?
16:32
Is is it like a human, a human lifespan?
16:36
I don't.
16:37
Know, that's a good question because, yeah, like if she needs them young, then,
16:42
I guess, yeah, I don't could go.
16:44
This is a Logan's Run question where, you know, was what, like 35 years old,
16:48
everyone had to go to carousel, which meant you died.
16:53
You know, you gotta you gotta make this a little more of a public thing.
16:56
I'm sure it'll be well handled extremely well off the public into it,
17:01
but you just want to. You just want to.
17:04
Your business.
17:05
The magicians just taking care of business.
17:07
I said, you know, she's protecting the world.
17:09
It's Jack Rayner's fault again for you. That's all it is.
17:12
You just want to be.
17:14
I mean, don't leave your kid out in the backyard with. No.
17:17
Yeah. Don't leave your kid in the backyard.
17:21
Look at you.
17:22
The latch key.
17:23
No, actually, I think I think children need less supervision,
17:27
so I think actually, Jack Rayner was doing a good job as a father.
17:32
That's good parenting.
17:33
I don't play minimal for this one.
17:35
Girls just gotta learn to throw the chocolates
17:36
out in the goddamn garbage though.
17:38
Also, it's a terrible hiding place.
17:40
Just put chocolate.
17:41
Dollhouse. Yeah.
17:43
Dollhouse. What are you doing?
17:44
You. You kids do this, though? Like my.
17:47
Highly would, like, throw
17:51
throw junk by behind a chair.
17:54
So it was like a cherry
17:55
like catty cornered at my sister's house, and we were like, what is that smell?
17:59
And like, she was throwing junk and,
18:02
like, food and stuff, like, over the little catty corner.
18:05
So, like, again, not a great hiding spot, but, you know,
18:11
you find it.
18:11
But this is what children do.
18:13
So, you know, it's really the kids that are the problem here.
18:16
Yeah. Eventually. Yeah. It surely that's what it comes down to.
18:19
What we're saying is your kids are the problem.
18:23
Thank you to the mummy for breaking that to the forefront.
18:27
All right.
18:29
Well, I mean I think that's enough on on that movie, but not, not.
18:34
It wasn't my cup of tea, but I still I still enjoyed the journey.
18:39
So I really did spend a good 20, 30 minutes being like, it's
18:43
just an Evil Dead movie.
18:45
You know, never even happen if you like density.
18:49
So I guess.
18:51
I'm on to a longer horror track now, because now I gotta go
18:55
watch go watch that. You just watch.
18:58
I mean, outside of, like, it's a horror movie.
19:01
What is her name?
19:03
The lead actress performance in Dead Rise
19:07
by Alyssa Sutherland is spectacular.
19:12
One of the great physical
19:16
performances in a horror movie specifically.
19:20
But she's excellent.
19:21
There's there's a great vibe to that.
19:24
And actually, that house is it's a shame because that was going to be a house
19:29
at Halloween Horror Nights three seasons ago or something like that.
19:34
And when they put the film out for screenings, just,
19:38
you know, for reaction screenings, it did really well.
19:42
And it was supposed to go to streaming,
19:45
not theaters at first, but then it scored so well.
19:49
They were like, oh, we're going to we're going to put this in theaters.
19:51
So it changed the whole release schedule of the movie,
19:54
and they pulled the movie from hen like at the last minute.
20:00
So HHS had to come up with another idea hell block.
20:06
Like it was still in theaters.
20:07
Like they.
20:08
Know it wasn't going to be out in theaters yet.
20:11
Oh yeah.
20:12
So they were like, no, you can't do this anymore, you know?
20:14
Which is something that happens more frequent than not.
20:19
Scream.
20:21
That and conjuring are three that come to my head immediately.
20:25
But yeah, we missed out on an Evil Dead house.
20:27
But it was funny because when you first entered this other house,
20:30
the front of it, you didn't know it at the time, but it was sort of like
20:33
it's the facade for the the building, the apartment building and the movie.
20:37
So when I saw the movie, I was like, Oh, that looks really familiar.
20:42
So yeah, fun stuff.
20:44
Anyhow, mummy, check it out eventually.
20:47
Yeah, yeah.
20:48
All right.
20:49
Thanks for listening guys.
20:50
Hope you enjoyed this little brief review of it.
20:53
And we'll be talking about some other horror stuff I'm sure, coming up soon.
20:59
So thanks for listening. Bye.
21:02
Hey, guys.
21:03
Ashley here.
21:03
Thanks for listening to film. Curious if you enjoyed this episode.
21:06
There's plenty more to come.
21:08
I'll be reviewing new theatrical releases and new streaming as much as possible,
21:11
so make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
21:14
Thanks again. See you real soon.