The Mummy (2026) Review: Lee Cronin Makes a Classic Monster Terrifying Again

There's a long and complicated history of Hollywood trying to reinvent the Mummy for modern audiences, and most of those attempts have stumbled badly. Lee Cronin — the Irish director who impressed horror fans with Evil Dead Rise — has now taken a swing at the iconic monster, and the results are genuinely thrilling.

The Mummy (2026) is a film that understands exactly what made the original Universal Monster frightening in the first place: the uncanny wrongness of something dead that refuses to stay that way. Cronin leans into the body horror potential of the mythology with ferocity, delivering sequences that are viscerally unsettling and occasionally hard to watch in the best possible way.

The film centres on Carmen, played with grounded conviction by its lead actress, who becomes entangled with a reawakened ancient force. The horror builds slowly and methodically before erupting into genuinely savage set pieces that showcase Cronin's confident command of tension and release.

What sets this reboot apart is its commitment to practical dread over spectacle. The Mummy here isn't a CGI sandbox — she's a tactile, corrupting presence whose touch transforms everything she encounters. For horror fans who've been waiting for this creature to get the serious treatment it deserves, Cronin has delivered.