Blumhouse and director Lee Cronin bring ‘The Mummy’ back from the deadbut it seems they also want to pay homage to other horror classics – at least if the new trailer for the film is to be believed. The brief sequences take inspiration from Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” so don’t expect a light adventure film like this. “The Mummy 4” by Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.
The teaser for “The Mummy of Lee Cronin” is shrouded in ambiguity, so viewers can go into it knowing that most of the surprises are being kept under wraps. That said, everything from the choice of images to the sound design makes it feel like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” The clips feature photographic snapshots of the Mummy’s deteriorated body, which is essentially what happens during the opening sequence of Hooper’s seminal 1974 film. The only difference is that the Mummy wakes up in this teaser, while the unfortunate souls in the “TCM” scene remain dead. Elsewhere, the teaser features eerie industrial-style sounds – as does the intro theme “Texas Chain Saw Massacre”.
Cronin’s horror tends to be dark and disturbing, as evidenced by “Evil Dead Rise” (you can read our SXSW 2023 review here). His take on “The Mummy” should be interesting, but what can viewers expect from Blumhouse and New Line Cinema’s reboot once The Mummy finally opens in theaters on April 17?
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is a return to horror
Since Universal revived “The Mummy” franchise in the ’90s, the films have been big-budget, action-packed adventure films that contain a surprisingly small number of horror elements. This trend continued with Tom Cruise’s 2017 reboot, which was supposed to launch a dark MCU-like universe featuring all the classic Universal monsters, but this grand experiment failed spectacularly and was abandoned before coming to fruition. However, “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” goes in the opposite direction by embracing full-blown horror, which Cronin confirmed while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter:
“This will be unlike any ‘Mummy’ movie you’ve ever seen before. I’m digging deep into the earth to resurrect something very ancient and very scary.”
Cronin’s film will also reimagine the Mummy at the heart of terror, as this version is neither a pharaoh nor a princess. Her name is Katie, a seemingly ordinary child who goes missing and returns to her family with a monstrous new identity. As for why, that part is still shrouded in secrecy. So while Cronin’s reboot may feel like a throwback in some ways, it also aims to be unlike any “Mummy” movie ever made. This seems like a potentially exciting mix, and we’ll see how it plays out when “The Mummy of Lee Cronin” hits theaters on April 17, 2026.
