Director Lee Cronin on ‘The Mummy,’ Grotesque Horror, and Family Terror
Anastasia Elfman sat down with Lee Cronin to discuss ‘The Mummy,’ his approach to familial terror, and the grotesque horrors in store.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is a stripped-down, modern reimagining not quite connected to our classic Universal Monsters. Instead, it stands alone as an unrelenting, possession-tinged take featuring gruesome pedicures, unhinged dark comedy, and disgustingly gag-worthy moments.
The film follows ambitious journalist Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor), his expecting wife Larissa (Laia Costa), and their two young, precocious children, Katie (Natalie Grace) and Sebastián (Shylo Molina). The family lives in Cairo, Egypt, where Charlie is on assignment. Then, Katie disappears.
They manage to find her eight years later, now aged 17, but completely non-verbal, vacant, and physically unrecognizable. And that is when, dear friends, the horror begins.
Speaking of horror, I recently sat down with the film’s acclaimed writer/director Lee Cronin and his mega-maestro producers, James Wan and Jason Blum, to see what their fans should expect from The Mummy.
Cronin remarks how Jaws is his favorite horror movie, and James Wan would love to see Cronin’s take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (he is Irish, after all). Discussing the horror of his new, grotesque approach, Cronin shared, “I thought, ‘Are there other dark corners of the mummification process that were done for different reasons?’ And I felt like I found this story that was an interesting way in to dig up something old and then bring it into a really contemporary space.”
As a lifelong Universal Monsters fan and mummy film enthusiast, I was a bit cautious going into this new territory, but Lee Cronin’s packs a wildly gory punch. Bold storytelling, exciting female characters, and a perfect balance of Cronin’s parent-driven nightmare scenarios, James Wan’s expert jump scares, and Jason Blum’s ingenuity. The Holy Trinity of Horror, if I do say so myself!