A ‘near-perfect horror movie crowdpleaser’ is finally available to watch this week

'If you love horror, we can't imagine you not enjoying this.'

Written and directed by Irish genre master Lee Cronin (Evil Dead Rise, The Hole in the Ground), the film follows the lead of 2020's The Invisible Man, 2024's Abigail, and 2025's Wolf Man. Like those movies, it puts a contemporary twist on a classic monster, while taking it back to its horror roots.

If you were still wondering, after weeks of its producers, Blumhouse, warning audiences: No, Brendan Fraser is not in Lee Cronin's The Mummy. Although honestly, for fans of that trilogy launched in 1999, it might be for the best.

The young people who grew up watching Fraser's Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz's Evelyn Carnahan probably wouldn't want to see them subjected to any of the shocking and disgusting (complimentary!) horrors Cronin has in store for his characters. In fact, these horrors have led the Irish filmmaker's latest to land a rare 18 rating in his home country.

The 2026 Mummy begins in Cairo, Egypt. There, journalist Charlie (Ireland's own Jack Reynor - Midsommar, What Richard Did) lives with his pregnant wife, Larissa (Laia Costa, Victoria) and their two kids, Katie (Natalie Grace) and Sebastián (Dean Allen Williams and Shylo Molina).

One afternoon, while Charlie is looking after Katie, she is abducted from her garden by a mysterious woman (a very striking Hayat Kamille, Murder on the Orient Express).

As the parents clash with the Egyptian authorities, which includes young detective Dalia (May Calamawy, Moon Knight), Katie remains unfound. As such, the family moves home to Albuquerque, USA, where they have their third child, Maud (Billie Roy).

Eight years pass before Charlie and Larissa get the call they have been waiting for from the US Embassy in Cairo. A sarcophagus from a crashed Egyptian plane (perhaps a subtle dig at Tom Cruise's ill-fated stab at the same source material in 2017) has been recovered, containing a still-alive Katie, who is suffering the effects of malnutrition and lack of sunlight.

As the delighted family, including Larissa's mother Carmen (Verónica Falcón, Perry Mason), welcomes Katie home, it becomes clear that the child has brought an ancient evil back with her. As her behaviour grows more and more extreme, Charlie and Dalia launch separate investigations into what happened to the young girl during those eight years she was missing.

The 2026 Mummy is a bona fide hardcore horror crowdpleaser. It sees Cronin take the best elements of several of the greatest horror stories ever (The Exorcist, Pet Sematary, Se7en, Don't Look Now, The Omen immediately spring to mind) while putting his own demented twist on them.

It was clear from the Irish writer-director's Evil Dead reboot - which totally reinvigorated that franchise - that he is gifted at staging visceral, inventively splattery action-horror carnage. He carries this skill over to The Mummy.

The movie has a whopping, for a horror, 133-minute running time. Yet, it rarely lags in pace. Cronin frequently unleashes jaw-dropping set-pieces, from the opening where we meet the first of several mummies, to a sandstorm that erupts just as Charlie chases Katie and her abductor, to all the absolutely insane things that the returned Katie subjects her family to in Albuquerque.

JOE wouldn't want to spoil any of these unforgettable moments, but they always play out in more gruesome fashion than viewers can imagine. On this note, we must highlight two scenes in particular. We'll call these the funeral and nail clipper sequences, which nearly had this reviewer getting sick at the film's Irish premiere (I must stress again, complimentary).

Though the jump scares and gore will probably inspire the most chatter from viewers, what's really impressive about Lee Cronin's The Mummy is how effective its family drama is.

On paper, Egyptian mummies don't seem like something that would fit neatly into what's ultimately a portrait of both a family dealing with grief and a family dealing with a child who has a chronic illness. Yet, Cronin smoothly unites these two seemingly warring elements.

This is thanks to a smart script with tasteful real-world parallels that ground the story; believable and sympathetic performances by Costa, Reynor (giving his best turn since Midsommar) and the child actors; and a great use of locations. In terms of the latter, Spain stands in beautifully for the deserts of Alberberque and Egypt. Ireland's own Ardmore Studios, meanwhile, was where the film's interiors were shot.

Laia Costa and Jack Reynor in Lee Cronin's The Mummy

Despite its dark subject matter, the movie is also surprisingly comedic. The script locates more pockets of humour than you'd expect, though these somehow never detract from the terror.

In terms of other positives, we must single out May Calamawy's excellent turn as her formidable, kick-ass cop character. We would totally watch Detective Dalia Zaki: Paranormal Investigator, were this spin-off (that we are pitching right now) to be green-lit.

May Calamawy in Lee Cronin's The Mummy

As the movie goes on, some narrative contrivance rears its head. A plot beat regarding the discovery of a letter rings false. Plus, with several leads on their own separate quests, sometimes certain characters feel out of the action for extended stretches of the story.

These niggling concerns do little to dull the dark fun of Lee Cronin's The Mummy. If you love horror, we can't imagine you not enjoying this.

Lee Cronin's The Mummy lands in cinemas on Friday, 17 April.