Lee Cronin blends ‘Poltergeist,’ ‘Se7en’ in his vision for ‘The Mummy’

A new vision of one of cinema’s most enduring monsters is set to rise from the sands, as director Lee Cronin reimagines The Mummy as a full-fledged horror story — something he believes has long been missing from the franchise’s legacy.

Cronin, known for Evil Dead Rise, admitted he initially had no plans to tackle the iconic creature but that changed when he realized the untapped potential for fear.

“That drew my interest in, but as always, I needed to find a story,” shares Cronin about what made him want to do his latest horror film. “And once I did that, I started to get really engaged and involved with what this thing could become.”

In Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, the story follows a journalist’s daughter who vanishes into the desert, only to mysteriously return eight years later — turning what should be a reunion into a terrifying ordeal for her fractured family.

Backing the project are James Wan and Jason Blum, whose combined track record includes genre-defining hits like The Conjuring, Saw and Get Out.

Wan said the opportunity to revisit the classic monster through a darker lens was too good to pass up.

“There have been so many iterations of the Mummy along the way,” says Wan. “As long as cinema history, in a lot of ways. It’s such a great iconic character. So, I think it’s great that we are coming out with a scary version of this particular IP again.”

Blum echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the film’s return to the genre’s roots.

“I think what sets the film apart is that initially, monster movies started out as scary movies and over time they grew big — to four quadrant family movies. We produced The Invisible Man and that was one of the first to bring the heart. And what such movies originally set out to do, all of those stories were originally horror and over time, they grew into something else. And I think one thing that’s unique about this movie is that it’s taking this old legend and bringing it back to its roots, which was what the Mummy was, which is scary as hell.”

For Cronin, the challenge was crafting a story that goes beyond conventional horror. Drawing inspiration from Poltergeist and Se7en, the filmmaker blends supernatural terror with a detective-driven narrative and emotional family drama.

“I wanted to tell something that had more than just an A narrative, but also had other things going on within the background,” says Cronin. “There is a big detective angle to this, which is maybe a little different to a conventional horror movie that you might watch, whilst also having a lot of the traditional haunted house elements at play.

“The movie in my mind as I approached it was some sort of combination between Poltergeist and Se7en… I definitely wanted to mash up some really dark themes with some warmth. I always think family is a great way into a story, especially a horror story, because it’s something that we can all identify with.”

Then film also stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa and May Calamawy and is produced by New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions. It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Mummy is slated to open in theaters and IMAX across North America on 17 April, with international releases beginning 15 April.