This past Spring saw the release of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, a modern-day take on the classic movie monster character. It’s now available on digital, with a physical release arriving July 14, 2026. That said, with a hard R rating, this iteration, produced under the banners of both James Wan and Jason Blum, very much exemplifies the saying “Not your father’s Mummy.” No longer concerned with old pharaohs or the heroics of a handsome adventurer to stop an ancient curse; instead, director and writer Lee Cronin angled to deliver a disturbing tale focused on a family being reunited with their long-missing mummified daughter, only to realize something is very wrong with her. The film stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, and Natalie Grace. I’ve reviewed it here.
With that in mind, I was happy to speak with Cronin about his hardcore take on the subject, which would go on to more than quadruple its production budget at the box office. The discussion centers on the creative decisions in Cronin’s work, the distinct way he presents the opening title sequences in his movies, the specific visual designs in mind, how being an Amblin kid informed the story, and more. Check out the full interview below.
See Also: ‘Disclosure Day’ Review: Spielberg Reaches Beyond Encounters
[The following has been truncated and edited for clarity.]
Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment: Hi Lee.
Lee Cronin: Hello there, how are you?
WLE: I’m doing well. How are you doing today?
Lee Cronin: I’m doing well, thank you.
WLE: So, I liked the film quite a bit. I was watching it again the other day for this, and I love the title reveal, much like Evil Dead. You have this distinct way of presenting the opening title card. Is that your idea? Or is it something that you approve of? How does that work?
Lee Cronin: Yeah, it’s always part of how I approach stuff. I think like I’m a big fan of a cold opening in a movie. Like, I like a prologue and an epilogue. I think people have seen in my films. Um, all three have got distinct prologues and epilogues. Um, and I like them to embody something of the experience that’s coming. So, the opening of The Mummy showcases a family in relative normality. It shows the descending darkness and change, and then also just like the full kind of noise of it all. But, yeah, it’s definitely part of the planning. I think with this movie, it was a little bit. I tried different things out, whereas with Evil Dead Rise, it was written exactly on the page how that was going to play out, and that stuck. With this one, I experimented a little bit more with some ideas that I had, but it is nice. It’s like the opening of the curtains to the show, and I think it’s really important to try and make that a really impactful moment for the audience.
WLE: For sure. Just the kind of the “in-your-face-ness” of the font and everything. I just, I think it’s just a, it’s a very fun way to say how brutal it’s going to be from a text reveal point of view, compared to what goes along with the rest of the movie.
So, I also love how unadorned the film is when it comes to things like the pyramid and the sarcophagus, where, as opposed to this kind of gilded version that you usually see when it’s gold and jewels and stuff, instead you have this sort of matte black almost look. It’s something different than what you see in other kinds of Mummy movies. Was there any research on your part to come up with the looks for those ancient items?
Lee Cronin: Yeah, it was, it was very important. I think with the sarcophagus, particularly, myself and my designer, Nick Bassett, we talked, and I had a really distinct notion that I wanted it to be something unostentatious, because its existence is to kind of trap and capture evil. And therefore, you don’t want to be drawing an overt amount of attention to it. You know, something that can be hidden in the shadows. It’s something that might put you off, and make you stand back and think that it’s a little bit dangerous. I remember- what a random reference, but there’s this documentary called Into Eternity, which is about the burial of nuclear waste up in Lapland, up in the very top of Finland. It’s a really interesting documentary. And they’re like, “This waste will last longer than humanity. What sort of markers do we leave behind, or do we leave any markers behind?” And some of the things are simple things, or things that would ward someone off or be frightening, or is it something that’s attractive? It’s just that balance of how you would communicate something dangerous. So, that fed in really, really early, that lack of, as you said, like, gilded. It’s something that was very, very grounded, very basic in certain ways, and if anything, would elicit a fear that might make you back away rather than lean in.
WLE: And that ties into kind of the approach to this mummy, where it’s not about ancient Pharaohs coming back to life, but something more visceral that serves as almost like an infection. Was that something you’re coming up with, as far as, “How do I approach a mummy movie?” or is it just like an idea you had that spun into becoming a mummy movie?
Lee Cronin: It was. It was thinking about making a mummy movie that could be terrifying, and finding a way in. So, one of the early thoughts that I had was, and I was like, “Well, how could I mummify one of your loved ones? Like how can I make that,” ’cause I like that idea. “How can I put a mummy in your home, and how could that mummy be somebody you love?” And sure, if that was set 3,000 years ago in Egypt, and it’s a rising Pharaoh that comes home, but I wanted it kind of to be in the here and now, to be a contemporary story. So that was a necessary pathway then, in terms of how I crafted that story and how I was able to do that. So, that was kind of one of the early, early thoughts was like, “It’s a family, and they’ve got a mummy in their home and that mummy is a loved one, and how do I piece that together? How can I tell that story?”
WLE: The, the, the approach to it, obviously, as you just mentioned, “What if a loved one had to deal with this?” Obviously, you’re dealing with a family, which is pretty on par with your films so far. As far as how you’re finding horror, is this something that you just naturally are responding to as far as “What scares me the most?”
Lee Cronin: Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s nothing more terrifying, and the said family could be, you know, your mom and your dad, and your, you know, your siblings, your cousins, but it could, you know, it could also just be your tight friend group, the people that you hang around with. You know, if you were in the military, it would be your band of brothers, right? You know what I mean? It’s like, it could be many, many different things. The people who love and support you, your network, and I think undermining that and challenging that, and facing the darkness that can occur within those constructs, to me, is a really, really frightening thing. I think that’s why I’m always drawn back to telling those types of stories.
WLE: The kids are well-cast in this movie. I think they’re doing an exceptionally good job. Obviously, there was some help with stunts and whatnot. But regardless, the children’s performances are great. When they’re so young, and this is a follow-up to your previous film, which also featured a younger cast, do you… Well, I have this thing between you and the Philippou brothers, who did Talk to Me and Bring Her Back. Do you just keep wanting to go younger and younger as far as how much pain you can inflict on small actors?
Lee Cronin: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s interesting. I think again: young people are part of the family. I think it’s different if you’re telling a story about an aging family. I think you know, I’m trying to capture the span from the parents through to the teenagers and then the younger kids as well. I think it’s something that’s… well, I’m also kind of, you know, I’m an Amblin kid in terms of what I watched when I grew up. There are often kids in danger and under threat in those environments. I don’t approach it from a, like “Ain’t kids creepy?” It’s not really that at all. Like it’s not like, “Hey, I can creep people out ’cause kids are creepy and I can, you know, show you how awful a possessed kid can be.” That’s not really it at all. It just, it just feels like again, when I fell in love with horror movies, I was the 9-year-old in my house with older people around me, and I just identify with that type of construct, that kind of family.
WLE: That makes sense. I mean, and, to be fair, creepy kids…listen, I love horror movies. I see horror movies all the time. The idea of getting scared by a horror movie is not really my main intention when I’m watching one at this point, ’cause it’s like, “Yeah, okay, I’ve seen so many.” So, it’s more about other things I appreciate, but when something does get under my skin, creepy kids are usually one of the few things that can do that for me. [Laughs] And I feel like that’s much similar to when we do have the elderly also being possessed. There’s something about a very grounded relation and how you think, “This can’t happen, but could it?”
Lee Cronin: Yeah. I agree.
WLE: Also, as far as the kids go, it’s fun to just see them get involved in the gore aspects of things, and you have them doing some gross stuff in this movie. I mean, the embalming fluid scene…
Lee Cronin: Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty out there.
WLE: Do you have a favorite horror set piece you put together for this film?
Lee Cronin: I think that, yeah, I think the wake sequence that you just touched on, because it’s got a lot going on at the same time, um, and, and it’s the culmination of all this pressure that the family is under and them still trying to, in these very abnormal times, project some sort of normalcy. Also, wakes and funerals are already traumatic things. It was, you know, there was kind of a, a wild experiment to take that and push it even further to, like, yeah, the worst version of a wake that you could imagine. It’s a pretty wild sequence, and it was, it was not easy to make, wasn’t easy to shoot, because there’s so many moving parts within it, but it’s definitely one of my favorite sequences in the film.
WLE: For sure. [Rushing because it’s my last question] I know there’s a lot of practical effects work going on here. Obviously, it’s a modern film, so you’re mixing a lot of different elements. But you mentioned being an Amblin kid, and I know Poltergeist seems like a very clear inspiration, among others, in this film. All of that said, along with the practical approach and how that goes with whatever CG there is, there’s also just the shooting process in general, which contains a lot of split diopter shots. Like, noticeably a lot, at least for a film fan anyway. I know that’s a conscious decision, but was there some kind of method behind that?
Lee Cronin: Yeah, I think for me with split diopters, what I like about them isn’t, I’m not trying to capture some sort of, you know, 70s aesthetic and use… I never use any tool just, just because. I think, with the diopters, what I really like is that this film I tried to balance both the psychological and the visceral, and at times I like to put those things in the frame at the same time. So, if you’ve got Charlie, the dad, who’s looking with suspicion at his daughter, we can both look at what he’s looking at, and look at him looking at her at the same time. And that’s really, really appealing to me, because I’m not a big fan of insert shots. There aren’t that many insert shots in any of my movies, and sometimes you can; they’re a necessary evil. Someone picks up a phone or whatever. But, even in Evil Dead, there are as many split diopter shots in Evil Dead as there are in The Mummy. People just didn’t notice them the same way, because I sometimes played them more as an object than a character. So, I want you to pick up a weapon, but I want to see you pick up the weapon. I don’t want to see you reach the weapon and cut to another angle. So, I actually use them to try and communicate more within one frame. That’s my main push with them, with the diopters.
WLE: Well, thank you Lee, thank you very much for your time. I gotta go here, but I appreciate what you’ve been doing. I’ve been a fan of all three of your films and I look forward to what you got coming next.
Lee Cronin: Thanks so much, dude. Take care. All the best.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is now on digital and will be available to own on 4K UHD and Blu-ray starting July 14, 2026
