The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace. Eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she’s returned to them. A film by Lee Cronin, starring Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Shylo Molina, Billie Roy, Emily Mitchell, Hayat Kamille, May Elghety, Husam Chadat, Veronica Falcón, Tim Seyfi, Mark Mitchinson, Gideon Emery, Dean Allen Williams, Gerald Papasian, Hanna Khogali, Jamie Doyle, Amr Atia, Jonny Everett, Lily Sullivan, Montse Alcoverro, Catalina Botello, JC Montes-Roldan, Kian Nagel, Robin Windvogel, Jonathan Gunning, Omar El-Saeidi, Aisha Laouini, Arkin Cureklibatir, Safi Mulki, Jolly Abraham, and Natalie Grace.

Somewhere in the desert near Aswan, the Khalil family drives back to their nectarine farm. As they step inside, young Layla Khalil (Aisha Laouini) notices her yellow canary has vanished from its perch. Moving closer, she is horrified to see the bird lying at the bottom of the cage, dying in its own blood. In tears, she begs her mother (Hayat Kamille) to save it.

Her mother opens the small door, gently takes the mortally wounded bird in her hands, and shows it to her husband, Gamal (Omar El-Saeidi), and their two sons, Jabari (Arkin Cureklibatir) and Tariq (Safi Mulki).

The mother and Gamal exchange a look of grave concern. It is as if they had anticipated this, recognizing the dying bird as an omen of something terrible to come. Instructing the children to stay put, the mother gently but firmly closes her hand around the bird, putting it out of its misery. Together, the couple descends into the cellar, a hidden room built directly atop a buried black pyramid.

At the bottom of a long, narrow stone staircase, they find a pitch-black chamber housing a black sarcophagus. Gamal asks how they will know if it is time, and his wife replies that they just have to look to be sure. Operating an old treadwheel crane, Gamal begins to lift the heavy stone lid. His wife warns him to turn the wheel slowly. She only needs a tiny crack to peer inside, terrified that whatever is trapped within might escape.

Stepping closer, the wife peers through the narrow crack and finds a motionless, mummified corpse. She lets out a sigh of relief, seeing nothing unusual. But suddenly, the mummy jolts awake. The ground violently quakes beneath them, putting immense strain on the treadwheel crane. One of the iron claws gripping the stone lid bends and abruptly snaps, launching through the air and plunging straight into Gamal’s neck. His wife watches in absolute horror as Gamal is hoisted into the air by the jammed chain. He twitches in agony, bleeding to death.

In Cairo, TV news correspondent Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor) and his pregnant wife Larissa (Laia Costa) step in to break up a heated fight between their eldest daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell) and their son Sebastián (Dean Allen Williams). When pressed for an explanation, Katie reveals her brother threw her beloved doll off the roof. Although Charlie does his best to piece the toy back together, Katie remains furious. She is angry at Sebastián for breaking it, and just as upset with her father for letting the boy off the hook without a single yell. Frustrated, she storms out to the back of the garden to play alone.

Inside the house, Charlie is distracted when he receives an exciting call from Bob, confirming that he got the new breakfast TV gig in New York. Thrilled, he immediately calls Larissa to share the update. As they speak, something catches his eye. A bright wrapper for a “Tut’s Treasure” candy is wedged in the doorway of Katie’s dollhouse. Charlie pulls the toy open, revealing a whole pile of crumpled wrappers hidden inside. Confused, he asks Larissa if she gave Katie any candy, but she firmly denies it. Charlie hangs up and shows the wrappers to Sebastián, demanding to know where his sister got them. Hesitantly, the boy confesses that Katie made him promise not to tell their parents about her new friend at the bottom of the garden, the one who gives her the treats.

Meanwhile in the garden, Katie waits for her friend Layla, who often comes over to play. To her surprise, an unfamiliar woman appears instead, claiming to be Layla’s mother. The woman explains that Layla has an upset stomach but did not want Katie to worry. When she asks if Layla ever talked about her, Katie replies that Layla said her mom was a magician. Feeling uneasy, Katie tries to excuse herself, saying she should go back inside before her dad wonders where she is.

But the woman quickly distracts her by holding out a ripe nectarine. As soon as Katie takes it, the woman begins to mutter an ancient incantation. The nectarine splits open and a large beetle bursts out, crawling straight down Katie’s throat before she can react. As the young girl chokes and suffocates, the magician quietly abducts her.

By the time Charlie reaches the end of the garden, Katie is already gone. He spots a gap torn into the fence and scrambles through it, only to emerge onto an empty street. His daughter is nowhere in sight. Panic setting in, he runs along the road, shouting for Katie and asking anyone he sees if they have spotted a little girl.

Suddenly, a sandstorm warning begins blaring from the loudspeakers atop the buildings. Charlie turns and catches a fleeting glimpse of a woman carrying a young girl in her arms. He races after them, but she is too fast. He eventually loses sight of them both as a massive wall of sand engulfs the city.

Following Katie’s disappearance, Charlie and Larissa rush to the Zamalek Police Department to file a report. The process is painfully slow due to a language barrier, although Officer Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy) tries her best to translate everything for Detective Ismail (Husam Chadat). Ismail is instantly suspicious of the couple. He dismisses the abduction theory and suggests to Zaki that the parents might have accidentally killed their daughter and are just trying to cover it up. Tragically, the investigation goes nowhere, completely stalling out with no real leads aside from the crumpled candy wrappers.

Eight years later, Charlie, Larissa, their teenage son Sebastián (Shylo Molina), and their youngest daughter Maud (Billie Roy) are now living in Albuquerque with Larissa’s mother Carmen Santiago (Veronica Falcón). Sebastián eagerly shows Larissa the details for an upcoming school trip to Europe, but becomes deeply upset when she doesn’t allow him to go. Lashing out, he accuses his mother of being paranoid that something bad will happen to him, just like it did to Katie.

Meanwhile, out in Egypt’s eastern desert, a boy (Kian Nagel) discovers the wreckage of a recent plane crash. He is shocked to find the gruesome remains of two bodies, appearing to be the pilot and a passenger. Terrified, he turns and flees, only to trip and fall hard onto the sand. When he raises his head, he comes face to face with a massive black sarcophagus standing upright, likely thrown from the plane’s cargo hold as it plummeted from the sky.

The mysterious sarcophagus is delivered to a museum (possibly the Nubia Museum, since it is the closest to the eastern desert), where Omar Farid (Gérald Papasian) and his assistant, Nadia Taylor (Hanna Khogali), begin their investigation.

Upon opening the heavy lid, Omar discovers a mummified figure inside. He carefully begins peeling back the long burial strips, noting that each one is intricately inscribed with ancient text. Suddenly, the mummified figure jolts awake. It screams and thrashes violently, desperately trying to get out of the coffin, leaving Omar and Nadia in absolute shock. The living mummy is immediately transferred to a hospital, where a medical examination reveals that the person trapped inside the 3,000-year-old sarcophagus is Katie Cannon, the child abducted from Cairo eight years ago.

Shortly after, Charlie is contacted by Bryce Vogel, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Cairo. Vogel informs them that their daughter has been found alive, prompting Charlie and Larissa to pack their bags and return to Egypt.

Arriving at the hospital, Doctor El-Sayed (Tim Seyfi) warns the couple to prepare themselves. He explains that Katie has suffered extensive dermal trauma from extreme malnutrition and a complete lack of light. She is trapped in a deep catatonic state, causing her to exhibit erratic physical tics, sudden violent movements, and strange vocalizations. They have placed her under heavy sedation to keep her calm, yet her distress still physically manifests. He strictly instructs the couple to remain gentle and quiet, as any sudden moves or loud noises will aggravate her.

Adding to the briefing, Vogel (Gideon Emery) confirms that Egyptian authorities will keep the discovery out of the press to give the Cannon family time to adjust. Even though Katie continues to show bizarre symptoms through her sedation, the doctor assures them that her vitals are completely stable. He insists that returning to the comfort of her home is the best way to help her break free from her locked-in state.

🅟

@pradt

THE MUMMY 🦂
Not all lost should be found.
—
A film by Lee Cronin, starring Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Shylo Molina, Billie Roy, Emily Mitchell, Hayat Kamille, May Elghety, Husam Chadat, Veronica Falcón, and Natalie Grace.

Written and directed by Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin, THE MUMMY is a supernatural body horror film that follows a family after their daughter is abducted from their Cairo home. Eight years later, she is finally found sealed inside a 3,000-year-old sarcophagus.

The build-up is incredibly well-written, especially because the film does not reveal the true identity or the objective of the malevolent entity inside the ancient sarcophagus. It is highly intriguing how the movie plays with ambiguity, keeping the audience guessing about what catastrophic event it will bring upon the world if it ever escapes, capturing the thrilling suspense of the classic Mummy franchise we used to love.

The cast delivers convincing performances in the first act. However, the film struggles to maintain its suspense and thrills. After Katie is finally found, having been trapped inside the sarcophagus for eight years, the narrative becomes mind-boggling, spiraling into nonsense and completely defying the logic of human nature.

The movie abandons its Egyptian roots and morphs into a bizarre mashup of The Exorcist and Evil Dead. Worst of all, it contradicts its own mythology. The script introduces the Nasmaranian as a demon that possesses humans and uses lies to tear families apart from the inside.

Instead, the film presents an evil entity with blanket supernatural powers that can control anyone to do whatever it wants, including reanimating the dead. The film devolves into a pure body horror fest, relying heavily on gruesome transformations, bloody skin peeling, and disgusting projectile goo.

The parents are reduced to one-dimensional characters. Their illogical judgment and constant string of stupid decisions make it impossible to root for them. The only character worth caring about is the grandmother, who unwillingly becomes collateral damage. Basically, this family brings death to the poor grandmother, the only person in the family who believes in God.

Yet, miraculously, the parents, the son, both sisters, and even the detective manage to make it out alive. Having everyone else survive such a horrific event makes the finale completely underwhelming at best.

While the cinematography looks beautiful, the lighting and color grading choices are questionable. The scenes are washed in uncanny, monotonous shades of light that strip away any sense of location. This makes it incredibly difficult to differentiate where the characters are at any given point in the film, especially when the lighting looks exactly the same in Albuquerque as it does in the Egyptian desert.

I can’t help but feel bad for Jack Reynor. I’ve been a fan of his since his supporting role in John Carney’s Sing Street. He’s a highly underrated actor with a wide-ranging filmography (and is possibly funnier than Chris Pratt), but there’s just not much he can do with the script he was given. Still, the movie grossed over $89 million worldwide on a $22 million budget, so I suppose it’s a win for everyone involved.

Lee Cronin’s THE MUMMY premiered in Los Angeles on 9 April 2026. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 17 April.