In case you didn’t hear, “The Mummy” franchise is being rebooted—yet again. Alex Kurtzman and Tom Cruise effectively derailed it with their 2017 remake, and this new take, written and directed by Lee Cronin (“Evil Dead Rises”), was supposed to be another attempt to revive the franchise from the ground up.
Unfortunately, according to numerous online reports from people who have attended test screenings, things don’t appear to be going according to plan. The film has reportedly been renamed “The Resurrected,” and will be distancing itself from the ‘Mummy’ IP.
According to Feature First (via FearHQ.com), the negative buzz circulating on social media from those test screenings is accurate—and if anything, far worse than anyone could have anticipated.
With a 120-minute runtime, the outlet claims the film is so dreadful that “The Conjuring” director and Atomic Monster founder James Wan reportedly couldn’t sit through it and left before the screening was over. Do I believe this? Not really, but I have been hearing a lot about the grotesque nature of this film.
Cronin, who earned positive reviews for “Evil Dead Rise,” has apparently pushed the gore to extreme levels (which isn’t always a bad thing). One frequently cited scene, described by an attendee as “truly vile,” involves “a scorpion that crawls into somebody’s mouth and severs their vocal cords, leading someone to stick their fingers down that person’s throat and press on their cords, allowing them to speak.”
Yeah, this isn’t your grandma’s ‘Mummy,’ which may explain why it’s been retitled “The Resurrected.” Here are the reported plot details:
The young daughter of a journalist disappears without a trace in the desert. The shattered family is stunned when the girl suddenly reappears eight years later. But what should have been a joyful reunion quickly turns into a true nightmare.
Cronin did warn us. When the project was announced in 2024, he released a statement saying, “This will be unlike any Mummy movie you ever laid eyeballs on before. I’m digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening.”
He wasn’t kidding.
The film stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, and Veronica Falcón. It’s currently slated to hit theaters on April 17. Is it really as bad as these early reports suggest, or could it end up being one of the year’s most twisted horror outings?
Personally, I’m a bit more hopeful given its apparent distancing from ‘The Mummy’ brand—just let Cronin loose, far away from IP obligations, and let those scorpions do their thing. “The Resurrected” sounds like straight up horror exploitation flick.
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