Blumhouse’s The Mummy Is A Return To Form For Monster Movie Remakes

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For a while, Blumhouse Productions had an incredible track record of success. They consistently turned inexpensive, relatively safe horror films – like The Purge and Paranormal Activity – into hugely popular franchises. They could invest just a few million dollars in a unique film like Get Out and earn hundreds of millions back, even earning an Academy Award nomination. Even when they started working with established franchises like Halloween and Five Nights at Freddy’s, they continued to deliver one hit after another.

Recently, Blumhouse Productions has begun investing in more ambitious and costly films, which allows for greater potential success but also increases the risk of significant losses. While M3GAN 2.0 was expected to be a success – and many, including myself, enjoyed it – the shift in style from the first film’s playful horror to a more serious action-thriller didn’t resonate with audiences, resulting in a disappointing performance at the box office.

In 2020, Blumhouse Productions released The Invisible Man, a critically acclaimed and popular film. Director Leigh Whannell, known for his work on Saw, updated the classic monster movie into a modern thriller focusing on the topic of abuse. The film tells a compelling story about the realities of domestic violence, using the invisible antagonist as a powerful symbol of the lasting trauma experienced by survivors.

After the success of The Invisible Man, Blumhouse Productions decided to create a series of films based on classic Universal monsters. They released two sequels in early 2025 and 2026, reimagining these monsters in the style of modern, character-driven dramas. The Wolf Man was remade as a tense relationship story about a couple facing divorce, directed by the same filmmaker who helmed The Invisible Man. More recently, they’ve updated The Mummy as a family drama centered on a missing child, directed and written by Lee Cronin. While Blumhouse’s monster universe has fared better than Universal’s previous attempt, the ‘Dark Universe,’ it hasn’t been a resounding success.

Both films take classic Universal monster movies and reimagine them as modern, low-budget productions with a small cast and limited settings. They feel similar to the Insidious franchise, but Blumhouse’s The Mummy is a significant step up from their take on The Wolf Man.

The Emotional Core Of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Actually Resonates

Both Wolf Man and Lee Cronin’s The Mummy attempt to capture the success of The Invisible Man by combining a relevant social issue with classic supernatural horror, aiming to give the films a sense of weight and meaning. Beneath the monster action, both reboots focus on emotional stories. Wolf Man, for example, explores a couple struggling with a failing marriage, and one man grappling with the lasting effects of his father’s obsession with monsters.

This film offers a good starting point for a Wolf Man story that aims for more depth than just typical monster movie tropes. The lead character’s inability to connect with his wife is cleverly shown through his transformation, reminiscent of The Fly, while his troubled relationship with his father is represented by his father appearing as the terrifying werewolf. Unfortunately, this potentially strong story doesn’t quite work, feeling unoriginal, underdeveloped, and ultimately, easy to guess.

I predicted the big reveal about the Wolf Man’s tattoo – that the werewolf haunting the family was Christopher Abbott’s father – about an hour before it happened. It felt like a fitting symbol for the character’s inherited trauma, and I turned out to be right. While Wolf Man doesn’t succeed as either a horror film or a drama, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy does – it works on both levels.

Similar to films like The Omen and The Exorcist, The Mummy explores the idea of a child possessed by evil as a way to represent the fears and challenges of being a parent. It taps into universal parental anxieties – the worry of losing a child, the inability to keep them safe, and the fear of raising them to become someone harmful. While the film’s emotional impact isn’t as powerful or nuanced as Ellen Burstyn’s performance in The Exorcist, it’s significantly more effective than the dramatic elements in Wolf Man.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Is Built On A Solid Story

While the story could have benefited from a bit more polishing and some simplification of its complex storylines, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is still a very engaging film. It doesn’t break new ground, relying on familiar horror elements – like recordings of ancient curses reminiscent of The Evil Dead (understandable, given Cronin’s previous work on Evil Dead Rise) and tropes from The Exorcist, such as a possessed child and a religious relic discovered in the desert.

While not groundbreaking, the story and characters in The Mummy are engaging enough to hold your attention throughout. I found the plot of Wolf Man much less interesting and lost interest halfway through. The Mummy, however, captivated me from the very beginning, with the discovery of the sarcophagus, and kept me hooked all the way to the thrilling and delightfully scary climax at the family home.

The Mummy Does Share One Big Problem With Wolf Man

Although Lee Cronin’s The Mummy improves upon many issues I had with Wolf Man, it unfortunately suffers from the same problem as Blumhouse’s previous monster movie remake: the actors don’t always seem believable together. Just like in Wolf Man, where the connection between Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner as a married couple felt forced, the chemistry between the actors isn’t always convincing.

While the family relationships in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy feel more realistic, some of the acting choices don’t quite work. Jack Reynor’s portrayal of an angry father didn’t feel genuine, and Laia Costa’s emotional breakdowns came across as overly dramatic and like something from a melodramatic soap opera.

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2026-04-23 04:04