The new mummy film follows a family whose daughter was abducted while they were in Cairo, Egypt. Eight years later after they have moved to New Mexico and had another child, the daughter is discovered trapped in a lead lined tomb. Now seventeen, the girl looks as if she has risen from the grave but the family tries to make her feel at home anyway. The father suspects something supernatural is at play and tries to find out what happened to his daughter. He employs the help of a female detective in Egypt who figures out that a ritual was performed on the girl to transfer a demon into her body. While this transpires, the rest of the family – mother, grandmother, sister, and brother – starts suffering the affects of living under the same roof with this demon.
This film takes the mummy trope and turns the shrouds that mummies are usually discovered wrapped in into something more disturbing. At one point, the girl’s skin peels off her leg in a painfully bloody scene that should have landed the girl back in the hospital. Instead, the father takes the skin and discovers that it is layers of skin with an ancient language written on it. Later, we see that this ritual that was performed on this girl involved draping such material over her body before she was entombed. Over the eight years she was trapped within this tomb, the shrouds became part of her skin which explained her appearance when she was found.
As the film progresses, the mummy goes from being unable to speak to talking to her siblings just to get under their skin. This transition is a bit jarring since it suddenly feels more like Evil Dead Rise than a mummy movie. As I was watching this, I thought this film was a combination of an Evil Dead film and the film The Other Side of the Door which used ancient culture of India much in the way that this film used ancient Egyptian culture. I think my favorite part of this film, though was using the female detective to investigate how this little girl wound up in a tomb. Her investigation leads her to a remote farm with a hidden pyramid and then to New Mexico where she needs to convince the family – really, just the mother because the father already believes her – that the girl they brought home is not what they think she is. I find this detective’s narrative more interesting than the family, which I’m sure wasn’t the intention.
I like this story even if it’s more Evil Dead demonic possession than I would have liked, but it is the body horror that really sells this film. One character is forced to swallow a scorpion and it bursts through their throat. Skin peeling and biting and teeth pulling and hungry coyotes aren’t even the worst of the gore. There is a scene with a dead body during a wake that gives a whole lot of what-the-hell-is-going-on vibes in the best of ways. The horrifying visuals are what sells this because there’s also a lot of why-aren’t-the-parents-seeing-what-is-happening going on.
That is where this film falls apart a little. Neither parent seems to notice the shift when their youngest daughter starts lashing out. Neither parent notices during the wake of a family member that their youngest kid is pulling out their teeth or that their possessed daughter has escaped her room and is crawling around the house. Neither seem bothered that the possessed girl’s floor in her bedroom is rotting through allowing this scene to take place. And there is no explanation or repercussions for the wake turning out the way that it did. The movie moves along at a nice pace but its at a cost. Perhaps having their kid home after eight years caused the mother to turn a blind eye, but its a little too convenient plot wise.
Jack Reynor’s wide-eyed acting is no different here than it was in Midsommar. At least in this film, his character has some redeeming qualities as the father. I just wish he had different facial expressions than just wide-eyed shock. The real standout performance for me was May Calamawy as the detective. Maybe it was that her plot line was more interesting than the family’s was, but she was what I enjoyed most about this film.
3.5 out of 5 stars mostly for great gruesome body horror and gore and one very literate detective.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
The new mummy film follows a family whose daughter was abducted while they were in Cairo, Egypt. Eight years later after they have moved to New Mexico and had another child, the daughter is discovered trapped in a lead lined tomb. Now seventeen, the girl looks as if she has risen from the grave but the family tries to make her feel at home anyway. The father suspects something supernatural is at play and tries to find out what happened to his daughter. He employs the help of a female detective in Egypt who figures out that a ritual was performed on the girl to transfer a demon into her body. While this transpires, the rest of the family – mother, grandmother, sister, and brother – starts suffering the affects of living under the same roof with this demon.
This film takes the mummy trope and turns the shrouds that mummies are usually discovered wrapped in into something more disturbing. At one point, the girl’s skin peels off her leg in a painfully bloody scene that should have landed the girl back in the hospital. Instead, the father takes the skin and discovers that it is layers of skin with an ancient language written on it. Later, we see that this ritual that was performed on this girl involved draping such material over her body before she was entombed. Over the eight years she was trapped within this tomb, the shrouds became part of her skin which explained her appearance when she was found.
As the film progresses, the mummy goes from being unable to speak to talking to her siblings just to get under their skin. This transition is a bit jarring since it suddenly feels more like Evil Dead Rise than a mummy movie. As I was watching this, I thought this film was a combination of an Evil Dead film and the film The Other Side of the Door which used ancient culture of India much in the way that this film used ancient Egyptian culture. I think my favorite part of this film, though was using the female detective to investigate how this little girl wound up in a tomb. Her investigation leads her to a remote farm with a hidden pyramid and then to New Mexico where she needs to convince the family – really, just the mother because the father already believes her – that the girl they brought home is not what they think she is. I find this detective’s narrative more interesting than the family, which I’m sure wasn’t the intention.
I like this story even if it’s more Evil Dead demonic possession than I would have liked, but it is the body horror that really sells this film. One character is forced to swallow a scorpion and it bursts through their throat. Skin peeling and biting and teeth pulling and hungry coyotes aren’t even the worst of the gore. There is a scene with a dead body during a wake that gives a whole lot of what-the-hell-is-going-on vibes in the best of ways. The horrifying visuals are what sells this because there’s also a lot of why-aren’t-the-parents-seeing-what-is-happening going on.
That is where this film falls apart a little. Neither parent seems to notice the shift when their youngest daughter starts lashing out. Neither parent notices during the wake of a family member that their youngest kid is pulling out their teeth or that their possessed daughter has escaped her room and is crawling around the house. Neither seem bothered that the possessed girl’s floor in her bedroom is rotting through allowing this scene to take place. And there is no explanation or repercussions for the wake turning out the way that it did. The movie moves along at a nice pace but its at a cost. Perhaps having their kid home after eight years caused the mother to turn a blind eye, but its a little too convenient plot wise.
Jack Reynor’s wide-eyed acting is no different here than it was in Midsommar. At least in this film, his character has some redeeming qualities as the father. I just wish he had different facial expressions than just wide-eyed shock. The real standout performance for me was May Calamawy as the detective. Maybe it was that her plot line was more interesting than the family’s was, but she was what I enjoyed most about this film.
3.5 out of 5 stars mostly for great gruesome body horror and gore and one very literate detective.
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