Universal took an admirable risk rebooting its universe of classic monsters for the modern day, but it’s not the only studio breathing new life into old haunts. Netflix beat Universal to the punch with a new Frankenstein film, while Warner Bros. has a lock on the Bride of Frankenstein with a Bonnie and Clyde-esque retelling directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Bride, due this year. Warner isn’t stopping there: it’s also teaming with Blumhouse, a frequent Universal collaborator, to reboot The Mummy.
Not to be confused with the new Mummy sequel Universal has planned, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy will tell a much darker origin story, nixing the swashbuckling adventure of the Brendan Fraser-led films to double down on skin-tingling horror. Cronin is the director behind Evil Dead Rise, so we should expect his take on the Mummy franchise to be just as unsettling and grotesque. Despite its supernatural subject matter, this film already feels more tangible and real than the Mummies that came before. Cronin is drawing from a very different well, but that might just fix one of the biggest issues with this franchise.
