I do not know whether to call this movie Lee Cronin’s The Mummy or just The Mummy, nor do I care.  That last sentiment may seem harsh coming from a practicing Catholic, but I will explain my feelings as I go along.  As for my confusion over which title to use, it has everything to do with the fact that it is a remake.  Granted, it is different from previous iterations, but the concept of an Ancient Egyptian curse is still present.  Unlike its predecessors, evil appears to win in this iteration, or is at least not defeated.  That is the first strike for this Catholic.  It is the kind of horror material that made films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968) or The Exorcist (1973) unenjoyable.  Because Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is far darker than its cinematic cousins, I will go with that derivation so as to make it easier to differentiate it from the others.  It is more difficult to write, but so is watching it.

What is also difficult is running a tangerine farm in Egypt, which is where we start in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.  Things are about to become harder for the farmers when they find an ancient sarcophagus on their property.  They are alerted that something is amiss when they find a dead bird, a beloved pet.  Once they uncover the tomb and crack upon the basalt confinement, they find a mummified corpse in leathery wrappings.  It twitches and one of the onlookers dies.  We then shift to Cairo where journalist Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor) is temporarily living with his family as he covers the aftermath of the Arab Spring.  He is helping his daughter, Katie Cannon (Emily Mitchell), learn morse code for her girl scout badge.  After her pregnant mother, Larissa Santiago-Cannon (Laia Costa), goes to her job as a nurse, Katie heads to the garden to play.  As Katie is outside, Charlie notices candy wrappers coming out of her dollhouse.  He asks their son, Sebastián Cannon (Dean Allen Williams), what the boy knows about them, and Sebastián responds by saying he has been sworn to secrecy.  This only makes Charlie suspicious, and he goes to find Katie.  We see her meet the Magician (Hayat Kamille), the woman from the opening scenes, who hands Katie a tangerine.  From the fruit bursts a beetle that crawls into the little girl’s mouth, rendering her unconscious.  Charlie gets to this location after Katie has been kidnapped and he takes to the streets to find his daughter.  Eventually, he spots the Magician carrying Katie, but they are lost in a sand storm that engulfs the city.  Once things are clear, Charlie and Larissa go to the police where they meet with Detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy), who fortunately speaks English.  Alternatively, Charlie understands Arabic, and he is upset when he hears the Egyptian authoritarians speculating whether the parents are responsible for the disappearance.  Either way, the search turns up nothing and Charlie and Larissa return to their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Eight years pass, and it is apparent that Charlie does not accept the better paying position he had been offered before they left Cairo.  Instead, he is working for a local television station and Larissa is still nursing.  They live with Larissa’s mother, Carmen Santiago (Verónica Falcón), in her rural mansion.  They have left Katie’s room as it had been, but they have a new daughter, Maude Cannon (Billie Roy), who brings them joy.  As Maude is innocently asking for a second slice of pizza while they are out as a family one night, they get a call from Detective Zaki: Katie has been found.  Incredibly, she has been located in the same basalt sarcophagus as in the opening minutes, which also manages to survive a plane crash intact.  Charlie and Larissa immediately fly to Cairo where they are reunited with their eldest daughter (Natalie Grace).  She bears the marks of someone who has not seen sunlight for eight years, her limps are bent at weird angles, and she is unresponsive.  Her vitals are remarkably good, though, perhaps too good, as she occasionally needs to be sedated.  Nothing to worry about, right?  This is essentially the recommendation of the doctors, who advise returning Katie to the United States for rest and recuperation.  Before returning, Charlie makes Detective Zaki promise to continue trying to find the person responsible for this crime.  Once home, Katie is kept in her old room, but it is apparent that something is wrong.  With her outbursts, Charlie reluctantly recommends that they send Katie to a facility.  The medical professional in Larissa rejects this idea, but things only get worse.  Charlie’s response is to try and find answers for what is going on with Katie.  At one point, he hears her communicating in morse code with her teeth, spelling out the name Layla.  Detective Zaki suggests over the phone that he figure out the connection that name has to their family.  In sifting through the cards sent to them from well-wishers regarding Katie’s disappearance, he finds the name Layla Khalil (May Elghety).  Giving this information to Detective Zaki, the Egyptian officer tracks it to the same tangerine farm from the beginning.  She uncovers the mysterious chamber from before, and is forced to shoot and seriously wound the Magician.  Following the Magician’s daughter, who is Layla, outside, Detective Zaki is handed a video tape labeled “Katie.”  Between that and where we see Charlie’s own research lead him, we begin to understand that there is an Egyptian demon on the loose, inhabiting Katie’s body and soul.  Because of this, the possession begins to spread, first taking Maude, then Sebastián (Shylo Molina), and causing the death of Carmen.  Katie also disrupts Carmen’s wake in the house, taking control over her grandmother’s corpse that night.  It is during this crazy evening that Detective Zaki arrives at their home.  All you-know-what is breaking loose, but they have time to watch the videotape.  It is only stopped by Charlie and Detective Zaki pinning down Katie and Charlie allowing himself to be possessed instead of his daughter.  The last scene is of Larissa and Detective Zaki rolling Charlie into the Magician’s cell, and putting the whammy on the person responsible for this insanity.

Insanity is a good word to describe Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, as in, it is insane that half the things you see happen in this movie are allowed to take place.  These kinds of movies are challenging for a Catholic, though I will talk specifically why this is the case with Carmen in the next paragraph.  For now, more broadly, how do we handle someone so clearly in need like Katie?  The Christian thing to do is to treat her with care and support, which is the advice of the doctors and something Charlie and Larissa are happy to provide.  Giving a loved one in need this sort of treatment can be healing for body and soul.  Even though we, the audience, know there is something supernatural going on, nobody outside of the Magician, and arguably Katie somehow, understand this to be the case.  Therefore, the Catholic choice would seem to favor Larissa.  Yet, some grace should be given to Charlie.  It is understandable to want answers, and so much of Faith is about us wrestling with being okay with not knowing and at the same time seeking a greater knowledge of God.  Additionally, to get what he wants, it makes sense for him to suggest that Katie be placed in facility in order to get medical care.  There is nothing anti-Catholic about this option because the Church is not against science, which would presumably be at the core of this alternative.  Having said all this, the problem with these kinds of movies is people meddling with forces they do not fully understand.  If the characters in them made rational decisions, then I guess there would be no story.  This could also imply that Faith is rational, but Hollywood is far from accepting this notion.

The notion of Faith is present is Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, and it is represented in Carmen.  When she is with her ailing granddaughter, she does what many of us might do in a similar situation: she prays.  She has her Rosary, and she uses it early and often, all of which warmed this Catholic’s heart.  I wish I could say that my heart stayed warm.  To further contextualize what upset me about this movie, I need to talk why I find The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby so offensive.  The latter depicts the Church as complicit with evil, witnessing a woman being raped by satan.  The same kind of theme is present in the former, where the two priests performing the title rite are powerless against evil.  In the face of such awfulness, one can take solace in the fact that God has the ultimate triumph over the forces of darkness.  What is also reality is that invoking God’s name triumphs every time in an actual exorcism, but it takes somebody formed and trained in performing such rituals.  In other words, the Church does not let anyone deal with the devil’s legions.  One protection us non-exorcists are given is the Rosary, which brings me back to Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.  In one of the most appalling scenes this Catholic has witnessed, the demon in control of Katie uses the prayer beads to strangle Carmen before telepathically shoving her out the window.  Given Mary’s role in bringing humanity this powerful prayer tool, it is difficult to imagine such an outcome.  To be sure, we should not underestimate evil and its machinations.  What I will always rail against, though, is evil being shown to be unstoppable by its opposite, and that being God.

There is a lot of evil in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, and thus it does not get my recommendation.  Rather, I strongly urge people not to see it.  It is gross and unnecessary, and I do not like involving children in such material.  As such, I would spare you putting any of it before your eyes.