This article was originally published on FearHQ.com.
Universal Pictures failed to resurrect The Mummy with the 2017 movie starring Tom Cruise, and Warner Bros. has now attempted to breathe fresh life into the iconic monster with Lee Cronin's The Mummy. The Evil Dead-inspired reboot arrives in theaters this weekend.
The movie follows the Cannons, including Charlie (Jack Reynor), his wife Larissa (Laia Costa), and their children, Sebastián (Shylo Molina) and Maud (Billie Roy). When Larissa was pregnant with the latter eight years prior, their middle child, Katie, vanished from their home in Egypt.
We learn that Katie was taken by an Egyptian woman known only as the Magician, who possesses actual magical powers. She and her family guard a sarcophagus containing a different mummy they fear is about to awaken. Katie was supposed to be its replacement, with the Magician's ancestors trapping it, through ritual, into a single living body, which was mummified with protective spells and sealed in a sarcophagus.
The eldest child of each generation is responsible for guarding it, and the ritual must be repeated if the host body fails. That's where Layla, the Magician's daughter, comes in.
After a plane crash, Katie—inside the sarcophagus—is found in the present day, but is eventually revealed to be the host of this sinister supernatural force called the Nasmaranian. The girl was forcibly turned into the host for a demon that's been bound to her, and chaos eventually ensues as the malevolent entity torments the Cannon family.
Lee Cronin's The Mummy Ending Explained
Detective Dalia Zaki, who investigated Katie's disappearance, finds the Magician and Layla, seemingly gunning down the former. Layla delivers an exposition dump, and when Katie is freed from her room, all hell breaks loose (including a scorpion being vomited into Zaki's mouth, which then bursts through her throat).
She manages to transfer the demon into Charlie at his request, forcing Katie to vomit out the black substance that's possessed her. He gets a heartfelt few moments with his family after making this sacrifice, and we later find him locked inside a coffin in the basement. Katie, who is now healing, uses Morse code to communicate with her father, but is it really him she's speaking to? Either way, the Nasmaranian is safely contained, and that bittersweet ending seems to be it.
Until it's not.
It turns out that the Magician is still alive and in prison. Larissa is there and immobilises the woman with a syringe, moments before Zaki walks in with Charie bound up as the new Mummy in place of Katie. They intend to transfer the demon from him to the Magician, just desserts for the woman who abducted their daughter and turned her into an unwilling host years earlier.
What will become of the Nasmaranian-possessed Magician now, and was it really wise to put that evil spirit into someone who knows how to use magic? The Cannon family is saved, but the stage is set for a sequel that either creates a terrifying new foe in the Magician or follows whoever is next forced to be the demon's host.
Does Lee Cronin's The Mummy Have A Post-Credits Scene?
No, when the movie ends, that's it. It does, however, feel like the final scene was once intended to be one.
Lee Cronin's The Mummy stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, and Veronica Falcón. The movie is written and directed by Cronin, and produced by James Wan, Jason Blum and John Keville. The executive producers are Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Macdara Kelleher and Lee Cronin.
Cronin is supported behind the camera by a team of sterling film artisans, including director of photography Dave Garbett, production designer Nick Bassett, editor Bryan Shaw, costume designer Joanna Eatwell, music by Stephen McKeon and casting by Terri Taylor and Sarah Domeier Lindo.
Lee Cronin's The Mummy is now playing in theaters.