EVIL DEAD RISE Director Lee Cronin Walked Away From Sequel Plans to Take a Big Swing on THE MUMMY
Horror fans were more than ready for Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin to keep the blood-soaked momentum going with another installment. Instead, he made a move that might surprise a lot of people.
Rather than sticking with a proven hit, Cronin chose to step away and gamble on something completely different… a new take on The Mummy. That decision says a lot about the kind of filmmaker he wants to be.
Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise wasn’t just another entry in the long-running franchise. It hit hard with audiences, pulling in $147 million on a $14 million budget and re-energizing the series in a big way.
Starring Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland, the film followed two estranged sisters dealing with a demonic nightmare unleashed by that infamous book. It was brutal, emotional, and exactly what fans wanted.
Naturally, the studio wasted no time lining up more chaos with Evil Dead Burn and Evil Dead Wrath, set to be directed by Sebastian Vanicek and Francis Gallupi. Cronin could’ve easily stayed in that world.
But he didn’t want easy. Cronin explained:
"The risk was not making a sequel to my last movie, because that was really easy for me to do. I said no, ultimately, because I wanted to do something else, and I like to take a risk and gamble.
“The other risk factor is there's brilliant movies called The Mummy but they've also been there since the '30s. It's not just about Brendan Fraser, 25 years ago, but there's a risk because modern culture probably looks at those movies that way.
"Maybe the Tom Cruise one wasn't necessarily as well received, although I really enjoyed that film, but for me, the risk was breaking the mould in terms of what people will expect. It's going to definitely surprise people, but when you make a movie, you have to take a risk, because it might be your last chance to make something, and repeating a trick is a sin to me."
Instead of playing it safe with a guaranteed hit, Cronin is diving headfirst into a franchise that carries a lot of baggage and expectations. From the classic Universal monster era to the beloved Brendan Fraser adventure films and even the more recent Tom Cruise reboot attempt, The Mummy has had a long complicated legacy.
Cronin’s version is going in a darker, more personal direction. The story centers on a journalist, played by Jack Reynor, and his wife, played by Lai Costa, whose young daughter vanishes in the desert. Years later, she suddenly returns, but something is very wrong.
The setup leans heavily into eerie family horror, which lines up nicely with the emotional core that made Evil Dead Rise hit so hard. It just didn’t work as weel with this one.
Cronin wasn’t trying to recreate past versions of The Mummy. He wanted to reshape it into something more unsettling and intimate, which might be what the franchise needs, but the execution didn’t quite land with audeinces.
There’s always risk in stepping away from something that works, especially when fans are asking for more. But Cronin seems fully aware of that and is embracing it.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy hit theaters this weekend. Reviews haven’t been kind, and the movie’s not doing too well at the box office.