When director Lee Cronin sat down with FANGORIA for our Issue #31 newsstand cover story, the conversation was so monstrous we couldn’t fit it all into the magazine, and we didn’t want our readers to miss out on the full scoop. Additionally, we've partnered with Blumhouse to give Fango readers the opportunity to attend an early screening of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. Check out this exclusive interview excerpt where Cronin discusses his broad scope of film inspirations, and make sure to fill out the form below to find out how you can attend an early sneak screening in select cities.
FANGORIA: The Hole in the Ground is one of the scariest movies I think I've ever seen; it stayed with me for a very long time. Do you know when you come upon something that's really, truly scary in your movies? Do you know what will hit?
The Mummy’s Lee Cronin: I knew the cheese grater scene [from Evil Dead Rise] would definitely hit, and that might be the only one I've ever been 100% certain of. There are things you think that are going to scare in a particular way that often don't play that way, and then there's things you don't realize that will freak people out in a certain way. And again, I always just try and make sure there's a contextual quality.
The Hole in the Ground, to me, is actually a super, super creepy movie. And Evil Dead Rise is actually probably more experiential and in your face in terms of how it plays. And The Mummy is a combination of both of those things. So there is plenty of creep factor and really unsettling imagery and silence as much as there is violence on the other side.
And there is hopefully — I suppose I can tease this — there's hopefully a moment that may top the cheese grater. There's a really twisted scene in the movie that connects all the way back to Wilbur & Anto, my grad school short film that I made, something that I've always found icky and weird, and I think a lot of people will as well. So that's kind of fun. I think that moment will definitely get attention.
But whether I truly ever know something would hit… the nature of being a filmmaker sometimes is being driven by your own anxiety, at least for me. So I'm never certain, and I'm always tweaking. But conceptually you can go, “That's pretty freaky. That's a really great idea.” And sometimes it's the quieter moments. I think with this movie, there are times where our mummy not being on the move is what unsettles people as much as something being on the move is unsettling. And I'm actually quite excited to be able to bring up the scale and the spectacle of this film, but also bring some of the simplicity of the psychological horror in The Hole in the Ground, and then marry that with some great set pieces as well.
What movies pulled you into filmmaking?
I think my influences were horror movies because of the people around me and what they watched. But equally, I'm a huge fan of, I suppose, all genres. Huge John Hughes fan, really, and also a big Kubrick fan –The Shining, of course. But beyond that, I probably watch more documentaries now than anything else at all.
And sometimes that's because — especially when you're making a movie — I find it hard to watch movies because you're watching something that's complete and you've got something that's very incomplete, and it can give you sleepless nights. I have so much stuff to catch up on from 2025. And even if it's really genre-different as opposed to adjacent, I can find it really hard. I also struggle to watch TV shows because the narrative structure is so different. I've even found in the past where I've been writing a movie while watching Mad Men the entire time, suddenly I notice my scenes are getting longer and longer and longer.
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So my influences typically come from the things that are really baked into my memory the way a movie plays. If I was to give you a cross section, as opposed to my top 10 movies or something like that, but if I was to look into different areas of genre, I'd say, there's The Shining. And of course there's the Evil Dead films, Evil Dead II specifically, but there's also Planes, Trains and Automobiles for sure. Scent of a Woman, which was my guilty pleasure movie growing up that would always be on one particular TV network. How it inspires me, I don't know, but it’s always there. I've always liked a bit of stirring hearts and things. I'm a Dead Poets Society fan. And then plenty of comedy. When I was back in film school, I was most inspired by things like This is Spinal Tap and The Office, and just wanting to learn to make really, really observational stuff.
And then there is Lord of the Rings. And apart from those movies being awesome, it's also realizing how they were made. It's such a privilege to make movies, but there are times where the pressure is really hard and you're really, really sleep-deprived and you haven't been able to get exercise in two months and you're dragging on your boots in the morning. And then you remember all the camaraderie and how you make a movie. And I always look at Lord of the Rings, despite just how they are as a spectacle and how much I love them, I look at how they were made. That's a super inspiring thing to me.
And then The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, just could watch them endlessly. And I think the probably connective tissue amongst all of those, maybe Evil Dead II aside, is there's typically some heart in the story running through them all.
Would you ever write for a different genre?
The first script I ever sold was a romantic comedy. And I love really good romcoms. High Fidelity is probably in my top 10 movies of all time, I'd say. So I do draw from a lot of different places. And for me, I just always like something that just brings me on some form of real ride and hits with the unexpected. So on the movie side, that's it. And then, look, outside, I probably draw a huge amount of my influence aside from culture is the people who surround me in my life. And everything I write, every character always has some facet of someone I know intimately in some way, shape or form. I'll always take inspiration from a niece, a nephew, a friend, a cousin, an enemy maybe, who knows? Not that I really have any, but there's always that draw.
Back up. What would a Lee Cronin romantic comedy look like?
It was called Dare, and it was set in Dublin at the time. I guess I wrote this in 2003 maybe, and it was about a couple… Two individuals from different sides of the tracks, based on what Dublin culture is like, in terms of the more posh and the more working class people. And behind all of it, there was a Willy Wonka-style, about-to-retire, globally-famous games manufacturer who had never found love and felt that everyone who had ever fallen in love with him was only after his money. So he created a citywide game of dare to pull this couple into to, to see: would they fall in love or choose the money at the end?
And so it was kind of this spectacle-based thing where it was these two characters that shouldn't connect, connecting as they played these huge outdoor games of Snakes and Ladders that they didn't realize they were playing. All this kind of crazy, crazy stuff. But it was my second or third feature script I'd ever written. I'd written a really fucked-up horror movie before that, and then just had this idea one day. And so, never say never.
I've also noodled with some screenplays that have a strong romance angle, but a supernatural element involved as well. There is a project of mine called Box of Bones, which has been in development for a long time, but hasn't fully come to fruition. You could argue it's a love triangle between a couple and a ghost. So there are some interesting things lurking in the background.
Who knows? Perhaps Lee Cronin‘s next chapter will see a romantic comedy or two added to his filmography of some of the creepiest films of our time. Meanwhile, if you're interested in being among the first to dig up Lee Cronin‘s The Mummy, Fill out the form below.
Want more on The Mummy? Pre-order your FANGORIA Vol. 2, Issue #31 here.
