Mummy Reborn is a 2019 horror comedy about a group of teens who discover an old wooden tomb containing a Mummy’s corpse and an ancient amulet.
I’ll make this quick. Or at least try. There’s a lot to unpack. Mummy Reborn is not good. It’s tonally awkward, poorly-written, and disappointedly bland. Strangely, director (and co-writer) Dan Allen seems to know this, throwing everything he can at the screen in trying to mask this, delivering a weirdly compelling watch that is (hopefully) intentionally bad for the sake of being well, just bad. And I say that with love in my heart for filmmakers who work tirelessly at this scale.
It follows Tina (Tiffany-Ellen Robinson), a young woman in a rough spot. Her mum’s recently passed, leaving her to struggle with the mortgage on the house and the care of her mentally challenged brother Max (Victor Toth). The good news is, she’s getting fired, and on her last day of work, discovers in the back room an ancient casket and a mummy inside because that’s a thing that happens. An idea forms. Along with her boyfriend Luke (Chris Kaye), who brings in some sketchy partners, they make off with the relic and a strange necklace, thinking there’s a fortune in the making. Alas, that’s not how it goes because, you know, mummies always ruin a good thing.
At a brisk 80 minutes, at least things don’t last long in Mummy Reborn, a movie that seems to have been directed by three separate people in someone’s backyard, each with different visions for the story and not told about the others. While audiences might surely be tainted by any number of mummy movies that’ve hit screens before, Allen doesn’t have the budget or the cast to really do anything close to expectations. Instead, we’re left with a very patchy story that has little to do with the lore of the monster and more about trying to wrangle a few loose laughs out of the set up.
I say ‘laughs’ because comedy seems to be the modus operandi on tap, even as it dips into just about every other genre it can get its mitts on. Still, it’s not quite a parody or a spoof, much of the film seemingly trying to take itself seriously. That’s especially true of Robinson, who is actually very good, clearly embracing the drama of the whole thing with some unexpected authenticity, leagues ahead of the rest of the cast. She plays it straight, weathered and weary, at her wits end, and makes for the best parts of the show. She’s really the only reason to tune in.
Others do what they can but it’s not nearly on the same level, particularly Toth, who is cringe-inducing to watch, not for an instant convincing of the condition he’s meant to have. Either way, as the film isn’t all that interested in any of these characters, it hardly matters, Allen pulling every trick out of the bag, including goofy music, record scratches, weird lighting, slow motion, hippies, Ave Maria, subtitles (with a character who can ‘see’ them), title cards, dated pop culture references, and more. What it doesn’t have is anything scary. Or innovative. This is just a bad movie and for fans of such, fodder enough to offer a few opportunities to poke some fun. I guess that makes it entertaining just the same.