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The Preview Reel: The Mummy Comes at Night

Scott Davis
The Preview Reel

Welcome to the “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide-release movies. Last weekend we saw history as Wonder Woman set the record for the biggest opening for a featured helmed by a female director. This week features two of the summer’s more intriguing releases with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, and the horror flick It Comes at Night. Let’s see if either release will be able to take down the mighty Amazonian princess.

 

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The Mummy

What we are excited about: There’s two things we are very excited about, the first being Tom Cruise. Most of his action blockbusters have been stellar as of late (except, of course, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back). Mission: Impossible—Ghost Nation, Edge of Tomorrow, and even Oblivion have been easily above average. While his box office results are all over the map, Cruise is consistently making entertaining (and often, crazy) action flicks. The second reason we are excited for The Mummy is that this is the first film in the “Dark Universe” series. Every studio seemingly wants to have their own shared universe, and Universal is starting their own with The Mummy. The universe will include their classic horror monsters such as Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, Wolfman, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and, of course, the Mummy. We’ll see if it will be as successful as other shared universes, but it is exciting to see something like this that isn’t based on the usual superheroes.

What we are worried about: The director of The Mummy, Alex Kurtzman, has only one feature film directing credit to his name in the form of People Like Us. While that Chris Pine starrer was better than expected, it is nowhere the beast of a movie like The Mummy. Kurtzman does have a bunch of television experience with shows like Fringe, Sleepy Hollow, and Alias. He often works with J.J. Abrams, who is the current king of franchise development right now, so maybe he has picked up a few things. Given all of this, we would still like to see a big franchise like this helmed by a more seasoned pro.

The Buzz: Most of the current internet buzz is still focused on Wonder Woman, which might make it difficult for The Mummy to debut at number one. Reviews are slowly starting to pop up on the internet as of this writing, but they have not been kind. The movie is sitting at a 24% on RottenTomatoes and 37 on MetaCritic. Reviews probably won’t help this overtake Wonder Woman and the film will likely open around $30 million, which is not a good start for the franchise.

Final Thoughts: Tom Cruise, a shared Universal monster universe, and blockbuster action has us in the theater for opening weekend.

 

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It Comes at Night

What we are excited about: Leave it to A24 to market a horror movie as vaguely as they do and still have us super excited about it. The trailer gives next to nothing away, but the tone, music, cinematography, and overall sense of dread it elicits just makes us excited for what should be another solid horror film this year. Reviews for this movie have been stellar since its debut, so even though we know next to nothing about the film itself, we are super excited for some reason.

What we are worried about: Like The Mummy, It Comes at Night features a director with very little experience—Trey Edward Shults, directing just his second film. Although it is not a mega-budgeted action tentpole film, this lack of experience does raise some concern for us. Then again, horror seems to be a good place for young directors to cut their teeth and learn the ropes (see: James Wan), so maybe this concern isn’t warranted.

The Buzz: As we said earlier, this film garnered huge buzz when it debuted at the Overlook Film Festival back in April. There has been buzz building on the internet since the word got out, but we are not sure if that will translate into box office success. Look for an opening around $10 million.

Final Thoughts: It Comes at Night might make for an interesting double feature with The Mummy, but if action isn’t your thing, maybe just a single horror flick will do the trick.

Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
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