The No Film School Podcast

From Evil Dead Rise to The Mummy: Lee Cronin on Evolving Horror

April 11
52 mins

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Episode Description

Writer-director Lee Cronin joins No Film School to discuss how he approached reimagining The Mummy through the lens of family trauma, mystery, and body horror. In conversation with GG Hawkins, Cronin breaks down the emotional architecture behind effective horror, the challenge of staging fear in broad daylight, and the way Irish storytelling, personal experience, and practical effects continue to shape his work. He also reflects on building a long-term creative partnership, collaborating with horror powerhouses like Jason Blum and James Wan, and the discipline required to keep refining a film all the way through the edit.

In this episode, No Film School's GG Hawkins and guest Lee Cronin discuss...

  • How Cronin infused The Mummy with mystery, family drama, and horror

  • Why broad daylight can make horror feel even more unsettling

  • The emotional groundwork required to make gore and shock land with audiences

  • How themes from The Hole in the Ground evolved into The Mummy

  • Why character is always the engine of fear in Cronin’s films

  • How Cronin thinks about the “contract” he makes with audiences from the earliest story stage

  • The practical and creative lessons he learned from years of making corporate videos and commercials

  • What it was like collaborating with Jack Reynor, Jason Blum, and James Wan

  • How shooting in Ireland and Spain helped shape the scale and texture of the film

  • Advice for emerging filmmakers on collaborators, restraint, and cutting what does not work

Memorable Quotes:

  • “Writing is not hard at all. Knowing what to write is incredibly difficult.”

  • “Nothing is more exciting to me than watching something I’ve created with an audience and hearing them vocalize, scream, drop the popcorn, whatever it might be.”

  • “If something doesn’t work, don’t leave it there.”

  • “Never be afraid.”

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