It’s always a good day for horror fans when a new horror release makes its way to streaming so far, July’s been a good month in that regard. HBO Max added Lee Cronin’s The Mummy to the platform just a few days ago and the R-rated reboot has proven to be an instant hit as a new audience gets a chance to catch the new take on the age-old tale. It also marks a bit of vindication for the film, which was extremely divisive among fans and critics alike. However, the arrival of this horror reboot isn’t the only streaming triumph fans have to be excited about this month as something better is coming back.
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Now streaming on HBO Max is a very different The Mummy and more than that, a very different Mummy franchise. If you guessed that we’re talking about Brendan Fraser’s iconic Mummy franchise then you guessed correctly. As of July 1st, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor are all streaming on HBO Max. Honestly, if you wanted to get really technical, 1959’s The Mummy is also streaming so between Cronin’s reboot, Fraser’s iconic franchise, and an absolute classic, you can have yourself a truly incredible little film festival all from the comfort of home but if you just want to stick to Fraser’s series, we don’t blame you. There are certainly good reasons to.
Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy Franchise Is a Brilliant Revival of a Classic Monster Story
While 1999’s The Mummy is beloved by fans for a lot of reasons and not the least of them being Fraser and co-star Rachel Weisz delivering fantastic performances as former soldier Rick O’Connell and librarian Evelyn Carnahan respectively who accidentally awaken the cursed mummy Inhotep, there’s one key thing that really makes the film and those that followed it really shine. It’s that the film genuinely breathed new life in the classic Universal Monsters story. While for many it feels like common knowledge that The Mummy comes to us as part of the absolutely legendary Universal Studios monster universe from Hollywood’s golden era thanks to movies that starred Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr, there were (and still are) a lot of movie fans for whom those films don’t register. Those mummy stories are “old” rather than “classic” and while I think that’s a crime, it is what it is.
But the Fraser movie, it took what might feel dusty and “old” to some and made it feel fresh and new. Yes, it’s very much a loose adaptation, something that in many ways feels more original than like a reboot, but it takes much of the core elements and reinvents them right at the dawn of the then-new millennium. The movie did it so successfully that, even know as we come up on nearly 30 years later, it still feels fresh. That’s why getting a fourth installment which is currently in the works and eyeing a 2027 release feels especially exciting—and makes the whole franchise’s return to HBO Max even more timely. We can rewatch a late ‘90s classic just in time for the latest chapter’s imminent arrival.
And, like I suggested, if you really want you can have yourself a full Mummy experience. We are getting closer to Halloween, after all. Go wild.
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