Posters for Lee Cronin’s The Mummy will no longer be allowed to appear on the London Underground after they were judged likely to distress young children.
READ MORE: ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ review: fresh, frightening take on a classic movie monster
The posters, which ran at Tube stations around the release of the film in April, showed a close-up of a mummified female figure with grey skin, a swollen eye and a shroud inscribed with hieroglyphic symbols. The tagline read: “Some things are meant to stay buried.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has now revealed that they received 30 complaints about the poster campaign and have ruled that the figure’s “sunken and lifeless” face made it resemble a dead child.
It noted that one of the posters was visible from a children’s nursery and concluded that it was likely to distress young children.
The ASA ruled, therefore, that the posters breached official advertising regulations on social responsibility, harm and offence, and must not appear again in public in the same form.
Warner Bros had argued that the figure on the poster was a living mummy who has returned to her family as a teenager or young adult, and added that her neutral expression, open eye and the lack of restraints had been intended to reduce the risk of distress.
The ASA did not uphold other complaints about the poster campaign, including the argument that the image was distressing to people who had lost a child and that it was insensitive in the context of ongoing global conflicts. Instead, they ruled that the film’s title and release date made the context of the image sufficiently clear.
Released in UK cinemas on April 17, Cronin’s film starred Jack Reynor and Laia Costa as parents whose missing daughter returns to them eight years after disappearing, only for the reunion to become a nightmare. It is a reimagining of the franchise that began with the 1932 Boris Karloff film.
In a four-star review, NME wrote: “That title wrongly suggests the work of an artistic visionary scaling new heights of elevated horror; instead, this is a fun, dumb thrill ride that breathes powerfully fetid air into the ongoing string of mummy movies. Over to you, Brendan.”
The film is unrelated to the action-adventure series that began with 1999’s The Mummy. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are due to reunite for The Mummy 4, which is scheduled for release on May 19, 2028.
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