10 Scrapped Horror Movie Monsters That Would Have Been Terrifying

In 2026, Lee Cronin moved from the Evil Dead franchise to bring to life a version of The Mummy like nothing else seen so far. The Brendan Fraser films were fun and adventurous, but Cronin's picture was genuinely terrifying.

Had things gone a little differently, though, there could have been a much darker take on the Mummy property long before Rick O'Connell (Fraser) ever crossed paths with Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). This would have come from the mind of Clive Barker, who pitched a script to Universal in the late 1980s.

Barker has a deep history with the world of horror, most notably directing Hellraiser based on his own Hellbound Heart source material, and having his short story, The Forbidden, adapted into what would become Candyman in 1992. It's safe to assume, then, that his Mummy would have been a much creepier take than what ultimately came ten years later from Stephen Sommers.

Steve Johnson, who worked on the concept art, confirmed as much, saying that the Mummy would have been a cenobite-like creature based in the reality of what they actually looked like. However, even he admitted that this was not what Universal was looking for, and while it would have been a far more discomforting take on the property, it likely wouldn't have garnered the fan base or the box office that Sommers' effort did.