Entertainment Film Horror Viral

‘Should be banned’: A heated debate has kicked off over The Mummy’s sickening Tube posters

I wish I hadn't seen it

Hebe Hancock
16th April 2026, 17:08
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A new horror film dropping should be exciting. Instead, it’s sparked a huge debate on what we should (and definitely shouldn’t) be forced to look at on the way to work.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy lands in UK cinemas this week, but it’s not just the body-horror storyline turning heads: It’s the posters. Plastered across London tube stations, the ads are big, unavoidable, and, according to a growing number of commuters, properly disturbing.

The film itself is already being described as intense. It follows a young girl who mysteriously reappears eight years after vanishing in the Egyptian desert. This isn’t a wholesome reunion story: She comes back as something… else. Think human-mummy hybrid, ancient possession, and a creeping sense that whatever followed her home isn’t going anywhere.

If early reactions are anything to go by, it’s not exactly a casual watch. One personsummed it up bluntly: “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is the most f**ked up movie I’ve ever watched in a theater. Relentlessly and viciously haunting… I had to look away many times.”

Warner Bros

While horror lovers are eating it up, the real controversy is happening above ground (and underground). The film’s posters, currently lining tube platforms across London, have gone viral after people started calling them out for being too much, especially in public spaces where you can’t exactly opt out.

One viral post reads: “Just submitted my complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about this poster ad at tube stations. Why is there so little consideration of the impact of such images on children? (And one might add, on bereaved parents)”.

On one side, you’ve got commuters saying the imagery is borderline traumatising, especially for kids who are just trying to get to school without being jump-scared at 8am. Others are pointing out that tube stations aren’t exactly age-restricted spaces, so maybe there should be some limits on how graphic ads can get.

On the other hand, plenty of people aren’t fazed at all. Horror is horror, they argue, and if you’re promoting a film that’s meant to scare people, it’s kind of the point. Some are even saying the backlash is overblown, and that people need to toughen up.

Either way, it’s turned into a very public argument about where the line is between effective marketing and going too far, especially when the audience isn’t exactly choosing to engage with it. If nothing else, everyone’s definitely talking about The Mummy now.

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Featured image credit: Warner Bros