Director: Guillermo del Toro

Despite being an earnest foray into ecological terror, the ideas and situations presented by Mimic are all together too familiar in this post-Alien epoch of insectoid horror films. Any mention of eggs, nests, spawning, etc, is enough to plant a host of fully-formed clichés into the viewer's head. Still, this is a peripheral concern.

Mimic's most serious flaws have to do with plot and circumstance. Except for the opening scenes, which establish the basic premise, the plot rarely precedes the action. Instead, the audience is first teased to frustration by glimpses of something Not Quite Right, and then watches a tedious fight for survival that offers little substance beyond the occasional clash of wits between humans and monster insects.

Dr Susan Tyler (Mighty Aphrodite's Mira Sorvino) is a brilliant entomologist who earns bonus Karma points for ridding New York City of a plague spread by cockroaches. Her remedy was the Judas breed: a hybrid insect which secreted a phlegmy poison that roaches found irresistible, filthy animals that they are. Cut to three years later. In the throes of wedded bliss with scientist/hubby Peter Mann (Jeremy Northram), Susan gradually realises that her little assassins, supposedly rigged for self-extinction, have again earned their Judas tag and "found a way" to reproduce. And reproduce, and reproduce...

Reminiscent of the giant beetle in that Far Side cartoon ("Just step on it, Harold!"), Susan's offspring have evolved in three short years to human dimensions. Now bipedal, these shadowy figures are quite fond of nocturnal strolls in the back-alleys around their subway nest. Watching and waiting, they have their eyeglobes set on more succulent prey.

I dug the science, rubbery as it was. Written by del Toro, John Sales and others, Mimic is based on a short story by SF author Donald A. Wolheim, and the results are passable. Having first read about the mimicking phenomenon in National Geographic years ago, I was suitably unnerved by the prospect of people being stalked in this fashion. Shuddery.

Too bad this wasn't a Cronenberg project, because the final product strives too hard for surface chills, leaving various subplots blowing in the wind. The question of Susan and Peter's infertility lies dormant until the closing moments. Spoonboy (Alexander Goodwin) literally walks out of the story half way through, and his grandfather Manny (Giancarlo Giannini) is little more than a narrative link. (Giannini played the cop in Paolo Cavara's torrid 1971 giallo Black Belly of the Tarantula). Also, what about the church cult? And no shots of the Queen? Fair crack!

Mexican Guillermo del Toro – make-up artist, Hitchcock scholar, and director of 1994's Cronos – lends Mimic a nauseating ambience with giddy dolly shots, sepulchral lighting, and endless footage of sweaty skin. His actors do their best to sustain this queasiness – try not to cringe as they lube themselves with insect bile. Similarly, it's easy to believe that Susan is sterile given Sorvino's funereal performance. A wiseguy street cop (Charles S. Dutton, who seems to be auditioning for the next Die Hard movie) generates the only comic relief, and I kept expecting F. Murray Abraham to go Seth Brundle on us. Now that would have been interesting.

Mimic is to be applauded for the serious, noble treatment of its B-movie heritage. Sadly, "serious" does not always translate into intelligent, consistent, satisfying, or frightening. For a horror film that shoots its wad during the first five minutes (the children's ward scene), Mimic succeeds well enough, but fewer cheap scares, loose ends, and off-screen kills would have carried it much further.

[First published in Fatal Visions]

Post Script 14/8/2003. Guillermo del Toro has since stated in interviews that Miramax imposed drastic changes on the last half of the film, making it different to the darker original script. He said, "I'm happy with it to a degree, but it's not the movie I wanted to make. It has about 40 or 50 minutes that are the movie I wanted to make and about 40 or 50 minutes that aren't the movie I wanted to make. It's a half and half."