X
- 1997
- R
- Dimension Films
- 1 h 45 m
- 1997
- R
- Dimension Films
- 1 h 45 m
Summary A team of scientists discover a miracle cure that stops the spread of a deadly disease... only to find three years later that something has gone terribly wrong. Their creation has taken on a horrifying life of its own... able to mimic and destroy its every predator -- even man! And now, it threatens to wipe out an entire city... unless t...
Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
Written By: Donald A. Wollheim, Matthew Robbins, Guillermo del Toro
- 1997
- R
- Dimension Films
- 1 h 45 m
- 1997
- R
- Dimension Films
- 1 h 45 m
Mimic
56
8.1
Where to Watch
Summary A team of scientists discover a miracle cure that stops the spread of a deadly disease... only to find three years later that something has gone terribly wrong. Their creation has taken on a horrifying life of its own... able to mimic and destroy its every predator -- even man! And now, it threatens to wipe out an entire city... unless t...
Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
Written By: Donald A. Wollheim, Matthew Robbins, Guillermo del Toro
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
56
40% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
47% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
13% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
56
40% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
47% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
13% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Mimic is undoubtedly the best mutant-cockroach horror thriller ever made. Even granting that there hasn't been much competition, this is intended as a high compliment.
A stylish B horror movie about giant insects in the catacombs of Manhattan, it's by turns queasy, gross, terrifying, and -- never underestimate this one -- enthusiastically dumb. It's everything you want in a big-bug thriller.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 197 User Ratings
8.1
73% Positive
143 Ratings
143 Ratings
20% Mixed
39 Ratings
39 Ratings
8% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 197 User Ratings
8.1
73% Positive
143 Ratings
143 Ratings
20% Mixed
39 Ratings
39 Ratings
8% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
Became truly enamored of Guillerm del Toro following “Pan’s Labyrinth.” Before that I found “Mimic” one of the most underrated and captivating Sci-Fi movies of the 90’s and still passes muster to date. With strong science and a superb story this movie grips from the go and doesn’t disappoint. I referenced this movie years/decades later unaware that the Man, the Myth, and the soon-to-be Legend G.d.T. was the architect. It makes perfect sense given his now vast seemingly unparalleled body and scope of work.
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⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙》》》》》》》》》》》》》》
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
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In fact, the title of this motion picture is quite apt -- Mimic does an excellent job of imitating not only Aliens, but several other science fiction and horror features, including such odd choices as Leviathan and The Thing. The derivative result is, as one might expect, moderately entertaining, but far from groundbreaking in its approach or execution.
Ghoulish interest is a prerequisite for watching Mira Sorvino (as a bold and athletic entomologist) act against performers who have mandibles, or for appreciating the care with which nymph, juvenile and adult insect villains have been devised.
The adventure is well-acted by Mira Sorvino and Giancarlo Giannini, among others, and imaginatively directed by Guillermo Del Toro, who gives a new twist to old science-fiction effects.
Del Toro clearly knows his way around the camera, but the shadowy eeriness that saturates the early going slowly becomes monotonous and winds up being just dull, and even partially obscures the action in the long underground finale.
If there is a reason anyone would voluntarily agree to make this movie it probably dwells somewhere in a realm only accessible to the thinking of ambitious actors.
Incredibly underrated gem from a young Del Toro. You have to watch the directors cut blu ray to really appreciate his full vision for the overall story. The visuals are absolutely fantastic and you can easily tell that Del Toro had this genius gift of keen eyes and innovative creativity all along. While the mutated insect cgi at times is extremely dated, the practical effects are insanely unnerving and realistic. The acting isn't supreme by any means but you definitely care for them in the end of their gruesome subterranean journey. As far as creature features go this one is quite overlooked and really deserves more credit.
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The first experience of Guillermo del Toro out of México it's such a love letter for the sci-fi movies of mutant bugs (Tarantula, Them, The fly) that had their boom in the 50s. Rob Bottin (The thing, Robocop) designed an awesome monster, hard to forget. The end result could have been better were it not for the interference of the producer. Deserves a chance.
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Last year, Hooptober started for me with Guillermo del Toro's Cronos. Starting off this year with his follow-up to that film and his first English-language work, Mimic, was an easy decision. Unfortunately, Mimic is just alright. Clearly interfered with by Harvey Weinstein and his meddlesome minions at Miramax to make it more commerical, Del Toro's Mimic is perhaps his most conventional plot, his most scattershot, and perhaps his most cliche. Yet, all of this comes underneath the surface of a truly visually stunning work that matches the heights of Del Toro's filmography with pure visual splendor. Matching it with great sound work and creature effects, Mimic is a film with so many great parts that it is crushing to realize that it is truly nothing special, even if its surface details hint at a truly great semi-modern creature feature.
Dimly lit at all times with the characters trekking about in the darkness of their labs, homes, or the New York City transit system, Mimic benefits greatly from Del Toro's ominous visual style. Playing out like a gothic horror film with stone walls and ominous dark corners lurking about, Mimic may be a modern film but its old-age stylings contribute to it being a truly haunting film visually. In terms of visual appeal, the darkness contributes to shots akin to The Third Man as they trek out of the dimly lit outside world into a dark tunnel holding unknown creatures. With light poking in from the outside that does very little to alleviate the darkness of the room, Del Toro manages to turn Mimic into one of those horror films that keeps the audience consistently in the dark as to what is occurring due to, literally, how dark the screen is at all times. This creepy production design keeps the audience guessing as to what could be around the corner and with the creatures constantly shrouded in darkness, it is never easy to decipher exactly what is going on.
Alongside this fantastic production design, Mimic features a great use of sound throughout. With a menacing score present in all thrilling moments that really sets the tone perfectly, Del Toro keeps the audience on edge through other non-score sound effects. With clicking and the banging together of spoons, Mimic is one that is littered with little pitter-pattering of large bug feet walking about around the subway system. Able to keep the viewer constantly on edge with these ominous noises floating about, Del Toro is often able to scare us solely through suggestion. The chief example of this is when entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) is walking around on the subway platform. Seeing what she thought was a man and asking him for the time only to realize it is a bug, she starts to run away. Stopping to scan the situation, Del Toro uses a high and tight close-up of Sorvino as she looks around with a panicked look on her face. Suddenly, the subway rips by with a violently loud sound. Throwing the viewer right off the edge of their seat, Del Toro does not deliver this fright by showing her confront the bug, but rather through some peripheral sound that is not scary without the requisite atmosphere. With the fantastic production and sound design, Mimic is a film with the perfect atmosphere to pull off such a scare.
However, where the film falters is towards the end. Banding together to fight off the creatures they had created to fight off diseased **** that were making children sick years earlier, Susan and a team of three others must sacrifice life and limb to kill these monstrosities. With a cliche-ridden final act as the group face off, needlessly sacrifice themselves, setting up a "final girl", and then tearjerkingly reuniting the lovers involved in this conflict, Mimic ends rather safely. Given that everything in the film was caused by Susan trying to play God, one could not be blamed for assuming that she would face some consequence for this. However, Mimic cheapens out, makes her the hero, and gives her the emotional send-off requisite of an action hero. Toss in a very convenient malfunction and fixing of a lighter to literally blow up the subway system in New York City that does not kill the one who starts the explosion and it is hard to really support Mimic as a good film. For a film from Del Toro, it seems so cliche, safe, predictable, and conveniently plotted, that it is hard to not see the fingerprints of Weinstein all over the film's final act.
Beautifully put together with great attention to the set design and the sound design, but with useless characterizations, often iffy acting (Mira Sorvino yelling at the creature to come get her instead of the annoying child really sends chills down your spine due to how horribly she delivered the line), and a dreadfully safe final act, Mimic is simply a mixed bag. It is no surprise that Del Toro came back after a Spanish-language film after this one due to how his vision of this film was standardized and sterilized by Hollywood.
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Del Toro brings suspense and tension but by the end of the film you can't help but wonder was it worth it the monsters in the don't look very real the effects look sci-fi channel kinda and the film use for jump-scares become cliche and you'll lose interest from it
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A slice of B-rated sci-fi-horror that ultimately isn't tense, interesting, or gross enough to really be worth watching. A shame given del Toro directed it and the interesting monster design. There's a cheesy core here that isn't tapped into and the plot ends up just being boring.
It clearly borrows from Aliens. Stand off scenes, various scenarios, and the lead heroine herself (Mira Sorvino all call back to that classic movie. Only instead of Xenomorphs we get giant bugs that really aren't scary. When things finally get going it all takes place in an abandoned part of the subway. It lacks the atmosphere of James Cameron's masterpiece.
"Mimic" experiments with a lot of things. It tries to gross and creep us out, but ultimately never succeeds due to bad direction. A splash more of gore here, some slime there, and darker lighting all around could have helped things out. The writing is so bland that the story falls short of being anything more than dull.
It's a movie that experiments with a handful of great ideas and fails to capitalize on any of them. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that fails to deliver on what it's title and premise imply. There isn't any mimicry actually going on here. There's a bit thrown in which is so miniscule it actually feels like an afterthought. Like those behind the film realized at the last minute " Oh hey, we forgot these things are supposed to mimic humans. Let's throw this in last minute and hope nobody notices."
Perhaps hardcore sc-fi enthusiasts will find something here. There is a mildly entertaining nature to it. However the horror element is almost non-existent and even the most devoted enthusiasts will likely be disappointed with how it ultimately fails to deliver on just about every one of it's promises. A shocking dud from del Toro and solid choice for skipping over.
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Production Company
Dimension Films,
Baltimore Pictures,
Miramax
Release Date Aug 22, 1997
Duration 1 h 45 m
Rating R
Tagline For thousands of years, man has been evolution's greatest creation... until now.
Website
http://www.facebook.com/mimic
Awards
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
International Monitor Awards
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
ALMA Awards
• 1 Nomination
