#66 - Mimic

Mimic (1997)
Moderately Trashy
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro. Written by: Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins, based on the short story by Donald A. Wollheim.

Plot: When tons of children are killed by a plague spread by cockroaches, scientists invent a new breed of bugs which prey on the roaches by mimicking them, effectively wiping them out. Problems arise when, a couple of years later, the bugs mutate, grow to unusual sizes and start mimicking humans.

Review: Apparently Guillermo del Toro himself hates this movie (and it is a failure in many ways, the ending being particularly sucky), but it is still one of the creepiest big bug movies ever. It sort of turns into a low rent version of Aliens (as all things must) after a while, with a few people fighting off the bugs in an abandoned part of the subway system, but conceptually it is very disturbing.

I really hate bugs and shit anyway and the thought of a giant cockroach that looks like a person long enough to eat you freaks the hell out of me. I've been trying to work that idea into a comic I'm half-assedly working on, although that's really neither here nor there... nothing on this damn blog is.

Anyway, the movie stands out from other slimy monster movies from the nineties (ex: Species - I always associate these two movies partially because of their superficially similar content but I probably watched them both around the same time too) mostly because of the damn sexy look. I have to hand it to del Toro - even when I don’t really like his movies (ex: Hellboy) I can’t deny that they looks fantastic.

I mean, this movie is pretty stupid and unbelievable, but (as opposed to Species which is stupid and unbelievable and retarded) it’s kind of cool and has that sort of dark, gothic look. And a weird little kid.

Also, I learned some interesting things about bugs. Like, apparently (I don’t know if this is true or not, but it sounds good) insects don’t have lungs and can’t grow beyond a certain size because their breathing apparatus would cease to function. In this movie, of course, the bugs evolve to have lungs. Weird.

Actually, that’s about all I learned from this movie, but whatever. Oh yeah, also, people who study bugs are called entomologists, not etymologists. I should know that really. That’s one of those jobs that doesn’t really get shown in a very good light in horror and sci-fi movies. See Bug, Sick Girl, this movie. Why would you want to even go there? It’s just going to end badly. It’s like working at the morgue. Or the hospital for that matter. Not safe. Danger. Danger.

Yep, this movie is way scarier than Them! or Tarantula or any of those giant bug/arachnid movies. I dunno, it's just cool. I guess that's the thing that gets me about del Toro's movies. They're all really cool and kind of innovative. He's just really good at what he does. He da man.

Favourite Part: I actually can’t really remember a specific part of this movie that I liked more than any other. I watched it a while ago and, unfortunately, there’s a lot of mental cross over with fuckin Species. I keep having to remind myself that Ben Kingsley was not actually in this movie (the fact that he and F. Murray Abraham are virtually indistinguishable doesn't really help me out much). I did kinda like that little kid. He was pretty cool. "Funny shoes". Love it.

Other versions: None.

Sequels: Two direct to video sequels, cleverly titled Mimic 2 and Mimic 3 were made in 2001 and 2003, respectively.


Click here to read my original review (May 15th, 2007).

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