Mimic (1997)

In Manhattan, children are dying from a new lung ailment, Stickler's Disease, spread by cockroaches. Dr Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) pleads with an entomology expert, Dr Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) to help him find a solution to destroy or disable the roaches. After viewing kids struggling to breathe, she does so. Using genetic engineering, the lethal insects are modified to stop reproducing. All is well. Or, it is it? Now, three years later, Peter and Susan are married and hoping to start a family. But, we see a mysterious dark being stalk a man and pull him into a sewer. Then, Susan receives a strange, rather large insect from a child, as a swap for money. This "baby" bug only resembles the modified cockroach in DNA. So, somehow the buggers are still reproducing and may be in the sewer system. As Peter, Susan, a shoeshine man named Manny (Giancarlo Giannini) and others (Josh Brolin, Charles S. Dutton) search for the secrets, what they discover chills the blood. The insects are HUMAN SIZE and mimic their creator, Susan, by appearing as a part insect, part human with powerful wings and claws. Unless they can stop the population, humankind is most likely doomed. Who will win? This stylish "mimic" of Alien is quite compelling but gruesome. Especially troublesome is the death of children at the hands of the bugs, something that usually doesn't happen in horror films and the overall bloody demises of various characters. Yet, even so, don't be scared off if you like science/horror movies. The cast is wonderful, while the artistic images and effects are fabulous. Also worthy are the script and make-you-jump direction. Mimic may resemble Alien, but it can stand on its own as solid entertainment.

This is an atmospheric thriller from Guillermo del Toro, director of "The Devil's Backbone" and "Cronos", who manages to mix great direction with good old fashioned monster horror to great effect. The concept itself is clever, even if the idea of bugs evolving to look very like humans is a little fa-fetched; however, once the action moves to the subway the fact that the bugs are clearly lethal no matter what they look like, makes this less important. The film is quite short and makes the action come quicker and seem more urgent. Several people get killed by the bug that wouldn't usually get killed in this sort of horror (children for example), this is very effective as it is quite scary to see the unexpected happen. The mood is dark throughout and Del Toro uses the sewers and subway to great effect, creating a real sense of claustrophobia, like the humans have entered the bug's world and not the other way round. The bugs are shown early on in the film - usually not a good idea (keep it hidden in the "Jaws" way), but here the special effects are good enough to make the bug really believable, yet the horror is not in seeing the bugs but in they way they hunt and kill, but the fear is in what could happen. The cast are great, Sorvino especially is very good in the lead. Jeremy Northam and Charles S. Dutton are good in support and Abraham Murray adds a bit of cameo class (though his role is quite unnecessary). The director is the real star, adding some genuine scares and real mood to a film that could have easily been just another creature-feature that goes straight to video and straight to the back of your mind.A few things I didn't like about this film was some of its more subtle things. Mira Sorvino was playing an entomologist, yet when she studies or investigate specimens, she takes no logical safety precautions. The same recklessness occurs repeatedly for her and every other cast throughout movie. Things like touching bugs that likely carry unknown diseases with your bare hands, or when they go underground to hunt for the roaches without any type of scientific or safety equipment is just very illogical to me. To think that in the beginning of the movie, the city undergone a catastrophic epidemic that were spread by roaches and for them to go on the rest of the movie every time without any planning or taking precaution is just unthinkable. The plot was nicely written and the story flowed well, but the reckless actions from supposedly "experts" just kills it. It doesn't just happen once or twice, but every single time. A number of scenes also seemed very forced and felt like they were put there just so the story can continue the way the director wanted, yet they made no logical sense.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Three years ago, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) genetically created an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now, the insects are out to destroy their only predator, mankind.This film is loved by some people and that is clear by the sequels it received. Exactly why is unclear, as it is rather average and not a highlight of 1990s horror. Specifically why Del Toro disowned it is not known to me, but it does have to rank among the lowest of his career, so that is not surprising.There are some good concepts. The idea of genetic modification is always popular for a science-gone-wrong story. And we also have the idea of an invasive species: introducing a species to remove an old one, only to to find the new ones has things we may not like about it.

I lived and worked and rode the subways in Manhattan for 15 years, and I think that the MPAA should have included a notice at the beginning of this film: "All insects shown actual size."I'm a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro, both his horror/fantasy films and his all-for-fun monster movies, and I simply couldn't understand how the mind that created a masterpiece such as "Cronos" could turn around and spew out something as just plain ORDINARY as "Mimic." I found at least part of the explanation here on IMDb: After repeated on-set changes by the producer, Bob Weinstein, del Toro apparently disowned the film. Still, his name is up there as Director, so he can't escape all the blame.All the usual horror ingredients are here: the dark, cluttered, brooding sets; the blink-and-you'll-miss-'em split-second shadowy glimpses of the creatures; the monstrous jaws trailing strands of slime as they open; the cute young heroine who is also a world-class scientist (and, of course, half of the love-interest subplot); and so on. The problem is not that any of this stuff is done badly; it's that everything has been done before (and since). That is not what one expects from Guillermo del Toro. I've seen all his full-length films; some, such as "Pan's Labyrinth," are in my opinion among the best movies every made, and even the least serious of them, "Pacific Rim," shows an ingenuity and attention to detail that pull it out of the "comic-book film" category and make it something special. "Mimic" is the only one of his films that simply drags.Still, it's probably the only film ever made in which the line, "There's some weird sh*t in here!" can be taken absolutely literally.