Review of Mimic (1997) by Spangle — 14 Sep 2017

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 cockroaches 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.