MIMIC

Publicity poster for Mimic (© Guillermo del Toro/Dimension Films/Miramax Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Not having viewed a Guillermo del Toro movie since Cronos in early May, I decided to remedy this sad situation on 21 July 2020 by watching Mimic.

Not only directed by Guillermo de Toro but also co-written by him (alongside Matthew Robbins), and originally released in 1997, Mimic begins in harrowing and somewhat topical manner with a deadly plague, albeit not a pandemic as it is confined to New York's Manhattan Island, where a new and very virulent ailment, Strickler's disease, carried by cockroaches, is decimating the population's children, with every effort made to kill its carriers or vaccinate against it failing. In desperation, Dr Peter Mann from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) brings in Dr Susan Tyler (played by Mira Sorvino), a brilliant entomologist.

Tyler boldly utilizes genetic engineering to combine the DNA of two very different species – a termite and a mantis – in order to create an entirely novel species. She dubs this new bug the Judas breed, because its purpose is to infiltrate the cockroach colonies that live in the city's Underground train system and betray them, by secreting an enzyme that will increase the cockroaches' metabolic rate so drastically that they will be unable to eat enough nutrients to fuel it and thence die of starvation, thus destroying the carriers of Strickler's disease. As for the Judas bugs: to ensure that they do not become as big a problem as the cockroaches that they will be exterminating, they have been programmed by Tyler via the inclusion of a suicide gene in their DNA to die in just 180 days, and are unable to reproduce because they are all female. So what could possibly go wrong? Let’s just say that distant memories of Jurassic Park had already begun to kick in by now…

Anyway, the plan seems to work beautifully, with the cockroaches dying en masse, Strickler's disease in turn being eliminated, and Manhattan's surviving, and future, children no longer in peril. Three years later, however, two youngsters bring to Tyler a very strange, sizeable insect that they had found in the Underground, and a much larger, dog-sized one, preserved in a deep-freeze and originally found in the city's sewage treatment plants, is shown to her and Mann by a worker from there. Moreover, what they don't know at this time (but the movie viewer does) is that people are being surreptitiously abducted by even bigger, shadow-obscured insects in and around the Underground. What they do know, however, filling Tyler in particular with horror, is that the two strange insects seen by them are evolved versions of the Judas bug. Far from having been wiped out by the genetic controls that she had set in place when engineering them, they have not only survived but also transformed via a massively-accelerated breeding cycle into a very much bigger and far more advanced form than the original strain created by Tyler three years earlier. But the worst discovery is yet to come.

SPOILER ALERT – IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE FOLLOWING KEY PLOT REVELATIONS, READ NO FURTHER!

Throughout the movie so far, there have been glimpses of tall, dark-garbed figures standing concealed in shadows, their faces obscured, watching Tyler and others involved in the investigation of the evolved Judas bugs and the threat that they could pose to humans. However, the true nature of this threat is made abundantly clear to Tyler one evening when alone on a subway (or Underground station, as we call them here in the UK). Looking around, she sees one of these shadowy figures, standing watching her, so, somewhat perturbed but also curious, she walks closer to the stranger (as you would if alone in a deserted subway at night!), on the pretext of asking what time it is.

Then, as she draws near, the figure's face seems to part in two horizontally, with the two halves flicking back, and its long dark cloak-like coat unfolds into four sections, which then swiftly rise up and open out, revealing themselves to be two huge pairs of wings, and from behind the façade that had seemed to be its face, the figure's real face lunges forward, revealing it to be the hideous visage and fearsome jaws of a predatory mantis-reminiscent insect – an insect that is standing upright on its rearmost pair of legs, masquerading as a human, and as tall as a human! Tyler flees, but the giant insect takes flight and chases after her, swiftly seizing hold of her with its limbs' claws, and flying away with her into the darkness of the subway's hidden underworld.

Subway scene from Mimic (© Guillermo del Toro/Dimension Films/Miramax Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Nevertheless, it's not long before Tyler is missed, and also before the scientists discover precisely what these mega-insects represent. Their accelerated evolution, which has even equipped them with superior mammal-like lungs supplanting the less efficient tracheae of other insects, has rendered them highly effective predators, by turning them into superb mimics of what has become their preferred prey - humans. So don't get too attached to Mann's assistant, Josh Maslow, the character played by Josh Brolin…

As is always the case with a del Toro movie, there are several different sub-plots, much to set your imagination aflame, and a lot of shocks along the way before the final, nerve-jangling climax is reached, when the vast underground nurseries of these uber insects are discovered, ready to let loose countless of their merciless, ravenous killing kind upon the unsuspecting human race inhabiting the world above, plus a do-or-die confrontation with the most important giant insect of all. Retained from the termite component of their ancestry, these creatures are a social species, mostly female workers and soldiers, but with a single fertile male, the king (unlike social bees, wasps, and ants, social termites have a king as well as a queen). If this crucial insect, key to the colony's perpetuation, can be destroyed, the entire colony will die.

The official Blu-Ray release of Mimic, the Director's Cut version (© Guillermo del Toro/Dimension Films/Miramax Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The CGI/animatronic sfx that bring the giant Judas bugs scuttling, screeching, and soaring across the screen are extremely impressive, so much so that I confess to being relieved that I was watching this particular movie on TV rather than on the big screen at the cinema! The acting is decent too, although to be fair the insects are always going to attract more attention from viewers than their human co-stars.

Also, for me personally it didn't help that Tyler's entomological mentor, Dr Gates, was played by none other than F. Murray Abraham, best known to me as the composer Salieri in the Mozart faction biopic Amadeus – I was half-expecting at any moment to hear Mozart's explosive high-pitched giggle suddenly shatter the eerie stillness in the Underground's cavernous depths!

Mimic is undoubtedly a very thought-provoking monster movie, one with a message – tamper with genetics and the laws of creation at your peril. To put it another way, don't try to play God, or Frankenstein, if you cannot foresee the future that your creations, or monsters, may themselves bring into being.

Overall, therefore, Mimic is an excellent film, which during the early 21^st Century generated two straight-to-video sequels (Mimic 2, 2001 and Mimic 3: Sentinel, 2003). I own the first of these two, so I'll be watching – and reviewing – it in due course, just as soon as I've stocked up on bug repellant for peace of mind's sake! Meanwhile, here is a gripping trailer to lure you into watching the entire movie!

A publicity poster for the official cinematic release of Mimic in Thailand (© Guillermo del Toro/Dimension Films/Miramax Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Incidentally, Mimic the movie was inspired by a short story of the same title written by American science fiction author/publisher Donald A. Wollheim (1914-1990), which was first published in the December 1942 issue of the monthly sci fi/fantasy magazine Astonishing Stories – click here to read it for free online.

As you'll discover, the short story's plot is entirely different from that of the movie, except that it does feature a human-sized (but this time entirely harmless) insect masquerading as a man until found dead one day, whereupon its extraordinary secret is sensationally exposed. If I'm honest, however, I actually found this outwardly innocuous tale far creepier than the movie – but to find out why, you need to read the story, especially its ending... I'll say no more.

Finally: for a movie with a not-dissimilar basic premise to Mimic – giant insects that adopt human form in order to bring about the destruction of our species – but which is instead played entirely for laughs, please click here to read my review of Meet the Applegates.

And always remember, readers – never approach a mysterious cloaked stranger to ask for a light in a deserted subway:

A gif from the subway scene in Mimic (© Guillermo del Toro/Dimension Films/Miramax Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

To view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!