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 21st
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!
