Mimic Shows Yet Again that Genetic Tamperers Never Prosper.
Written by BHM Contributor Dr. Chills
March 3, 2008
Release: 1997
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Written by: Donald A. Wollheim (Short Story), Mathew Robbins (Screenplay)
Starring:
Mira Sorvino as Dr. Susan Tyler
Jeremy Northam as Dr. Peter Mann
Alexander Goodwin as Chuy
Giancarlo Giannini as Manny
Charles S. Dutton as Leonard
Josh Brolin as Josh
Alix Koromzay as Remi
F. Murray Abraham as Dr. Gates
Several months ago, I was traveling from Honolulu, Hawaii back to the US mainland. While waiting for my connecting flight in LA, I happened to be sitting in an airport lounge sharing a flat screen TV with a doctor who worked on issues related to infectious diseases. There was something running on CNN about young boy who died from exposure to a parasite he picked up at a local lake. After making small talk about the bird flu, viruses, and other tiny creepy crawlies, I’ll never forget what the doctor told me next. With as much surety as if he were saying “The sun will rise tomorrow” he uttered the following words “The bugs win in the end. The bugs always win.”
Was this doctor just a being a harbinger of doom or did he know something most of us lay people don’t about the incredibly resilient nature of creepy crawly things with multiple legs. Cockroach fossils have been found dating back nearly 354 million years ago. Boy that’s a long genealogy. You’d think we’d be doing more research on these 
disgusting creatures to find out just why they are so resilient and long lasting… I wish Mira Sorvino (playing Dr. Susan Tyler) had done a little more research herself before she decided to genetically manipulate the hardiest bug known to man, by crossing it with a kamikaze soldier termite.
Mimic, directed by Guillermo del Toro is scary as heck. It is scary because the scenario portrayed in the movie is not that far from reality. The movie opens up in some kind of hospice facility where masses of New York City youth are laying on sterilizedbeds. The scene is reminiscent of the boy in the bubble as all the kids are enclosed in plastic like cocoons. It seems they are all dying of an insidious disease called Strikers, which is carried and spread by cockroaches. In an effort to halt the deadly disease, geneticists Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) and Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) genetically engineer a new bred of roaches to kill of the Stricklers spreading roaches. The only problem is, the new breed of roaches, instead of dying off as they have been genetically altered to do, manage to survive, manage to mutate and manage to become one of the scariest horror movie gang of villains of all time.
The bugs are so scary because they lack conscience. They’re just bugs. All they want to do is eat, swarm and reproduce. Anything or anyone who gets in their way is toast. Now let me just warn you right now. A lot of your favorite characters are going to die in this movie. Even the spoon playing, shoe naming, click clacking autistic boy is not immune to the reach of the roaches.
Charles S. Dutton as (Leonard) plays a great stereotypical, mean, lazy NY transit cop and gives a great performance. Dutton leads the hapless crew of CDC workers (Josh Brolin & Peter Mann) into the underbellies of the New York City subways on an adventure they will never forget. They travel right into the lair of the cockroach headquarters and to the command center of project egg sack.
Incidentally, the name “Mimic” is an allusion to the ability of these super roaches to mimic the appearance of their enemy in an effort to infiltrate and destroy. Screenplay writer, Mathew Robbins, weaves the idea of mimicking into the movie in several other clever and thoughtful ways throughout the movie.
I’m not typically a huge fan of special effects and I can’t say I’ve ever really paid close attention to who did the special effects in a film, but at the end of Mimic, I found myself panning the credits to see who was responsible for the amazing effects that made mimic so fantastic. The roaches were scary, slimy, flying, gross and so darn lifelike. The explosion scenes were equally wonderful and realistic. This is a really cool flick and a frightful treat that any horror freak will enjoy. But if you happen to one of the 10% of the population who suffers from phobias, particularly entomophobia (bug phobia), you many want to give this film a pass…Questions or comments about Mimic? Contact us!
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