After banging out two vastly intriguing movies in his native Mexico, it was inevitable that Guillermo del Toro would soon make the leap to Hollywood – it’s just a shame that it was Miramax who took him in. As many horror directors of the 90s would invariably discover, the whims of the Weinsteins tended to lead them into repeatedly tinkering with the visions of their directors, often demanding final cut and butchering the original tone of the film in favour of more unadventurous scares. Obviously, while this would not the most heinous crime that one of the Weinsteins would ultimately be found guilty of, one of the more frustrating casualties of their micromanagement skills was del Toro’s bug opus, Mimic.
I’m not exactly sure why Miramax thought they were going to get a more traditional horror/sci-fi film after del Toro’s past two movies (Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone) were both whimsical, dark fairytales packed with thoughtful, artistic flourishes – but the result would prove to bug the director for years after.
The children of New York are being ravaged by an illness named Strickler’s disease that’s on the verge of wiping out an entire generation of kids before their prime. But once it’s discovered that Strickers is being spread by the hardiest of NY’s residents – the humble cockroach – Dr. Peter Mann of the CDC recruits entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler to try and find a solution. Years later, Strickler’s disease is all but a memory thanks to Susan using genetic engineering to create the “Judas breed”, a hybrid bug that was able to hijack the natural order of the roaches life cycle and speed it up so they all die. We find during that time, Peter and Susan have gotten married and are trying (unsuccessfully) for a child, but while the tragic damage of Strickler’s disease is long gone, it’s legacy may prove to be far more horrific.
As constant rain lashes the city streets, random souls are noticing strange things occuring. Strange disappearances are bookended by odd, shrouded figures who impassively look on and one such witness is Chuy, a quiet child with savant tendencies who dubs the ominous figure “Mr Funny Shoes” and mimics his clicking noises with spoons.
After a couple of kids bring in a alarmingly large bug they’ve discovered, Susan gets a shock when she realises that this fist-sized insect is firstly, only a baby and that secondly is the member of the Judas breed that should have all died out long ago – but if giant, man-eating bugs have been walking the streets of New York, wouldn’t someone have seen them by now? I mean, I know New Yorkers have a reputation of being jaded, but surely there’s a reason that this lethal strain of bug has managed to stay off the radar. But while Susan, Peter go down into the network of underground tunnels beneath the city, they and a few random people unlucky enough to be stranded with them discover that the chittering beasts are far more common than they thought.
It says a lot for the skills of Guillermo del Toro that even though Mimic is the least of his expansive and varied catalogue, it still contains more visual flair and thoughtful themes than a large percentage of the horror that the decade delivered. Obviously, the film falls into the subcategory of Hollywood movies made by a hotshot foreign director as they struggle to make sense of the Hollywood system and you can literally see the stress lines of where del Toro’s vibrant ideas and the Weinsteins edicts have collided. To be fair, the Mexican maestro may have seen the chittering legs of his first American film cut out from under him, but all in all he fared pretty well compared to some of his other peers.
For a start, the film looks amazing and probably went a long way towards del Toro expanding his visual style to fit a bigger budget. The rain slicked streets feel remarkably like the sordid, urban neighbourhoods of Se7en (think Them! directed by David Fincher) and once we get to the even darker areas of the film that takes in abandoned churches, unused subway tunnels and various other godforsaken locales. Similarly, for a glorified monster movie, del Toro ensures that Mimic has a meticulously planned origin for his murderous chaste of giant bugs and the spikey, stabby villains prove to be fittingly intriguing critters. Seven feet tall with the ability to blend in as Rondo Hatton-faced background people, I can’t think of a movie that invests so much time in antagonists before suddenly switching to a rather basic but slick Aliens clone in its second half. Of course, del Toro has always been meticulous with his monsters and the Jurassic Park style moral debate of the creation of the Judas breed gives the film yet more weight.
It’s just a shame that the human characters can’t quite match the levels of detail that the director has lavished upon the bugs. In a mixture of Miramax-led interference and a bit of inexperience in the case of the director, all the featured bipeds seems to spit dialogue written by someone who doesn’t actually know how New Yorkers talk. Additionally, the leads played by Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam both seem weirdly miscast and their attempts to get pregnant seem flat as the film is forced to rush through some other themes (illegal immigrants being forced to live in squalor, struggling shoe shiner Giancarlo Gianni trying to be a guardian to little Choy) in order to get to the Alien bits. As a result, it feels like we’re only watching mere fragments of del Toro’s original plan, and many themes and visuals from Mimic would find their way into other projects such as Blade II and The Strain.
However, while the second half may see the visionary director teeing up a more contemporary monster mash, his flair for the macabre is still intact. Not only does del Toro delight in ramping up tension by having various characters slowly stick their hands into dark, foreboding places, but he’s more than willing to include child characters among the body count. Also, it’s good to see Charles S. Dutton once again fight tooth and nail with a chitinous foe five years after it didn’t turn out so good in Alien³ and we also get the added bonus of Josh Brolin and Norman Reedus showing up to add to the festering festivities. However, you can even feel the behind the scenes tension in Marco Beltrami score as it bounces between something more subtle and delivering Scream-style fanfares as the movie itself shifts forms like the bugs it features.
Del Toro’s weakest film still manages to deliver plenty of the director’s signature themes despite the stink of compromise permeating almost every scene. However, despite the film looking absolutely gorgeous and featuring some appropriately gnarly insectoid bastards, his first swing at an American movie couldn’t avoid getting crushed somewhat thanks to the rolled-up newspaper of Miramax’s meddling.
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