The Mimic Trilogy

MIMIC

I checked out the Mimic trilogy on DVD this weekend.  The first film centers around an insect expert named Susan who engineers a “Judas Bug” and releases it into the greater New York City area with the intent of wiping out cockroaches that carry a disease that’s fatal to many children.  Her plan works, but three years later she discovers that the Judas Bugs (designed to die out after one generation) have somehow survived, reproduced, and mutated into giant winged-cockroach-like things.  With the help of her husband (Peter), a cop (Leonard), and a shoe-shine man (Manny), Susan sets out to destroy the one fertile male on which the ability of the bug colony to thrive depends.

I enjoyed Mimic and perceived it as an above-average creature feature.  There are a couple of tense moments when I thought, “There’s no way the protagonist can get out of this situation.”  Screenwriters Matthew Robbins & Guillermo del Toro (who adapted the script from a short story by Donald A. Wollheim) surprised me at every turn as Susan somehow cheated death again and again.  I loved the fact that for once in a monster movie the human characters reacted realistically when confronted with a heretofore unknown predator.  Also, Peter’s solution for wiping out all of the female bugs results in collateral damage on the streets of New York City, a fine realistic touch.  I also appreciated that some characters I expected to survive did not.  I won’t spoil what occurs in Susan’s showdown with the fertile male bug.  Mimic, originally released in 1997, holds up well on home video and is worth a look for an engaging variation on the old man-versus-nature horror tale sub-type.

MIMIC 2

 The middle film in the trilogy is a decent sequel that follows a grade school teacher (Remi) who for some reason finds herself and those around her targeted by a surviving giant mutant Judas Bug that has evolved the ability to mimic the appearance of specific individuals.  Remi finds herself trapped in the school with one current and one former student.  The bug stalks them through some tense sequences.  Remi survives with a bit of help from the Army, and then there’s an epilogue/twist ending that borders on silly.

If Mimic 2 (released in 2001) ever explains why the bug has chosen to stalk Remi (who also appeared in the first film), I missed those details.  That minor quibble and the film’s incredibly short running time are my only real complaints.  Remi is developed here as a memorable and quirky protagonist who finds inspired new uses for a Polaroid camera and is a magnet for unhealthy relationships.  The plot is as grounded in reality as a film about people hunted by an oversized mutant cockroach can be (once again featuring a realistic reaction from a character who encounters the large bug for the first time) – too often in such films, people are almost unfazed upon seeing the monster. 

MIMIC 3: Sentinel

The weak link in the Mimic narrative chain, part 3 is a radical departure from the style and structure of the first two movies and focuses on a “bubble boy” (a fellow in his twenties named Marvin) who is mostly confined to his upstairs bedroom due to his hypersensitivity to many allergens.  Marvin, a semi-imprisoned voyeur, whiles away his time photographing his neighbors.  His younger sister Rosy keeps him company.  Some Judas Bugs show up in the neighborhood while a cop woos Marvin’s mom, and not a hell of a lot more occurs until near the end of this tale’s blissfully short 76-minute running time.

Poorly-paced in such a way that the story feels long even though it’s at least 14 minutes shy of being truly feature-length, Mimic 3: Sentinel (released in 2003) is one to avoid.  While I admire filmmaker J.T. Petty for trying to make a singular and unique installment in this franchise, the specifics of what he’s chosen to do aren’t to my taste.  One sequence in which Rosy and her friend Carmen (played by a pre-Lost Rebecca Mader) explore the apartment of a neighbor while Marvin observes through his camera reminded me of a similar scene in John Carpenter’s Someone’s Watching Me (a project I like quite a lot).  Mimic 3 plods along with little structure and few moments of tension until the final fifteen minutes.  Don’t waste your time on this one.