Mimic 2 (2001)

JULY 7, 2009

GENRE: MONSTER
SOURCE: DVD (ONLINE RENTAL)

I suppose that most people who would go out of their way to see Mimic 2 are big fans of the original, and not merely watching whatever horror title they come across during their browsing, even sequels to movies they didn't remember much about. Therefore, those folks wouldn’t have spent the entire movie thinking that Dimension couldn’t get any of the original actors to return, as I did. Actually, if not for the fact that I thought lead actress Alix Koromzay was cute and wanted to see what else she had been in, I probably wouldn’t have ever known that her character (Remy) was actually in the first Mimic. Who the hell was she, though? I only remember the people who went into the sewer and mostly died.

Anyway, it’s actually not too bad of a movie. This is back when the Neo Art And Logic team would actually shoot their films on sets and locations instead of greenscreens, so it’s certainly more professional looking than a Pulse sequel. Also, the effects aren’t too bad, and they are kept to a minimum anyway. If the movie has one real issue, it’s that all the kills occur in the first 10 minutes or so, only to spend the next hour with three people that you know won’t die (2 kids and Remy). Oh, and a heroic cop who you know won’t die until the end. The key to any good monster movie is to give you a nice stable of characters who you can actually feel concerned about. Think of say, Jurassic Park. Did you automatically “know” that Malcolm or Hammond would live? You shouldn’t, especially since they died in the book.

Another nice touch is that there’s actually some character development. Remy has no luck in love, and is obsessed with her bugs. So the idea of a giant human-ish bug that wants to mate with her is one that almost seems plausible. Also, there’s a nice bit of how after she gets her heart broken, she takes a Polaroid of herself and pins it on the wall with the name of the heartbreaker written on the bottom. Sort of cheesy, but a hell of a lot more than you get in these things. And of course, the hero sees the photo (after accusing her of being the killer) that she made after dealing with him, which gives him enough motive to risk himself to help her. Awww. It’s certainly better than what I thought would be the payoff for the Polaroids (a picture of the two of them together at the end of the film, all happy and such).

Some of the horror bits are above average as well. My hatred of insects allowed me to feel a bit queasy during a scene where a hundred baby Judas breeds scramble over our three heroes, who stomp on them mercilessly (what this movie lacks in blood, it makes up for in insect goo). Paul Schulze’s death scene is also pretty nifty; a full grown Judas sort of flies by and slashes him over and over, confusing the hell out of him until it drags him off and pulls him through a narrow pipe. And if a movie has to have a goddamn “Heroine steps over the body of the maybe-not-yet-dead villain” scene, it might as well have one where instead of an arm she is stepping over a raised tentacle claw thingie pointed right at her lady parts.

Oh and kind of like Deep Blue Sea, the movie finds a ridiculously awesome (I mean awesomely ridiculous) way to get her to strip down to her underwear. Thank you movie.

Also a surprise for a Dimension DTV of the era, there are a decent number of extras. Nothing particularly essential, but there’s about 20 minutes of behind the scenes stuff, which focus on both the usual nonsense as well as the job details of lesser known crew members. There’s also a nice piece on sound mixing (is Gary Rizzo the first re-recording mixer to ever get his own extra on a DVD?), and a handful of deleted scenes which are actually finished and mostly enjoyable. I would have liked a commentary by Joel Soisson and Mike Leahy, as they are always fun to listen to, but oh well. Besides, unlike most of their tracks (the Dracula sequels, for example), this is actually a decent movie, so their track might not be as mocking. Or if it was I might be annoyed.

What say you?