This Underrated Guillermo del Toro Chiller Is Now Streaming on Prime Video
Guillermo del Toro firmly established himself as an unstoppable creative force in the 2000s with films like The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Hellboy. But his noteworthy efforts actually date back to the ‘90s. The filmmaker delivered an impressive, albeit overlooked, offering in ’97: the grotesque sci-fi horror hybrid Mimic.
If you’ve yet to experience this under-seen effort in the celebrated filmmaker’s oeuvre, you can fill in that blind spot now. The director’s cut of Mimic is streaming on Prime Video as of the publication of this post.
During his tenure at Dread Central, Steve Barton counted Mimic as one of the best killer bug films of all time, saying: The story is mesmerizing, the onscreen performances can be considered nothing short of the product of elite thespians, and visually it’s absolutely genius; you cannot take your eyes off of this movie. While giant ants may not be a paralyzing idea by today’s standards, giant cockroaches capable of actually mimicking the physical appearance of man – whom they target and dispose of – most certainly is.
In addition to boasting Guillermo del Toro at the helm, the flick also features an impressive cast, including Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Alexander Goodwin, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles S. Dutton, and Josh Brolin.
The setup is as follows: When a cockroach-spread plague threatens to decimate the child population of New York City, evolutionary biologist Susan Tyler (Sorvino) and her research associates rig up a species of “Judas” bugs and introduce them into the environment, where they will mimic the diseased roaches and infiltrate their grubby habitats. So far so good … until the bugs keep on evolving and learn to mimic their next prey — humans.
That’s all we’ve got for the time being. Stay tuned to the site for more updates on what’s streaming where. And be sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter so you never miss an update.
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