One does not attend "Mimic'' hoping for more than a few new twists on the durable old idea; such movies, like thrill rides at parks, work every single time if they have been well planned and constructed. But "Mimic'' is superior to most of its cousins, and has been stylishly directed by Guillermo Del Toro, whose visual sense adds a certain texture that makes everything scarier and more effective. It's not often that a movie like this can frighten me, but I was surprised at how effective "Mimic'' is.
The film begins with ominous reports of a plague that has devastated Manhattan, claiming mostly young children. It is spread by cockroaches, and Mira Sorvino plays a scientist named Susan Tyler who, with her colleagues, is able to use genetic engineering to create the "Judas Breed,'' a designer bug (half-mantis, half-termite) that can mimic cockroaches, infiltrate their strongholds and kill them. Soon the plague has ended, three years have passed, and apparently those new little bugs (which were supposed to be sterile) have kept right on evolving.
This is all pretty standard stuff. Originality is in the details. Del Toro, whose movie "Cronos" (1992) was about a nasty little antique metal vampire bug, creates thrills by manipulating human nature. We're all squeamish about sticking our hands into unseen dark places where something might bite us. We're all concerned when we see children who don't know they're in danger. We're instinctively frightened when an entity looks like one thing and suddenly reveals itself as something else.
Del Toro touches all of those bases. The hand reaching into darkness had me sliding down in my seat. I liked the two little kids who are bug collectors and know their way around the subway system. And there's a shoeshine man's kid who clicks spoons together in such a way that he mimics the clicking sounds of the Judas Breed. That sets up an expectation that sooner or later the kid will send the wrong (or right) message by accident. Tactical suspense like that is hard to create, but effective: As Hitchcock pointed out, it's more fun to wait for a payoff than to see one.
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