MIMIC 2

Remi is a likable entomologist who teaches at an elementary school in New York, her house is full of various insects and arachnids, she has a habit of photographing herself with a polaroid in various situations, a student who courts her, and an ex who won't back off… but someone else is watching her closely, much closer than she thinks. At a certain point, the people around her start being killed in a... bizarre way: the police suspect her, but it soon turns out that the culprits are mutant cockroaches created by a failed experiment that Remi had participated in four years earlier... "Tremble! Tremble! The giant insects are back!" This could be the subtitle of "Mimic 2", the sequel to the 1997 film, which follows a tried-and-true formula: the use of a secondary character from the first episode as the protagonist of the sequel, in case the one from the original is unavailable (usually, this choice is motivated by reasons of cachet). For "Mimic 2", the choice fell on Alix Koromzay, a Hungarian actress who played the entomologist Remi Panos, part of Dr. Susan Tyler's team, in the first film, and who is incredibly similar to a deluxe version of our Luciana Litizzetto! Although she offers a good acting performance, one cannot say that she is a sex symbol, despite this, throughout the film, the males (whatever species they belong to…) seem irresistibly attracted to her… but only in the deleted scenes present in the DVD is the reason for such "chivalry" on the part of the megacockroaches explained... Her main support is a hateful child (who, unfortunately, is never eliminated), other notable actors are the policeman and the young admirer of the scientist, who, as already said, has more success with the other sex than one of our starlets "corrected" with butulino and silicone after the publication of a calendar for men only. The creatures have evolved compared to the first film, they are wisely shown little and only in confusing scenes (like "Alien"), they are also able to "mimic" humans. Although they are defined in the film as an evolution of cockroaches, in reality, they are a strange cross between a nocturnal lepidopteran, a praying mantis, and... a Predator!!! Yes, indeed, especially in the mandibular movement, in the hunting technique (apart from punching the victims…), and in the practice of hanging the corpses by the feet, there are some similarities... and the result is very nice, also thanks to the quality of the special effects (very old style except for some CG sequences). The film is set in New York in the year 2000, but it is not the glittering Manhattan we are used to seeing on screen, but rather the peripheral neighborhood of the South Bronx, invariably damp, degraded, and dark; certainly, the atmosphere of the film is more than appropriate. Poor, however, the screenplay, not exactly original: in fact, it follows the clichés of the monster movie style of the 1950s, not a defect if you want a film of pure entertainment, but certainly not the best we can expect today... However, the film is enjoyable, funny: it's a shame that it should be scary, not being a brilliant comedy of our Litizzetto (who would have been perfect in the role of the single entomologist who tells the details of insect mating at dinner on the first date). Not surprisingly, the newspaper "La Repubblica" called the film "soft horror", a fitting definition for films like this: products for teenagers, often unintentionally (or not?) funny, to "consume" with popcorn and coca cola, to pleasantly pass an hour and a half (in fact, the film, especially these days, ends very quickly, also due to the "light" style). "Mimic 2" was released in 2000, but in Italy it went almost unnoticed to be re-proposed only at the end of 2004 for the home video market with a praiseworthy DVD and videocassette. In conclusion, the film is really very enjoyable, and it's a shame to slam it, but if it has to be judged as a horror film, a pumpkin is all that can be objectively given to it.