MIMIC: SENTINEL

Marvin is a boy who survived Strikler's disease, an illness caused by cockroaches that broke out among New York children in the mid-1990s; a disease later eradicated thanks to the intervention of the Judas, a race of laboratory-created cockroaches capable of killing healthy carrier insects and creating an antidote. As is known, the Judas project, although successful in eradicating the disease, was a failed experiment because it gave rise to a race of fierce giant cockroaches capable of imitating human appearance. Marvin is hypersensitive and therefore doomed to spend entire days in the aseptic environment of his small room, from which he continuously observes and photographs everything that happens in the street and the building across the way. But one day, he accidentally witnesses a murder, whose perpetrator seems to have very little humanity… The saga started ten years ago by Guillermo Del Toro with the excellent "Mimic" has now reached its third chapter; after going through a mediocre second film, rather lacking in originality, we come across this "Mimic 3 – Sentinel", which not only is far superior to the previous chapter, but rises forcefully well above most of the productions for the home video market alone, a circuit to which this film belongs. Indeed, we could not have expected much from a n°3 of a saga that seemed to have said it all with the first chapter, and even less if one considered the home distribution to which the film was destined; instead, "Mimic 3" appears as a valid product in all respects! We start with a rather original idea for the fantasy-horror genre, that is, to center the entire story on the disturbed character of Marvin and show everything through the lens of his camera, concealing for most of the film what happens beyond his visual reach; therefore, no giant cockroaches for most of the film's duration, but only their lethal presence that acts off-screen on the fate of the neighborhood's inhabitants, unaware of the horror that moves beneath their feet. The action effectively concentrates on the last twenty minutes, when the Judas come into action, clearly visible to the viewer in all their unsettling physicality, and also provide horror fans with a handful of good scenes loaded with gore. By focusing, therefore, on the psychological aspect of the story, there is also time for a good in-depth look at the main characters: Marvin appears as a misfit, forced to live in isolation and therefore to build a small world within his room, thanks to his hobby of photography that allows him to reconstruct the entire neighborhood on the wall of his room, each apartment, complete with cards and in-depth information about the respective tenants. A classic voyeur who, having no social life, seeks to appropriate that of others; until a tragic event, of which he is an involuntary witness, transforms him into a new James Stewart, forced to face a non-human threat thanks to which, ironically, he had survived his illness. Director J.T. Petty, with few films to his credit and a good background in the world of video games, manages to give a touch of personality to the film, thanks above all to the use of carefully selected shots that exploit the lens effect, perhaps a bit too overused. The photography of Alexandru Sterian then contributes to giving everything a good effect of strangeness and rarefaction thanks to the alternation of chiaroscuro. The cast is made up of two veterans like Lance Henriksen ("Aliens - Scontro finale"; "Alien vs. Predator") and Amanda Plummer ("Pulp Fiction"), who support the young Karl Geary ("Hamlet 2000") and Alexis Dziena ("Broken Flowers" and the series "Invasion"). A bit too short the duration (it barely reaches one hour and ten minutes of film), especially if compared to the content of the story, but overall "Mimic 3 – Sentinel" is a good sequel that proudly rises well above the standards of a home video product.