In the majority of cases, audiences will respond much better to a gory creature feature than critics, but that didn’t turn out to be the case with 1997’s Mimic. Notable for marking the Hollywood debuts of both future two-time Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro and his Blade II cohort Norman Reedus, the sci-fi action horror was drastically altered by studio interference.
What makes it all the more curious is that reviews were a great deal stronger than you’d expect from a project that had endured such a turbulent production, with Mimic holding a decent enough Rotten Tomatoes score of 64 percent. However, over 25,000 votes have brought the user average down to 37 percent, a bizarre development for such a visually-striking tale of terror.
Del Toro has been open in divulging his issues with the Weinsteins, who threatened to fire the filmmaker at various points, before exerting their control to shape the final cut of the $30 million feature to such a drastic degree that producer B.J. Rack reflected on his experience as “being a prisoner”.
Mimic ended up tanking at the box office to add further insult to injury, too, although it did at least spawn a pair of direct-to-video sequels that nobody cares about. It has slowly but surely been crawling its way towards an enduring legacy with the help of a diehard band of Redditors, though, which was to be expected given that it features all of the hallmarks you’d expect from a del Toro joint – including exquisite production design, tangible practical effects, and frightening creatures being painted as misunderstood.