Mimic (1997)

Really good watch, will watch again, and do recommend. This is "the movie with bugs that look like people", there aren't a lot of unique ideas out there, so I like celebrating the ones I can point too. While the cast and acting was really good, what makes this is the concept, the atmospheric tension and the practical efforts for the monsters. This is about as close as you can get to being thrown into a termite hive without Rick Moranis or Hank Pym shrinking fools down. Sometimes it is fun to see a pre-apocalyptic story instead of one where the world is already ruined by calamity.

This is quite an entertaining little sci-fi thriller about a worm that turned! "Tyler" (Mira Sorvino) is a distinguished scientist who created a bug that could kill cockroaches that were carriers for a deadly disease. Thing is, though, these super-bugs have started to get a bit out of control, and it isn't long before they decide that it's time to turn the tables on their creators - despite some supposedly limiting genetic engineering developed to inhibit precisely that! People are quite literally dropping like flies, so she and "Peter" (Jeremy Northam) have to come up with a solution before mankind gets gobbled up in a particularly gruesome manner. Sure, the acting and the dialogue are all pretty routine, but the visual effects have something of "The Fly" (1986) to them, as does the story and there is less frenetic panic in this that we see in many other films of this genre. Dare I say, there is even the merest hint of actual science. It is clearly sending us a message that however we may try to plan ahead for any eventuality, when survival of a species is at stake nature finds a way to get round even the most watertight of safety features. The ending smacks very much of sequel, but I doubt that will be able to develop the story much beyond the perfectly adequate conclusion offered here. It's fine to watch on the telly, but you are unlikely to recall it for long afterwards.