"Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic (1997) uses repulsive practical effects and stylish filmmaking to bring a chilling tale of killer insects to life."

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 15, 2025

It may be a compromised vision, but Guillermo del Toro injects enough class into this killer cockroach thriller to make up for the more lackluster elements.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 30, 2024

You can see the Weinsteins' negative interference at nearly every narrative turn, but del Toro's love of insects, dark passages and murky moral questions remain in full effect

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 23, 2024

As a sci-fi horror film, Del Toro gives it an atmospheric tone that reflects his early obsession with bugs and monsters in dark places, but it lacks effective jump scares and is populated, mostly, by contrived characters. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 30, 2023

A rare del Toro misfire...

| May 3, 2023

Del Toro infuses style into the details of this routine monster yarn, and along with his admirable cast and talented crew, makes a serviceable effort with enough panache to overlook its familiar blueprint.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 7, 2023

Even though the story is your standard-issue, scary-movie pap, full of supposedly intelligent human beings making the most boneheaded decisions, those giant, flying cockroaches are still some scary mofos.

| Feb 23, 2023

There are also a number of humanizing scenes that make us care about the characters. This is why it's so strange that all the tension and affection quickly fizzles out and never returns as soon as the action section kicks in.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2022

...a picture revolving around human-sized killer cockroaches should be less of a slog and much more fun than this.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 19, 2020

The atmospheric settings are the most spectacular elements, perfectly utilizing flickering tunnels, moist walkways, noisy air vents, and murky flashlight beams.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 14, 2020

It seems Del Toro was given free rein to rework the film AND share candidly about the process that forced him to compromise so much in his original theatrical version.

| Apr 1, 2020

Mimic will have entomophobes in the audience yearning to bug out, and scare-seekers squirming in their seats.

| Jan 5, 2018

A dark story that entertains with artistic moments until it fizzles as it becomes derivative of those standard sci-fi horror Big Bug films from the fifties.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 26, 2017

It comes off smarter and creepier than I recall the original, less about scares than a sustained atmosphere of eerie unease and skittery threats.

| May 19, 2012

[UPDATED 2025 REVIEW] Viewers will be forgiven for wanting to rush next door and douse their neighbors with RAID.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 8, 2012

While a visual treat, Mimic is exactly that, a film which mimics other styles and plot elements. In this case Alien and David Cronenberg's The Fly and Videodrome.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 29, 2012

It's clear now that Del Toro's favorite themes and symbols were already in place, with the vast underground setting, machinery, and man's interference in the supernatural order of things -- not to mention a talent for pure terror.

| Sep 30, 2011

Mimic: The Director's Cut on Blu-ray is a true gift for fans.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2011

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 7, 2011

Preposterous, yes, but a lot of fun.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 14, 2009