While attending a horror convention, friends Duane and Russel (Allen Maldonado and Taylor Piedmonte) get invited to an after party out in the countryside. They wake up the next morning, Russell in a cemetery and Duane in a pickup truck, only to find they have different clothes on. The outfits and locations seem oddly familiar. Russell wakes up next to a woman, Karen (Jana Thompson) and you realize she's dressed as Barbara from Night of the Living Dead and Russell is dressed as her brother Johnny. Duane, of course, is dressed as Ben (not so coincidentally, the first name of the actor who played Ben is Duane). Anyway, a "zombie" appears in the cemetery and Russell is dispatched as Johnny was. Karen and Duane end up in a farm house with five other people who were similarly drugged and clothed to play their parts. Unless you're a moron, you'll have figured out by this time the "zombies" are just psycho thrill seekers taking haunted attractions to the next level. Doesn't mean they're not dangerous. Although it does take their victims way too long to figure out how to best take control of the situation and fight back, and fight back they do. No one survives in Night of the Living Dead so I was somewhat surprised that 5 of the 7 survive in this film. I'm not saying that's a good thing, mind you.
Besides the dearth of honest-to-God zombies, there are plenty of other problems with Mimesis. The title, for starters. I know I'm not the only one who said, "WTF is mimesis?" Sid Haig explains it in his all too brief cameo, though. And then there's what Duane does. He brings Russell, whose throat has been ripped out, back to the farmhouse, spends a few minutes telling his friend he'll be just fine, runs around the house for a while for reasons passing understanding, seemingly forgets he's wearing a shirt and instead rips up a sheer window curtain to wrap around the gaping hole in Russell's throat, and then finally declares they need to get him to a hospital. So Duane carries him outside where three "zombies" are waiting, sets him on the ground, and scurries back into the house where he watches the three chew on his screaming friend. I get it that fear can make people do strange things, but come on. There's plenty more stupidity to report but to write it all out here would give me carpal tunnel.
The Skinny
Acting: Meh. I thought Piedmonte as Russell was pretty good, but of course he dies right away. Thompson as Karen is flat out annoying. Maldonado as Duane seesaws back and forth between competent and awful.
Story: I can't fault them for wanting to pay homage to Mr. George A. Romero and the original Night of the Living Dead. I can fault them for their execution of it, though.
Direction: Uneven and confused for the most part.
Production Values: Made for half a million bucks, it's not a bad looking picture. I'm pretty sure it was all done on location at that farm place. I should mention the sound wasn't the greatest.
Gore/FX: A fair amount of blood and some gore. Although the stretching of the skin whilst eating someone is no longer shocking. Looks kind of silly nowadays.
Scares: Nada.
Ending: Not what I expected. It's almost, dare I say, happy.
Verdict: Should you see Mimesis? NOTLD fans might find it of interest. I can't recommend it to anyone else, though.
Rating: 2 out of 5
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