Possibly one of the better genre film productions from the region, The Mimic would have struck true terror if the screenplay tied up its loose ends instead of leaving the audience high and dry.
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Building up suspense and a deep sense of mystery might just be the way to get underneath the audience’s skin. By keeping viewers at the edge in anticipation of scare and story, Huh Jung’s latest horror feature The Mimic is simple yet effective.
Huh keeps his tricks under his sleeves and do not deploy them until the time is right. By leaving minute clues throughout, viewers do not easily guess what comes next. This amplifies the fright when he occasionally executes them on the silver screen to solicit the much-desired audience screams.
This also reveals screenplay limitations as the first half of the film sees a lacklustre pacing as it builds up expectations of the supernatural antagonist. Scenes are brief and move along to focus on planned elements, which subtract from character development and prevent people from relating better to the film’s already limited characters.
Fortunately for Yum Jung-ah’s performance as distraught mother Hee-yeon, The Mimic positions her as its anchor where she is provoked by a supernatural presence towards a one-way abyss.
Retreating to her mother-in-law’s (Heo Jin) hometown in Mount Jang, Hee-yeon attempts to recover from her grievance after losing her young son Jun-suh five years ago. Her husband (Park Hyuk-kwon) and daughter Jun-hee encourages her on but Hee-yeon has never relieved herself from the emotional baggage.
The plot thickens when the family stumbles upon a sealed cave and a lost girl (Shin Rin-ah) in the woods. Without revealing too much plot details, the supernatural antagonist seeks to claim people through trickery with its ability to mimic people’s voices. What scares the audience, however, are the supernatural abilities that viewers did not expect. This is what distinguishes The Mimic from its other genre counterparts.
Despite knowing that it doesn’t make sense to hear voices of lost loved ones, characters are always tempted into reliving their past memories. This is truly a test of one’s ability to move on, particularly observed in a late scene where Hee-yeon turned back towards the voice of Jun-suh.
Huh-jung brilliantly portrays Hee-yeon’s guilt and remorse for losing her son, which eventually outweighed her will to survive and live on with her husband and daughter. This is sadly let down by an immediate ending that simply concludes the film with less than desired ambiguity.
Possibly one of the better genre film productions from the region, The Mimic would have struck true terror if the screenplay tied up its loose ends instead of leaving the audience high and dry.
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