Mimesis - Night of the Living Dead

A group of horror fans find themselves unwilling participants in a nightmarish role playing game that pays homage to a classic horror film.

I like the idea they were going for here -- a group of people recreating "Night of the Living Dead". With all the sequels, remakes, and ripoffs, I am a bit wary of anything related to NoTLD these days. But I really think this idea had merit.

However, I am not sure if it succeeded. At times, it seemed to drag, and I really disliked the role played by Sid Haig. Haig, being a well-known horror icon, should probably have played himself at the convention. In fact, for the film to make complete sense, the role would have had to be George Romero playing George Romero. I assume they know this and simply could not get him.

It's refreshing to see a film that knows the true meaning of the word "homage" -- something done or given in acknowledgment or consideration of the worth of another -- rather than "rip off," which is something we see far too often in films, especially horror movies.

Douglas Schulze's Mimesis is a clever homage to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead on one hand and a modern "thrill killer" movie on the other. After an opening scare starring Courtney Gaines, the audience is taken to a horror convention where Alphonze Betz (Sid Haig) rails against the media blaming horror movies for real life horrors. In the audience are Russell (Taylor Piedmonte) and his unlikely pal Duane (Allen Maldonado).

Russell is a horror fan while Duane is more keen on meeting some of the hotties at the con including Judith (Lauren Mae Shafer), a goth girl who invites the boys to a party later that night. Thinking he'll get some, Duane convinces Russell to drive out to the spooky farmhouse where they encounter some out-of-place regular people and a number of silent, spooky dudes all made up in makeup. Before the party gets too "dick in the mashed potatoes" crazy, Russell and Duane are down for the count, waking up dressed in different clothes and hanging out in some eerily familiar settings.

There's no "They're coming to get you, Barbara!" line in Mimesis but much of the rest of Night of the Living Dead is there as our protagonists find themselves cast in a living remake of the film, complete with flesh-tearing zombies.

Thus, Mimesis becomes a film with disparate characters trapped in a farmhouse with a menacing presence outside but the presence isn't supernatural, it's psychotic. Additionally, the script by Schulze and Joshua Wagner is incredibly self-aware, playing with and against the plot of NOTLD along with more current films where strangers toy with innocents (Them, Inside, High Tension, etc.).

After getting drugged at a horror convention's after-party, a group of friends awake to find themselves forced to play a live-action role-playing-game based on a famous horror movie and must utilize their knowledge to get away alive.

This turned out to be far better than it really should've been. Perhaps the film's greatest virtue amongst itself is the clever and highly original storyline present as the film does boast a pretty unique gimmick of trapping horror fans in a retelling of a classic horror film and forcing them to recreate the events of the film for their own amusement, and it does a fairly close job of recreating it throughout. The clothes, the setting, the general look and feel of the whole effort as well as the use of piping in the actual movie on a closed-circuit TV to rattle them even more makes for a rather unique and clever style here that really helps this one develop into more than just a loving homage and a chance to re-work some of the original bits and gags from the movie. This turns it into a rather fun and original way to do the homage in a different way and is certainly a very new concept that's employed here. That this allows the film to really up the gore and action content that was missing from the originally-aped film makes this even more fun with tons of splatter and gore that was missing from the original as well as bringing about some rather tense confrontations that arise here from the different encounters here. While the film does dip somewhat once we learn the truth about what's going on within as the twist about the intent behind the drugging does seem quite far-fetched there's still a couple fine chases in the later half to make for a rather fine mix of chills, blood-splatter and cheese. There's one rather glaring problem here, beyond the fact that this just seems like an excuse to remake the original for their own purpose, in that for such a landmark and legendary film they run through only one person has seen it among the group, which makes no sense at all and really stretches believability here with something that influential and massive. It would've been more fun had everyone been aware and fans so that they all have the ability to outwit the killers that way, yet here it's just the one and it really seems like a stretch. Otherwise, this one is a lot of fun.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Two positive reviews so far, and here's a third. Why it has a 2.4 rating? You got me. From start to finish this movie either had me laughing or jumping out of my seat. It blends the two nicely, but doesn't try and force anything. A big part of the laughs comes from the actors, who seem to get the scripts subtle hints at comedy, and the scares come from Douglas Schulze's direction; this being his fourth feature,(all horror) he seems to have grown into a master of the genre. There is little proof from watching this movie that it was made on a shoestring budget, much like "Night of the Living Dead" the movie that inspired the script for "Mimesis" a love letter to Romero. The script is very self aware, however much like today's horror fan, the characters in the movie are not familiar with the classic zombie film, except for one character who keeps everyone informed, audience included, on what might happen next. After watching this movie I immediately went out and rented "NOTLD" which I'm sure will be the reaction of a lot of other people, thus making "Mimesis" even more cinematically relevant than I'm sure it intended to be by re-introducing a classic in modern story telling. Did I mention that Sid Haig (House of a Thousand Corpses, Kill Bill 2), and Courtney Gaines (Children of The Corn, The Burbs) also appear in the film. Fun for all. I recommend.

Well, to fully appreciate this movie for what it is, then you have to be an avid fan of the zombie genre, and especially of "Night of the Living Dead". I can say that I am both those things, but still I found this movie to be somewhat disappointing.

Sure there were some great moments here and there, and it was especially great to revisit the house and feel like being back at the location of "Night of the Living Dead". On that account, the movie makers managed to accomplish something great.

However, on the story part of the movie, then the movie makers didn't really fully deliver anything solid. The idea of re-inventing something from a movie into real life does seem interesting, yes I will admit to that, but ultimately this movie failed to leave a lasting impression. What turned out to be not so great was the way that it was executed and the way that these "zombies" looked. Not to mention the motive behind it all, it was just a little bit too campy.

I was initially lured in to watching this as it allegedly was a zombie movie, plus it had Sid Haig on the billing list. Yeah, he was in the movie around perhaps five minutes or so, so don't get suckered in to this with these factors as I was. You'll just end up sorely disappointed.

As for the acting, well people did good enough jobs with their given roles, it was just the script itself that didn't give the actors and actresses much to work with.

"Mimesis" is not really a good movie if you are looking for some zombie entertainment. The movie does, however, have some entertainment value if you are a hardcore fan of the "Night of the Living Dead" movie. But as for a regular zombie movie, then "Mimesis" failed on a grand scale. And you might just also find some enjoyment in "Mimesis" if you are the type that appreciate low-budget indie movies.

The best thing about this entire movie was the tribute it paid to "Night of the Living Dead" and the entire atmosphere they managed to build up, because it was really like re-visiting the classic movie (in either the original or re-make version).

Having seen it once, then I can honestly say that I will not be making a second watching out of this, because there simply isn't enough entertainment value in it.