Mimesis - La nuit des morts vivants

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.

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.).

Really loved the idea of this movie, but it just never got off the ground running. I kept watching Mimesis because it was really giving respect and praises to the original Night of the Living Dead. But the movie didn't really do anything that made me feel anything other than reminding me that I love the original Living Dead. I think that it had potential but because of the low budget, it didn't get there. Plus some of the acting got so bad that it was distracting. Wouldn't be a big deal to pass on this one.

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It was pretty bad.

Very low budget, terrible lighting.

Actors (besides Sid) weren't very good.

But we got to meet Sid Haig, autographs, photos together, and a hand shake, so that was cool.

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.