| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Mimic (Marco Beltrami)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the expanded albums of 2011 and beyond if you seek
excellent treatment, including improved sound quality, of one of Marco
Beltrami's most accessible horror efforts.
Avoid it... if even ten minutes of the composer's more alluring lyricism in this genre cannot sustain your interest beyond the somewhat standard but well executed stingers, dissonant challenges, and varied percussive usage in this dynamically organic recording.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Mimic: (Marco Beltrami) Perhaps the most
fascinating statement ever made by director Guillermo del Toro was one
in which he confessed that his experience making the 1997 movie
Mimic was more frustrating than even the kidnapping of his own
father in Mexico, which happened at roughly the same time. The
production woes involving the film were mostly caused by the distrust of
the young director by producer Bob Weinstein, who constantly imposed his
personal will upon nearly every aspect of the movie. The fundamental
purpose of the plot was at stake in the disagreement, Del Toro seeking
to make a comment about the human ego through artistic merit and
Weinstein looking to reap the benefits of the standard B-rate slasher
techniques that had just been resurrected by his own company. The plot
is one that takes several elements from the Alien franchise and
places them in the subway system underneath New York City. When a pair
of cocky scientists genetically engineer an insect meant to wipe out the
city's cockroaches, which are spreading a disease that is killing human
children, they succeed by inadvertently equipping their new species with
the capability to evolve at incredibly fast rates. After only three
years, this species has grown to human size and, for the convenient
purposes of a horror film, both feast on humans for their food and can
emulate their looks well enough to cause another layer of panic. Despite
Del Toro's attempts to make the film "beautiful" in its conveyance of
the insects, the final product took the shape of the cheap horror flick
that Weinstein had in mind, and Mimic was ultimately dismissed by
critics and audiences alike, failing to recoup its $30 million budget in
domestic grosses. Despite its many faults, the movie was an important
stepping stone for composer Marco Beltrami, however, the second in a
long collaboration with the Weinsteins that would launch and sustain his
early career.
Moreover, Mimic was evidence that the prior collaboration between the composer and producers, Scream, was not a fluke. While Beltrami's contribution to Scream did not flow completely smoothly in production, either, it did introduce a striking melody and beefy orchestral horror sound to its franchise, and Mimic is largely a continuation of that same general technique. The composer did have to report to both Del Toro and Weinstein during his creation process, an awkward situation by Beltrami's recollection, but his work managed to satisfy both parties. In particular, the director pushed Beltrami to expose his thematic portions of Mimic with straight forward lyricism to emphasize his interpretation of the beauty of the topic. Not surprisingly, the result is a score that is quite accessible within the confined of its genre. There will be listeners for whom the horror genre, with all of its stingers and unpleasant orchestral applications, will never be appealing on album, but for a novice collector entering the genre for the first time, Mimic is a relatively safe place to start. In these regards, it's much like a Christopher Young horror score, utilizing orchestra and choir in gothic mode, applying at least one redemptive, lovely theme, and letting rip with rhythmic sequences of action for varied percussion that will shake the walls. One of the reasons Beltrami looks back fondly upon Mimic is its organic origins; even though the industry was pretty much computerized by the late 1990's, this score was a "pencil on paper" product that was recorded with the entire orchestra playing together and with minimal electronic manipulation. There are synthetic accents employed in the score, but in the mass of the score, what you hear is unadulterated orchestral performances in natural unison. As such, Beltrami was able to orchestrate much of the music himself, exploring a variety of clicking sounds meant to emulate the language and other noises of the insect species. Starting in "Release the Judas," he teases out several percussive techniques that will eventually dominate the later action sequences. A crispness to the orchestral performances and mix in Mimic is further evidence of the organic nature of the recording, with much of the score resembling Species and other equivalent Young works, especially by the last forty seconds of "Fleeing Terror," which is almost a pure homage to the more established horror master's style. There is really only one primary theme in Mimic, and it speaks to both tragedy and beauty, but Beltrami manipulates it so well that it applies to nearly any circumstance in the picture. Its grandiose but troubled performance at the height of "Main Titles" dissolves to melodramatic dread in "Children's Hospital." It survives to become the subject of a surprisingly pretty flute performance in "I'll Go" and a duo of sublime, easily tonal presentations in "Reunited" and "End Credits," the former featuring brass counterpoint of Jerry Goldsmith resemblance and the latter resounding with immense choral accompaniment. There are some casual similarities between this theme and Sidney's identity in the Scream scores, and the anticipatory harmonies under the major performances are related as well, especially in the culmination of "End Credits." The score does access genre stereotypes at times, including the boy soprano right at the start (seemingly an ominous twist on Graeme Revell's concurrent usage in The Saint) and slashing strings and exploding brass hits for stingers in the central portion of the score. Still, there are enough accessible highlights in Mimic to recommend the score as an entry point for non-horror film music collectors. The original 1997 Varèse Sarabande album contained the score's highlights and an average rock song, but the label's 2011 limited and expanded run of 1,000 copies of the score alone contains several important thematic additions and noticeably improved sound quality. This product quickly sold out, escalating to absurd collector's prices. The label thus re-issued the same presentation twice, first as part of its expensive, 1,500-copy "Little Box of Horrors" 12-CD set in 2016 and on its own for another, newly remastered, 1,000-copy run in 2022. Any incarnation of this longer album is a necessity in a substantial Beltrami collection, best representing one of the composer's top horror efforts. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1997 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 31:55
2011-2022 Varèse Albums: Total Time: 71:26
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1997 Varèse album contains notes from both the
director and composer. The 2011 and 2022 Varèse products' inserts feature
extensive information about the score and film. Equivalent information is
included in the 24-page booklet of the 2016 "Little Box of Horrors" 12-CD set,
the product bundled with other scores in a stylized exterior box.
Copyright ©
2011-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Mimic are Copyright © 1997, 2011, 2016, 2022, Varèse Sarabande, Varèse Sarabande, Varèse Sarabande, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/29/11 and last updated 12/14/22. |
