Show notes
Why watch a horror film when you can live one? That's the question posed in Doug Schulze's Mimesis, an homage to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and a Michigan-made movie.
Labels: Doug Schulze George Romero Sid Haig Special Report Zombies
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Comments (4)
Kathleen Baker Caught this clunker at its premiere in 2011. Then I completely forgot about it until I needed to look up some information about its crew. When I came to IMDb and read three glowing reviews, I wondered what those reviewers were smoking that night. I remember Mimesis as a very low budget horror flick that neither horrifies nor entertains. Ridiculous premise, dumb plot, wooden one-dimensional characters and all the usual zombie film clichés. Bunch of twenty-somethings cower in a farmhouse while (spoiler alert) phony zombies shamble around outside, trying to lure them out and pick them off one by one. Problem is, there is only a handful of "zombies", they move as slowly as tortoises and lack any weapons that might pose a real threat. Here's a tip for the guys in the house: open the door and stroll down the road. You can even walk backward and thumb your nose at the zombies as they recede into the distance. This is an altogether failed homage to the Night of the Living Dead, listlessly directed by Douglas Schulze, who did not impress me as a very capable director. One good shot in the movie, the rest bland and boring. And the performances, with a few exceptions, were just plain awful. Production design totally lacking. The film had decent makeup effects, though. Awful sound. Cameos by Sid Haig and Courtney Gains do nothing to save the film from the obscurity it deserves. Overall, Mimesis looks and feels like a high-school film project.Mike White Kathleen -- thanks for the review of the film. Hope you enjoyed the podcast and found something to like about that. :) -- MWTerence Cover That review from "Kathleen" is a copy/paste job from IMDb.Anonymous While Mimesis wasn't my particular cup of tea, this episode gives us an interesting peak into the world of a veteran Detroit indie filmmaker. But the bonus interview with the beloved Mr. Haig is where all the action is. Also, it deserves to be mentioned that Night of the Living Dead is only in the public domain because of a hard to believe copyright kerfuffle that I'm sure isn't 100% legit. Either way, Romero and his compatriots are not fans of anyone exploiting the loophole to reinterpret their work as they see fit; however, that's not what Schulze is doing here. He's making an entirely original work that pays homage to Romero's masterpiece but he does appear to be benefitting from its dubious legal status. It's a bit of a precarious situation.