Ranking Every Guillermo Del Toro Film From Worst To Best

9. Mimic (1997)

Pan's Labyrinth
Miramax Films

Toro's first step into the larger world of American cinema was with this sophomore feature. The plot centers around the creation of a breed of large insects, known as the Judas breed, who are meant to destroy disease-carrying insects that have infested Manhattan.

Unfortunately, the doctors who created them must have never heard of dramatic irony and thus a breed which they named Judas, fittingly turns against them. The Judas breed evolve into creatures able to mimic human life and cause all kinds of problems for their creators who now must set out to destroy them.

It's a Frankenstein-tale and showcased a young Toro refining his visual palette in excellent fashion. The film looks gorgeous and the creature designs are grotesquely horrifying.

However, that's about all of del Toro's authorship that is apparent in this film. This was his first and last collaboration with defamed producer Harvey Weinstein and needless to say, it did not go well.

Del Toro has spoken out several times since the production, indicating that Weinstein took advantage of the young director at a time of personal crisis and butchered the film. He overruled del Toro's casting choices and forced him to make changes to the plot and even had the studio take the editing process out from underneath del Toro.

“I lost casting battles, I lost story battles but the one thing ‘Mimic’ is visually 100% exactly what I wanted,”

The result is a film that looks very much like a Toro film but only occasionally truly feels like one. Even before the allegations of this year, Weinstein had a reputation for being a bully and his presence looms over the film, stifling Toro's creativity at every turn.

Contributor
Contributor

A film enthusiast and writer, who'll explain to you why Jingle All The Way is a classic any day of the week.