Mimesis (2011)

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

Director:

Douglas Schulze

Writers:

Douglas Schulze (story), Joshua Wagner (screenplay)

Stars:

Allen Maldonado, Sid Haig, Lauren Mae Shafer

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Allen Maldonado	...	Duane
Sid Haig	...	Alfonso Betz
Lauren Mae Shafer	...	Judith
Courtney Gains	...	Gordon
Taylor Piedmonte	...	Russell
David G.B. Brown	...	Keith
Jana Thompson	...	Karen
Gavin Grazer	...	Karl
Bryana Dorfman	...	Kyra
Dan Gerics	...	Benjamin
David Gries	...	Patrick
Brian Matthew Richardson	...	Owen
Terence Lee Cover	...	Manson
Rachael Adams	...	Alexis / Lizzy
David Schwager	...	Gacy

Storyline

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

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Plot Keywords:

horror film fan | reference to george a. romero | murder | role playing | bound and gagged | 

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Taglines:

Welcome Back To That Night

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody violence and for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Besides the obvious scene recreation and clips used from the original Night of the Living Dead, this movie is just one big homage to the 60s classic. Several characters are named after cast/crew members of the original Night of the Living Dead (Duane/Duane Jones, Judith/Judy O'Dea & Judith Ridley, Russell/Russ Streiner, Keith/Keith Wayne, Karl/Karl Hardman, Kyra/Kyra Schon, Marilyn/Marilyn Eastman) and a few others are named after characters (Judith/Judy, Karen, Benjamin/Ben). Additionally, Bill Hinzman, who was in the original NotLD has a cameo in this film.

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Goofs

Russell's name tag goes from Hello (with his name) to just his name.

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Connections

References The Wolf Man (1941)

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Soundtracks

Where's God?
Written by Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope and Mike E. Clark
Performed by Insane Clown Posse

User Reviews

Highly original and quite entertaining effort

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mimesis: Play Dead

Filming Locations:

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dead Wait Productons

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39:1