Fame Always Comes With Strings

MOVIE REVIEW
Mimics
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Genre: Horror, Comedy, Romance
Year Released: 2025, 2026
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director(s): Kristoffer Polaha
Writer(s): Marc Oakley
Cast: Kristoffer Polaha, Mōriah, Chris Parnell, Stephen Tobolowsky
Where to Watch: only in theaters Nationwide February 13, 2026

RAVING REVIEW: What are you willing to give up to finally be heard? MIMICS frames that question with a grin rather than a snarl, delivering a genre hybrid that understands its own absurdity without ever treating its characters as punchlines. This film recognizes how desperation and ambition often wear the same face, especially in creative fields where validation feels perpetually just out of reach.

Kristoffer Polaha’s directorial debut is confident in a way that suggests preparation rather than impulse. MIMICS doesn’t stumble through tonal uncertainty. It knows exactly when to lean into comedy, when to sharpen suspense, and when to let emotional sincerity ground the experience. That balance is not accidental. The film is built around performance, not just thematically but structurally, and that focus allows even its most heightened elements to feel controlled rather than chaotic.

Polaha also stars in the film as Sam Reinhold, a struggling impressionist whose talent has never quite translated into stability or recognition. His performance walks a careful line between likable insecurity and frustration. Sam is not framed as a misunderstood genius or a delusional failure. He is simply tired, and that exhaustion makes him vulnerable. The ‘twist’ doesn’t arrive as a sudden moral collapse, but as a seemingly reasonable shortcut offered at exactly the wrong moment.

The introduction of Fergus, the puppet that promises fame with conditions attached, is handled with remarkable restraint. Rather than relying on menace or shock, the film allows the discomfort to grow through repetition and implication. Fergus is funny, unsettling, and occasionally pathetic, a reflection of Sam’s own anxieties given physical form. The humor lands because it is character-based, not because the film is chasing easy laughs.

Mōriah provides the film’s emotional offset, grounding the narrative in a sense of relational consequence. Her performance never turns into a lecture or a morality play, keeping the movie from slipping into preachy territory. Instead, she represents the life Sam risks eroding in pursuit of validation. The tension between personal ambition and shared responsibility is one of the film’s most effective throughlines.

Stephen Tobolowsky brings an almost disarming warmth to his role, while Chris Parnell leans into a familiar measure that works well within the film’s comedic framework. The ensemble understands the tone and never overplays it, which is crucial in a movie that could easily tip into parody if even one performance pushed too far.

What makes MIMICS so effective is its understanding of camp as a tool rather than a crutch. The film embraces its premise without hiding behind irony. It wants to entertain, but it also wants its choices to mean something. The horror elements are more suggestive than graphic, relying on unease and escalation rather than gore. This approach allows the film to stay accessible without dulling its edge.

Marc Oakley’s script keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace, though there are moments where a tighter trim could have sharpened the suspense even further. A handful of moments last slightly longer than necessary, particularly in the middle, but the film never loses momentum entirely. One of the film’s unexpected strengths is its use of Reno as a setting. Rather than treating the city as a novelty or backdrop, MIMICS allows it to exist as a lived-in space with its own contradictions. The setting reinforces the film’s themes of overlooked talent and quiet ambition, adding specificity without turning the location into a heavy-handed focus.

The film resists the urge to oversimplify its message. MIMICS is not anti-ambition, nor is it dismissive of artistic longing. Instead, it interrogates the cost of external validation and the ease with which self-worth becomes transactional. The horror emerges not from supernatural threat alone, but from the realization that success achieved without agency is its own kind of imprisonment. The ending delivers satisfaction, but it does not push as far into discomfort as the premise allows. Some viewers may want a darker or more ambiguous final note. Though the restraint feels consistent with the film’s overall tone, it prioritizes consistency over shock.

As a debut, MIMICS is impressive. It welcomes Polaha as a filmmaker with a clear sense of voice and an understanding of how genre can be used to explore human behavior without sacrificing entertainment. It is funny without being flippant, creepy without being cruel, and sincere without being sentimental.

In a genre space crowded with irony and excess, MIMICS succeeds by knowing when to pull back. It may wear the trappings of horror and comedy, but its core is a story about recognition, compromise, and the quiet fear of being invisible. That clarity of purpose is what allows the film to land as strongly as it does, even when it chooses charm over cruelty.

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[photo courtesy of PANORAMIC PICTURES]

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