Mimic: Sentinel is set in New York where a sufferer of the disease Stricklers which is mentioned in the first Mimic (1997) named Marvin (Karl Geary) lives with his mom Simone (Amada Plummer) & younger sister Rosy (Alexis Dziena) in an apartment block, he can rarely venture outside his sterile room as he is apparently 'environmentally sensitive' whatever that means. So what does he do to pass the time? For the past 10 years he has taken pictures of the people in the opposite apartment block & basically spies on them, we all have to have a hobby I suppose. However his picture taking gets him into trouble when he witnesses a drug dealer name Des (Keith Robinson) get killed by someone. Marvin begins to organise an investigation into the killing & drags his sister into it but they soon find out that what killed Des wasn't human, it was in fact one of the giant mutant cockroaches from the previous films & it's up to him to stop them...<br /><br />Written & directed by J.T. Petty Mimic: Sentinel is the third film in the Mimic series & you know a series is in trouble when they stop numbering them after only the first two & as if by magic my fears are confirmed with this distinctly average at best horror/thriller. The script is basically Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) with killer genetically created giant bugs, if that sounds appealing to you then what are you reading this for? Go & rent it. If it doesn't sound appealing then you, like me, may not be that impressed with Mimic: Sentinel. The thing is I don't know if I missed something because the final 20 odd minutes came out of nowhere & I actually didn't really understand what was going on. For instance Lance Henriksen suddenly turns up & I honestly don't know who he was or his significance other than his photo is on the back of one of Marvin's books & he seems to know about the killer bugs. He also has this bag of stuff which I presume is the killer bugs blood so they won't attack him but I'm only guessing because that's what happened in the first film. There are other bits & pieces that I didn't understand either like the 'dead' body Rosy shows Marvin under the drain cover at the start yet even though he takes photos of it it never mentioned or seen again, maybe I did miss something I don't know. Maybe Mimic: Sentinel doesn't have any plot holes or loose ends & it's a deeply complex intricately written & thought out piece of suspenseful film-making that I was too stupid to 'get', or then again maybe it's a cheap straight-to-video poorly written & contrived horror sequel that totally rips-off Rear Window & is basically rubbish, who knows...<br /><br />Director Petty does OK, the film has that downbeat somewhat gray look & feel about it like the previous two with it's rundown apartment blocks. Am I the only one who found the constant scenes shot through the lens of Marvin's camera highly annoying, I can't be surely? Also was I the only on who thought this film was far too dark to the extent where it actually became almost impossible to see what was going on at times? The special effect's are used sparingly & are OK but nothing that's going to impress you that much, the giant bugs don't feature that much which doesn't help. The gore is minimal, there's some blood splatter & someone is impaled on the giant bugs pincers (or whatever they are) but not much else to get excited about.<br /><br />Technically Mimic: Sentinel is alright & has that Hollywood polish about it, it's well made enough for sure with decent production values. The acting isn't that good & the always great Henriksen has nothing more than a glorified cameo.<br /><br />Mimic: Sentinel is an OK watch, I didn't think it was anything special & not as good as the previous two but that's just my opinion for what it's worth. Worth a watch if your desperate but don't bust a gut to see it.