 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Mimì – Il principe delle tenebre (aka Mimì – Prince of Darkness) • Year: 2023 • Country: Italy • Director: Brando De Sica • Main cast: Domenico Cuomo, Sara Ciocca, Mimmo Borrelli, Giuseppe Brunetti, Abril Zamora • Runtime: 103 minutes • Production company: Bartlebyfilm, Indiana Production • (Trailer not available yet)
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Brando De Sica, the grandson of the essential Vittorio De Sica, responsible for classics like Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Umberto D. (1952), debuts after being behind a few short films with the feature with Mimì – Prince of Darkness (2023). And he chooses two of the most eternal subjects in cinema as are love stories and Dracula as the center plot of his coming-out, which also serves as a statement of the adoration he and many of us have for the king of vampires and the genre in general.
The plot and the development of the story and its images are filled with fantasy elements that try to break with a decadent and no-future reality. Mimì is a weirdo, a teenager who little knows about the world out there, who went from growing up in an orphanage ruled by heinous nuns to working as the chef and delivery man of a pizza parlor. On the other side, Carmilla seems to be a troubled girl, a runaway claiming to be the daughter of a Transylvanian princess descendent of Dracula himself, but also a free spirit who takes lots of pride in her world of imagination and living outside the rules of society. And when the two characters meet, love blooms and the world falls at their feet.
Like in the tale of Dracula, eternal love is a pure indistructible force, but it also brings a quest that results in death, blood, and tragedy. In Mimì – Prince of Darkness (2023) things are no different. Mimì and Carmilla, him being a deformed boy discovering for the first time what the outside of his comfort zone can bring and she as the personification of all the dreams and fantasies coming true, form an almost surreal partnership of love and vampirism that won’t last long. The past catches up fast and like in all timeless love stories the shadow of the tragedy roams around and finally falls on their heads.
Brando De Sica plays the card of showing up the two worlds, the cruel reality and the fantasy world where the supernatural takes place to defeat the enemies of the little vampire that will stop at nothing to get back his beloved one. But what is real and what is a fantasy? Do vampires really exist? Are their powers real? Or is this just the imagination of two troubled youngsters detached from reality yielding at their most fanciful delusions?
Although the visual aspects and production design in Mimì – Prince of Darkness (2023) are almost impeccable, the development of the story and some crucial plot elements, especially towards the end of the film, bring out the weakest spots in the movie. A very original idea, a love letter to the genre, but perhaps Brando De Sica pays the price of aiming too high with his first full-length feature. Still, despite the small flaws, this is a title that finds its place in a festival like the Sitges Film Festival and can seduce both lovers of vampire stories, horror fans in general, and even the wide public eager to see something out of the ordinary.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt27628575
