Mosquito (1994)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The first must-see film of the year.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

As a kid, I would often find myself sitting around the TV late at night on the weekends, eagerly awaiting what new movie would come on. All you could see in the pitch black darkness was the glow of the TV shining onto me eating a sandwich with the clock flashing 12:30 AM. Among my midnight horror favorites where Tremors and its sequel, John Carperter's The Thing, Critters, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2, and Mosquito.Ahh Mosquito. Its a bad movie I realize, but there's just something about Mosquito that makes it humanly possibly to dislike it. It has such a cheesy, entertaining, awesome charm that creates and aura of coolness. And, in the end, whats better than Gunnar "Leatherface" Hansen attacking puppet mosquitoes with a chainsaw?The plot is simple. An alien satellite crash lands in the Oklahoma swamps and mosquitoes feed on the dead carcass of the aliens. This causes the mosquitoes to grow to human proportions and they start sucking the blood of people in the countryside. Its up to a meteorologist, two lovers, a park ranger, and a criminal to team up and fend off the evil blood swarm of giant mosquitoes for chances of survival.Its a hit and miss movie. The acting is mostly terrible, but I could care less honestly. All of the actors are obviously trying their very best (well, maybe except Mike Hard). Some actors, such as Tim Lovelace, Steve Dixon, and Leatherface himself Gunnar Hansen do a pretty decent job. Ron Asheton gets credibility because he is the bassist for one of the best punk bands ever, The Stooges, and Mike Hard also gets credit for being the vocalist for Sick Of It All, one of Brooklyn's finest punk-metal bands. Unfortunately, both of them are horrendously bad actors and should really just stick to music. Many people diss the effects for being bad, but they have a charm that kinda make them good. Hell, when it comes to the actual animatronics (such as the mosquito on the stove during the climax), I'll even call them good effects! Yep, I called the effects good! Considering that the budget was 200K in 1995, the effects could've been much worse. But most of all, the movie is very entertaining with not a single dull moment in the entire 97 minutes that this film runs for. Every scene has some awesome gore, an explosion, a mosquitoes vs guns fight, Gunnar Hansen doing something badass, and animatronic mosquitoes. Its a blast.If your a fan of low budget films loaded with bullets and gore with a slice of cheese on the side, this is THE film for you. It may be bad, but its awesome. I'd honestly watch Mosquito on a 24 hour loop than just 24 minutes of Battleship or any Transformer movie, and those costed nearly 20 times more to make. Mosquito: Gunnar Hansen vs the giant bugs. AWESOME.P.S.: If you are a fan of the giant mosquito genre, then Don't bother with Skeeter. That one truly sucks. End of story.

Drenched in blood, guts, and giant bugs, Gary Jones's Mosquito is so close to being a great horror movie that it's truly depressing the film didn't take itself more seriously and the actors didn't take more lessons. The film opts for a high level of camp, but never drifts far enough into the clever comedy realm of Arachnophobia or Tremors to attain a more prestigious cult classic status.When regular mosquitos begin drinking the blood of dead aliens from a downed spaceship they grow to gargantuan proportions and all hell breaks loose for the vacationers relaxing in the nearby campgrounds. Ray (Tim Lovelace) and his Park Ranger girlfriend Megan (Rachel Loiselle) band together with meteorologist Parks (Steve Dixon) and the nerdy Ranger Hendricks (Ron Asheton) to fend off both the mutated bugs and cantankerous criminals Junior (Mike Hard) and Earl (Gunnar Hansen in fine goofy form mocking his own Texas Chainsaw Massacre performance).Mosquito wastes no time setting up an elaborate explanation for why giant mosquitos roam the grounds (although the reason chosen is likely better than the typical government chemical testing) and gets right into the action and carnage. Borrowing a few cues from Aliens and other imitable horror staples, Mosquito showcases enough impressive action sequences that it's a shame the movie didn't try a little harder to be serious. The threat of the monstrous mutant skeeters, coupled with their bloodthirsty method of feeding creates a tense mood by itself, but much of the hokey dialogue quickly substitutes suspense for eye-rolling laughs. The potential for amazing is there, but the direction the creators insist upon keeps Mosquito squarely in the territory of cheese.Director Gary Jones got his start in makeup and special effects - and it shows. Impressively grotesque practical effects comprise the majority of the monster mosquitos and they look as real as ten-foot insects can. The gore has a classic early 90's feel and scenes of razor sharp proboscises to the chest and eyes provide some cringe-worthy moments. With such a fast introduction to the mayhem only a few bystander deaths are shown, but Jones makes good use of them, most notably in a tent ambush sequence that ably displays the film's overall tone. As his wife is being assaulted by a killer insect, a doltish camper continues to take swigs from his beer as he runs to her aid.With such effort on practical mosquito effects throughout, it's disappointing to see poorly done green screen and a spattering of subpar stop-motion mixed in, but such shortcomings can be forgiven once the bloodsucking bugs return to their brand of fluid-draining in all their puppetry glory. The less-than-admirable acting (and the difficulty in obtaining a DVD of the film) will likely keep this forgotten killer insect classic from the casual horror enthusiast, but few of its genre came so close to cheesy perfection as Mosquito.Joel Massie

Mosquito starts as a small alien spacecraft lands in a state park swamp, a hatch opens & the alien inside tries to get out but dies. Soon Mosquitos land on the dead alien & start to drink it's alien DNA filled blood... Megan (Rachel Loiselle) is a new state park ranger & is one her way to her new job with her boyfriend Ray (Tim Lovelace) when they have an accident & their car is put out of action. They manage to hitch a lift with meteorologist Parks (Steve Dixon) who is on the lookout for a meteorite that apparently landed in the area recently, once at the state park they find nothing but carnage with dead bodies strewn everywhere. The trio soon find out that giant mutated Mosquitos are on the loose & need plenty of fresh human blood to survive...Co-written & directed by Gary Jones this appears to be a throwback &/or homage to the giant bug flicks from the 50's & 60's & while it's no masterpiece it's not a bad little film at all. The script by Jones, cinematographer Tom Chaney & Steve Hodge doesn't take itself too seriously & if you take it as intended can be quite a fun ride at times. The pace is pretty good, it doesn't lag too badly & there's plenty of on screen action. The character's are OK if not particularly memorable although some of the dialogue is stiff & awkward at times, I suppose my biggest problem with Mosquito is that it's rather predictable & it's a bit repetitive. The main group of character's are attacked by hordes of giant mutated Mosquitos in a state park & that's basically the entire film until the end, I'd have liked a bit more variety & less running around doing nothing in particular. Still, it's a fairly entertaining way to pass 90 odd minutes, for what it sets out to do & be it works fine, most creature feature fans should enjoy it & it's definitely better than 99% of those Sci-Fi Channel made creature feature type films like Python (2000) if nothing else. One more thing, when they set the timer at the end for three minutes to blow the gas lines a hell of a lot longer than three minutes actually elapse before the flame ignites!Director Jones does alright here on a minuscule budget & he also went on to direct a couple more giant creature feature films with the rather fun Spiders (2000) & the distinctly less impressive Crocodile 2: Death Swamp (2002). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) fans will be pleased with an amusing reference to that film as Gunnar Hansen who played Leatherface in it plays a bank-robber here who at the end fights off the giant Mosquitos with a huge chainsaw which he quips 'I haven't held one of these in over twenty years'! The special effects are a mixed bag really, some of them are extremely impressive while at other times they are pretty poor & unfortunately as audiences we generally remember the poor ones rather than the good ones. The opening shots in space of the alien ship are brilliant & look great, the Mosquitos themselves look cool as well but it's just some of the effects when they have to fly & move that either the budget or expertise wasn't there. There's not much gore here, there are a few dead bodies sucked dry of blood, someones eyes poke out on stalks & then explode, there are a few close-up shots of the Mosquitos proboscis entering flesh & that's about it. There's only one scene with any nudity in it as well.It's amazing to think Mosquito had a budget of about $200,000 because some of the special effects as I've already mentioned are very impressive especially the opening spaceship sequence & there's a great scene of a farmhouse being blown to bits at the end that would rival any Hollywood action blockbuster. Shot on location in some woods in Detroit in Michigan. The acting isn't that great, in fact it's pretty poor at times.Mosquito is a fun little creature feature, I was very impressed with some of the special effects while other's left a lot to be desired. I liked it, it wasn't a masterpiece, it's not deep or meaningful & it certainly won't change your life but it will probably entertain you for 90 odd minutes & that's all you can really ask for.

I have seen this movie and it is a definite B movie. But I thought it was good for a B. It is pretty cheesy but that is what you come to expect from a B movie. They definitely used some pretty bad actors, but that is a B. You come to expect that. Gunnar was great in this as he was in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They were both about the same quality of films, but we like those kind of movies once in a while. This is a pretty hard to find movie and I think it is out of print. Not too sure. We are looking for it in DVD format. If anyone knows where we can get it. Please let us know at [email protected]. I don't want to spend a ton of money, I would like to spend less that 50.00. Let me know. Thanks