Mosquito (1994)

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.

Some really over-the-top and gross gore effects highlight this otherwise badly acted, badly scripted homage to the "nature runs a muck" big-bug sub-genre with some really notable nods to 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". A spaceship crash lands on Earth causing the mosquito population to grow to enormous proportions and devour campers, fisherman and other hapless victims. Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface from the original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre') leads a couple of idiot bank-robbers and finds himself battling the bloodsuckers along with a park ranger, her boyfriend, and a meteor chaser, as they destroy the insects with guns, explosives and of course Gunnar's wielding chainsaw. This is classic bad B-movie sub-standard fun, and its full of lousy dialog, cheesy creature effects and the usual sex and gore. Gunnar Hansen wrote the inane script, and director, Gary Jones ultimately goes on to direct more terrible big-bug movies. Don't expect anything extravagant, and you should find it quite entertaining.

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

This movie is in constant rotation on SciFi and its another one of those movies that I stop at each time its on. The plot has badly done giant mosquitoes attacking people in the country side. They have been mutated after feeding on the blood of dead aliens...I know you're shocked, you were expecting a high class movie (even with the title Mosquito) and instead you got a very silly movie played (reasonably) straight by everyone involved. Clearly the cast and crew knew this was a silly idea, but they milk it for all its worth turning the attack scenes into something you both wince at (for the idea of it) and groan at (the silliness of the execution). This is one of the rare modern attempts at a drive in movie that walks the fine line between being serious and being mocking to create something thats enjoyable despite the dumbness of it all. If you can take it on its own level its worth two bags of popcorn and a couple of sodas. If you can't take it for what it it is then you're in for a long painful viewing experience.9 out of 10 on the brain dead fun-o-meter.