Mosquito

Director - Gary Jones (Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter's Cove)
Starring - Steve Dixon (Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil), Rachel Loiselle (Stone), and Tim Lovelace (Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan)
Release Date - 1995
Genre - Horror/Sci-Fi
Tagline - "Blood never tasted better"
Format - BluRay (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     The 90s was a decade that has received a bad reputation for releasing horrible horror flicks.  Personally, almost every movie I hate was released in the 90s but that doesn't mean that the decade only released duds.  There was several solid flicks to come out of the 90s.  Hell, we got Wishmaster, Subspecies, Tom Savini's Night of the Living Dead remake, and the third film in the Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness.  The 90s was also the beginning of a trend that still goes till this day and that is the when creatures attack sub-genre.  Sure, these films can be found in every decade but the 90s saw countless releases with most ending up on Sy-Fy.  One film that I always wanted to check out but never did was the 1995 film Mosquito with a small role from the late Gunnar Hansen.  I remember seeing the VHS for this one at the local video store but I never could talk myself into picking it up.  I tried to buy the DVD several times but it is out of print and running for a ridiculous amount.  Lucky for me, Synapse released the film on blu and was kind enough to send a review copy my way.  Thanks guys!
     The film follows a new forest ranger and her boyfriend as they try to make it to the park for her first day of work when they hit a strange creature.  The thing is destroyed by the car and is unable to be identified but it did leave a proboscis in the radiator forcing them to huff it to work.  They come across a meteorologist (studies meteors and not the weather) who is investigating a meteor that fell near the park she is said to work at.  They soon discover that the meteor landed in a marsh with hundreds of mosquito eggs mutating them into giant, killing machines rampaging through a peaceful campground.
     Mosquito was always a film that I was curious to check out.  I knew the film would be bad but what kind of bad.  Would it be a bad film that is still fun to watch like a Troma films or a bad film that is pure punishment to sit through like Bloodbath in the House of Knives?  Luckily, Mosquito was bad but was still very fun to watch.  The film had some unintentional humor, intentional humor, and some cheesy creature fun.  The acting in this one is up and down.  When the film begins the cast shows their dedication to the film and, to be honest, they do a decent job but as the film progresses the acting starts to take the back seat and the film hits the cheese grater.  The story for this one is one we have seen so many times by this point but it still ended up being good time.  The story following a strange meteor, comet, and so forth falling from the sky and wreaking havoc is nothing new.  Case in point, Night of the Creeps.  The film is not that original but is full of action as to not bore the viewer.  With that being said, the film is full of plot holes and the ending just seemed tossed on to close the film out.  The film is very cheesy but the whole "3 minutes to exit the house before it explodes" angle was very cheap and almost ruined a good thing.  Poor writing and a rushed script is the culprit of this horrendous ending.  Finally, the film is full of on screen and off screen deaths.  Most, as you suspected, are from mosquitoes stabbing their victims and then sucking them dry.  These were great and we have some outstanding practical effects to thank for that.  The dead bodies look fantastic and the mosquitoes look great as well and reminded me of the classic monster films of the 50s and 60s.  They looked great up close but the film goes full camp when we get the things swarming and they are against a painted backdrop.  This was fun considering how campy the film is.  Overall, Mosquito is a bad movie but damn is it not a joy to watch.  The kills are great, the effects are better, and the story rarely slows down.  This film would make a great double feature with the 1993 flick, Ticks.  Check out the release from Synapse!