Mosquito

MOVIE #1,287 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 12.20.23 Stop me if you’ve heard this one: I’ve uncovered yet another movie that’s been suspiciously labeled a ‘cult’ film (at least at Wikipedia). And — while, far be it from me to be the one to shame any Mosquito-heads out there — I think we need to develop some better criteria for this. I don’t have any ideas. It’s hard enough delivering two movie reviews every single weekday, folks. All that being said, there’s certainly some interesting stuff here that occasionally borders on the LOL B-movie charm we love to hate (hate to love?). Like appearances by a maskless Gunnar Hanson (Leatherface) and Stooges’ guitarist Ron Asheton, both in the lead cast. But the real selling point here (if there is one) is the lovably crude creature design of the giant killer mosquitos, who spawn after a regular ‘skeet sucks the blood of an alien that crash-lands into earth…

This was actually directed by the same guy who made Crocodile 2: Death Swamp (the best of the four giant Alligator/Crocodile movies I reviewed in 2021). I’m not saying Gary Jones is an auteur but he’s 2 for 2 making low-budget monster animal flicks that aren’t total garbage!

The plot (‘plot’ lol) revolves around said alien-insects breeding on the swampy grounds of a national park. In addition to the endearing design of the bugs, there’s some great rubber dummies and practical FX gore…



What’s not so hot are the shots of these bugs flying in a pack, which are brief but riotously bad…


Our heroes are a young couple who hook up with a meteorologist (who explains that he’s a “real meteorologist” as in someone who studies meteors, and that is hilariously inaccurate to the point where it had to have been a joke, right?). They explore one of the campsites of the park and find SOOOO many dead bodies…


The three of them connect with the lone surviving member of the forest ranger team played by the aforementioned Asheton. The guitarist-turned-actor isn’t good but he is goofy and this is actually one of five film roles he took in the late 80s/early 90s (I’m adding the rest of these amazingly bad looking titles to my watchlist right now)...


In a subplot, Gunnar Hansen leads a team of bank robbers who are on the run. Cutting through the park, these two factions collide and take turns playing the captor/hostage roles on a moving RV being attacked by the killer mosquitoes. This scene is delirious and goes on forever. Here’s a sample…


Eventually, all the bad guys but Gunnar die and they end up in a sewer where meteorologist man delivers a B-movie one-liner for the ages…


Then the four of them hole up in a dilapidated house. This is where the movie completely loses steam as they pad the run-time with conversations that go nowhere. But there is a nice little Easter egg for Gunnar Hansen fans…


Eventually they discover the basement of this house is ground zero for the half-alien monsters when they find dozens of soon-to-be hatching eggs. So they devise a plan which involves the meteorologist building a time bomb (in minutes!) while they climb onto the roof and jump off just before it escapes (as Gunnar sacrifices himself in the basement for some reason). What could go wrong?


Ah yes, the old “survive a giant explosion by hiding in the refrigerator” trick. Classic. So Gunnar and Ron both die and the other three escape. And the movie just ends without any real conclusion as to whether or not they’ve completely eliminated the threat of the mosquitos, in other words: it ends perfectly.

I’d like to give this a higher score but the boring parts are REALLY boring. There aren’t many in retrospect but they’re so dull that they count for double. I don’t think I would mark this as rewatchable So Good It’s Bad schlock but I can see why some people would.

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Mosquito (also known as Blood Fever) is a 1995 American science-fiction horror film directed by Gary Jones. The film features actor Gunnar Hansen, who portrayed the character Leatherface in the 1974 horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, along with Ron Asheton, lead guitarist for the band the Stooges. The film has earned a cult following since its release. It was released on November 21, 1994.