Tuesday, December 21, 2010

MOSQUITO (1995)

The back of the VHS states "In the terrifying tradition of Alien and Predator comes Mosquito..."  That's a lie.  The only time anybody has ever mentioned ALIEN or PREDATOR in the same breath as MOSQUITO is if they said "I wish I was watching ALIEN or PREDATOR instead of this bullshit!"

Any horror fan who watched late-night cable regularly back around the turn of the century probably saw MOSQUITO multiple times.  I know I did.  Back then, it was mildly entertaining in a light-weight, low-budget, I'm-too-tired-to-change-the-channel sort of way, but watching it again completely awake for this review, I really had a hard time getting through it.  Boring story (large mosquitoes attack a camp site full of dorks), forgettable characters, unnatural dialogue, amateur acting, one totally limp nude scene, lame attempts at comedy, slow pace, meh camerawork that started to get on my nerves after awhile, poor lighting, unsatisfying ending.  I know (based on the surprisingly entertaining 75-minute "making of" supplement on the disc) that the filmmakers meant well and worked hard with very limited resources, but that still doesn't make it a good movie.

Maybe other fans of 1990's low-budget horror will be more forgiving than me, but I'm burned out on this movie and hope I never have to sit through it ever again.

One highlight was seeing Gunnar Hansen play a normal role with actual lines.  That was neat, but the novelty wore off quickly.  I bet Gunnar signed over 10,000 TCM posters, but less than a dozen MOSQUITO posters!
I honestly can't think of another movie where a frog just randomly jumps out of an actors pocket.