mosquito

Horror-comedy it tough to pull off even when one has plenty of resources. Considering 1948’s Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein is a high-water mark for the genre, it’s been nearly 70 years since anyone has had unanimous success. And director Gary Jones’ Mosquito (1994) had an uphill battle from the beginning, with a low budget, local actors and overly ambitious screenplay. The results are, on one hand, exactly what you would expect: an amateurish attempt at recreating the “big bug” movies of the ‘50s. But the film’s imaginative effects and go-for-broke pacing wind up hooking you anyway.

The mutant bloodsuckers grow to giant size after feasting on an alien that crash lands in a local swamp, which just so happens to be not so far away from a popular campground. Soon, campers are being drained of all their vital fluids, leaving one incompetent park ranger (Ron Asheton, guitarist for The Stooges) and a motley crew of scientists, civilians and bank robbers to clean up the mess and save the world.

Jones keeps his foot on the gas as if his movie has money to burn. After a nice-looking outer space sequence before the credits, Mosquito turns in one impressive action scene after another: an exciting RV chase, Aliens-style sewer shoot-out and explosive farmhouse finale. Using every special effects trick in the book besides computer effects, Jones (whose career began in the FX department in numerous Sam Raimi-related projects) works overtime to craft his army of oversized bugs. And for fans of techniques like stop-motion and puppetry, it’s hard not to love this film.

But for fans of acting, Mosquito is one tough row to hoe. A movie like this doesn’t require much from it cast other than to be convincing, but despite their best efforts Jones’ players just aren’t up to the challenge. The dialogue is as forced and phony as a first-time read though, sabotaging the aforementioned technical production values, often adding a layer of unintentional humor to go along with the scripted gags. Gunnar Hansen, the original Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw, adds some marquee value (and is reunited with his precious saw at one point) but isn’t exactly a master thespian either.

If one can look past that, Mosquito offers up plenty of other amusing distractions. And Synapse Films’ 20th Anniversary Edition makes sure you see them all in the best possible light. Shot on 16mm but blown up to 35, the film looks terrific with only a few soft moments inherent in the source. The hi-def image was scanned in 3K then down-sampled to 2K for the Blu-ray release. And the package doubles down with some terrific extras including an audio commentary, deleted scenes and Making Of footage (also with optional commentary), the original trailer, still gallery and, best of all, the exceedingly well-produced documentary Bugging Out! – The Making of Mosquito which runs over an hour.