Mutante

Once in a while a movie comes by that is so campy and fun that it forever finds a place in your heart. This could almost be one of those movies if the production wasn't so lackluster and straight-forward. The idea is delightfully insane, but where does it really go from there? The whole movie bathes in a rather unpleasant Eurotrash-atmosphere, probably because most of the dirty work was outsourced to Bulgaria to cut costs. Their cheap labour actually looks semi-professional, which is the absolute worst thing you can have in a movie about a killer half man/half mosquito. Corin Nemec plays the hero in this movie, to which I can only say that I'm glad he's working. It beats infomercials, not by much though. "Mansquito" is in many ways frustrating, because it could have gone so much more over the top. There are a couple of good action scenes though, and it does have the merit of an insanely high body count, so I guess I still kinda like it.

A convict is scheduled to be used in tests involving the west Nile virus, but escapes and is bitten by a mutant mosquito, transforming him into a hideous insectile humanoid. It's up to cops to track him down as he makes his way through a city, sucking his victims dry. This is one of those "Made for Sci-fi channel" films, which, lets face it, more often than not turn out to be stinking cesspools (See Dinocroc, King Snake, Boa vs. Python, etc.) or, putting it more kindly, on the "lower end of the horror spectrum". However, "Mansquito" actually manages to transcend most of the other films sci-fi produces. It's got decent enough acting, plenty of nasty gore scenes, cool creature effects, but lots of problems too. To start, the plot is carp. I'll admit that. It's got lots of 1-D characters whose sole purpose is to be killed off in horrible gruesome ways by the monster. The science behind the creature is non-existent. It's also very, very predictable. Director Tibor Takács—who was responsible for 1987's effects-laden cult hit, "The Gate", and the really cool "I, Madman"—has since done some not-so-great low-budget horror films like Killer Rats (2003), but he redeems himself somewhat with "Mansquito". He gives the film a fun feel and never lets the pace drop. He also gives us just what we paid for—gore and a slimy, ugly monster. At first the gore is rather tame, but it really picks up towards the end, check out the "SWAT team dismemberment" for some real nasty stuff! As I said before, the creature effects are really cool. The effects are handled by Tony Garner, who also worked on "Seed of Chucky". Thankfully the monster isn't CG most of the time, just a good old man-in-a-suit (Except for shots of the creature running or flying, in which the makers implored so truly awful CG).

If you're looking for a fresh, original sci-fi film, look elsewhere, 'cause "Mansquito" is anything but that. However, it IS a fun, gory monster movie for a boring, rainy Saturday afternoon.

6/10.

Mansquito(or Mosquito Man) was a little better than I expected, but that's not saying much. It is surprisingly not bad on a visual front, with good photography and nice locations, and the music at times was spookily atmospheric. Plus the ending was the best part of the film, very effective. What let Mansquito down though was a fair number of things. I have seen worse special effects, but they are still rather cheap and not very well-utilised with the mosquitoes not menacing enough. The script is of the cheesy and stilted kind and the story apart from some spark at the end never really engaged me, coming across as dull, predictable and especially with the male mosquitoes ridiculous. I probably would have had a stronger impression of Mansquito if the beginning had been promising, but viewing so many obvious mistakes in one scene really hindered that. The characters didn't come across as very likable either, not as stereotypical as I have seen characters other movies of the genre before but annoying and underdeveloped, and the acting is really quite poor. Overall, could've been much worse, but Mansquito bugged me too much for me to properly enjoy it. 4/10 Bethany Cox

You don't have to watch Mosquito Man to know that it takes heavy influence from David Cronenberg's classic film 'The Fly', but I liked said film a lot and so decided that I would be happy if this film merely offered a fun retelling of it. I'm pleased to say that while Mosquito Man is silly and redundant, it is at least lots of fun and therefore offers enough as far as I'm concerned. I have to admit that I find insects fascinating, and this is a good thing given how many insect related horror films there are to choose from. Mosquito's don't really interest me, and the film doesn't really delve into their life cycle much...but luckily, it doesn't really matter. The film bases its plot on the idea of a virus that is working its way through the human population. A couple of scientists have found some sort of cure involving mosquitoes, but this backfires when a convict set to be used as a guinea pig escapes and causes an accident in the facility. His DNA is then merged with the mosquito DNA and he becomes, you guessed it, a human-mosquito hybrid with a mission to mate with the female scientist who has suffered the same unfortunate fate.

Director Tibor Takács made a minor splash back in the eighties with cult hits The Gate and I, Madman. This film is unlikely to remembered with the same affection as the latter two films, but it features the same kind of nonsense, yet well worked plot line. The special effects are important in a film like this, and despite being a film that is unlikely to ever amount to anything - Mosquito Man does feature great special effects. The central monster looks cool enough, and this is matched by some great gory scenes that will please anyone with a mind to see it. As mentioned, the plot doesn't delve very deep but it does at least focus on the important elements and remains interesting for the duration. The acting is surprisingly decent also, with the hot Musetta Vander providing the eye candy (both for the audience and for the title monster), while Corin Nemec is good in the opposite role. It's not hard to guess where it's going at any point, but the film races towards the inevitable conclusion with style, and the director chucks in a nice gore sequence every time things start to dry up. Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this trash to anyone looking for a fun flick, and it's nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

undoubtedly you've seen the previews on sci-fi which show the sexy scientist tearing off her blouse-- that and the title tell you all you need to know about how cheesy and ridiculous this picture is-- but I hate to admit I found it strangely watchable. Corin Nemec plays a positively Beowulfian cop who tussles repeatedly with the mansquito but somehow survives each time, while(numerous) lesser men and women die within a few tenths of a second of their 'squito encounters. The story hurtles forward at a breathless pace,which is undoubtedly a good thing considering how silly it is. The heroine is also infected by radioactive skeeter juice(hence her need to disrobe(?), and she figures out that Only She can lure Mansquito to his doom...and you can probably guess the rest.

Look: obviously no one watches a teevee movie called "Mansquito!"(it needed an exclamation point, don't you think?) expecting King Lear, unless they have neurological problems or something. Mansquito! is the cinematic equivalent of cheese nachos: you hate to admit you occasionally crave because you know they're nutritional gargbage-- good in a bad way. And gee, I didn't know mosquitos growl.