Review by Dan Taylor
I
have a problem with MOSQUITO MAN. And I'm
not talking about the DVD box description
which gets the plot so wrong you wonder
if anybody bothered to watch the movie.
No, I'm talking about the
incompetent re-titling at work. When it
premiered on Sci-Fi in March of 2005 it
appeared under the much more appealing title
of MANSQUITO, the kind of mashed-up horror/sci-fi
name that I'm a complete sucker for. (See
AQUANOIDS
if you don't believe me.) For some reason,
the flick was re-titled MOSQUITO MAN when
it appeared on DVD, a change that I find
somewhat peculiar. Were they trying to make
people confuse it with CINDERELLA MAN? Did
they hope to capture insect mutation completists
who wouldn't bother to read the back cover
and see that they'd already watched this
on cable?
Whatever the reason for the
re-titling that is my one, and only, problem
with the borderline brilliant MANSQUITO.
Directed by Tibor Takacs (80s horror afficianados
will remember his THE GATE), MANSQUITO is
a lightning-paced rip-off of THE FLY that
dispenses with that flick's scientific mumbo-jumbo
and yakety-yak first act.
Instead, we're treated to
a quickie set-up that gets the action moving
in record time: a deadly virus is sweeping
the globe and a team of scientists are working
with mosquitoes to develop a way to beat
the aforementioned virus. (And, when I say
"a team of scientists" I really
mean two chicks in lab coats.) With dollar
signs flashing in front of his eyes, the
pharmaceutical lab's director (Jay Benedict)
brings in convicted killer Ray Erikson (Austin
Jordan) to be a human guinea pig. Erikson
escapes – 'natch – kills one chick
and gets blasted with mutated, radioactive
mosquito goo during a shoot-out with the
security team.
Eleven minutes into the flick
Erikson/Mansquito is on the loose, CGI-mutating
like crazy and attacking everybody from
his ex-galpal to the staff at the bar where
she works. Further complicating matters
is the fact that the cop who put Erikson
away – played by Corin Nemec of 'Parker
Lewis Can't Lose' fame – is the boyfriend
of science chick Jennifer Allen (the exotic
Musetta Vander), who got hit with a bit
o' insect goo herself.
What follows is a B-movie
monster gore mini-masterpiece that rarely
lets its foot off the accelerator. Mansquito
rampages while Tom (Nemec) and his partner
(Patrick Dreikauss) track him down, puzzling
through clues like corpses drained of blood.
All the while Jennifer finds herself going
cuckoo for sugar – and blood. While
she mutate? Will Mansquito and the cop's
girlfriend mate? Does anybody else think
Nemec still looks like he's 13?
Kudos to Takacs and writers
Ken Badish (no jokes, please), Ray Cannella,
Boaz Davidson and Mike Hurst for concocting
a bloody good time that never bores and
totally delivers the goods. Sure, you'll
see the ending long before Parker Lewis
figures it out, but this 80s-esque monster-on-the-loose
throwback is a guaranteed good time.
