After witnessing the evil corporation dumping the toxic waste, we jump to the present and watch a mini-kid running from something on his dirtbike. Hmm, what ever could it be? The first outright hilarious moment of this movie happens when the camera angle switches to mosquito-eye-view. I'll refer to this as Moe-cam from now on. This unlucky kid gets chased down by the mutant insect, and unfortunately the chase is a short one.
I'm pretty sure the action takes place in New Mexico here, and the town's name is Clear Sky (which is odd, because it's cloudy for about 1/2 the movie). Yeah, I know what you're saying. There are no mosquitoes in the desert Southwest. I thought the same thing, but apparently that didn't stop them from making this movie.
Well, people keep getting reported missing in Clear Sky, so it's up to the local sheriff's dept. to investigate. Oh, and of course there's corruption in the force. Sheriff Ernie Buckle, played by Charles Napier (who will pop up in IC's B Movie Mayhem a few more times), is being bribed by the evil corporation to look the other way. Oh, and while he's looking the other way he's getting to know (wink, wink he said knowingly) every woman in town.
Finally, after an endless hour of run-of-the-mill plot and character development to let you know who's going to survive 'til the end of the movie, the officers under Buckle discover a rotting corpse by the side of the road. Of course, they say "Looks like hamburger is out for lunch today." After returning to attempt a romantic development between Roy Boone, the good deputy played by Jim Youngs, and a local woman, I was thinking to myself "In a movie about giant mosquitoes, there's way too much plot and not enough mutant insects."
Of course, there's the scene that got through the cutting room. It makes no sense, and still doesn't. Apparently, there's some lunatic who keeps the moes caged under some high voltage wires in his shack and he lets them gnaw on him once in a while. Yeah, I was confused, too. Oh, he also has this huge bug zapper that doesn't make much sense either.
As with every bad horror movie, there's a requisite bad rock song. This one plays while a guy drives recklessly through back roads, over trees, and in ditches, all while locking his girlfriend in the trunk. Now who here thinks this guy is going to be devoured by mutant insects? Very good. His girlfriend's still in the trunk, and isn't found 'til later.
Yeah, yeah, you want to hear about the exciting end to the story, don't you? OK. Boone discovers Buckle's shady dealings, and gets rewarded by a gang full of thugs wielding stun guns. They take him to the boonies (OK, further into the boonies) to kill him, but oh yes, they're devoured. Yep, the sheriff's devoured, too. There's plenty of bloodsucking action in the last few minutes of the movie, and plenty of plastic mosquitoes taped to people's backs.
Oh yeah, special effects were at a premium in this one! The Moe-cam scenes were rather humorous, but they were definitely the best this movie had. During the scene in the abandoned mine shaft it looks like they were passing sheets of plastic with bugs on them in front of the camera. It's an all-time bad special effects scene, especially for a 1993 movie!
Of course, Roy Boone almost gets devoured, but escaped with his love interest (you could've guessed, huh?). Apparently he's gnawed on for quite a while by a moe latched on to his back, but there's magically no hole in his shirt and no blood. Wow, clean surgical mosquito I guess...
Yeah, this movie followed the horror movie formula. It went plot-death-plot-death-plot-death for about 90 minutes. It was almost like clockwork when you knew someone was going to get swarmed by bloodthirsty mutants. I rented this movie from the local store, unaware that only eight days later it would shown on TBS. Kyle Anderson, who has the website Chipperville (see Floor 3 HOI), called me up and was shocked to find out that not only was I watching Skeeter and knew that's why he called, but that I had rented it just a week before.
OK, here's some stats:
Corpse Count: 9 (not double digits, too bad)
- Watch this one on TV, when there are commercials to break it up. Or get the tape and fast forward to the good stuff.
- There are a coupl'a good one-liners, but that's about it.
- The special effects were the main source of the laughter here, but there were some other good moments.
- This wasn't the most original idea in the world, just a new subject to mutate.
Overall, I don't think I can actually recommend watching this movie. Of course, with some correct beverages, any movie can become watchable. This one should be near the end of a B Movie Marathon, or should be viewed free on cable TV.
