Mosquito State (2021)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Giga Bites

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This somewhat Cronenbergian horror film by director and co-writer Filip Jan Rymsza is, shot for shot, beautifully made, but unfortunately those pieces just don't seem to come together. Socially awkward computer genius Richard Boca (Beau Knapp) works for a Wall Street firm. Improbably, he goes to a company party, where the tech bros love to make fun of him. A pretty blonde, Lena (Charlotte Vega), introduces herself, and they (improbably) go back to his apartment. She ends up leaving, but a mosquito that has attached itself to Richard's neck, stays. For some reason, Richard allows the insect to breed in a glass of water, and puts out more water to allow more mosquitos to spawn. He also allows them to feed on him, and soon grows all kinds of swollen welts on his face. At work, his "model" shows all kinds of crazy activity. That's perhaps because it's 2007, just before the big crash. He grows more and more unhinged, and Rymsza throws in truly unsettling shots of the apartment in various states of deterioration, strange light, and that constant buzzing. It's disturbing, but, ultimately, not in a pleasant way. We leave the movie disturbed, and may perhaps wish we'd never gone in in the first place. Mosquito State will drop on Shudder on August 27, 2021.