User Reviews

A greedy real estate developer(Jay Robinson)plans on turning placid desert into a massive subdivision of a small community. Things get real ugly when a swarm of mosquitos chow down on an illegal toxic waste dump. Sheriff Deputy Roy Boone(Jim Youngs)gets concerned with the mounting body count of citizens and animals. His boss, Sheriff Buckle(Charles Napier)is not too concerned, because he is secretly involved in a shifty business relationship with the corrupt developer. The giant, bloodsucking mosquitos put strain on a sexy coroner(Saxon Trainer)and a respected, but confused scientist(William Sanderson). Special effects are pretty lame. Tracy Griffith plays the winsome love interest of Deputy Boone. And its hard to ignore the town idiot played by Michael J. Pollard. The total sum is SKEETER kind of...sucks!

At the opening of the film we see a crew storing waste canisters in an old mining compound. We later find that it stores some sort of polluted, toxic substance that increases the size of mosquitoes who frequented it and will threaten the remaining citizens of a sleepy desert community of Clear Sky(I'm guessing in Arizona or New Mexico). Besides the threat of mosquitoes is a land developer named Drake(Jay Robinson)who is paving the way for a future suburbia settlement. Drake wishes for farmers around him to give up their lands, one of those being Clay Crosby(John Goff)whose wife has recently passed and livestock are mysteriously dying off. His daughter, Sarah(Tracy Griffith)returns for the funeral and strikes up a past relationship with Deputy Roy Boone(Jim Youngs, all mullet and muscle..but little real acting skill other than standing tall and stiff)who sees that something's not right in Clear Sky. He calls in geologist Gordon(William Sanderson)to check the water around the area and he soon discovers that what is killing not only the livestock but citizens as well is polluted water. Yet, when he informs his findings to his superior it falls on deaf ears..his superior is in Drake's hip pocket so reporting such an environmental disaster will seemingly prove difficult. What's even worse is Roy's superior, Sheriff Ernie Buckle(Charles Napier)is aware of Drake's crooked ways but turns a blind eye to all his underhanded activities. The polluted water that is killing the livestock and poisoning the citizens was carefully hidden only to Drake and Ernie and somehow Roy must find a way to make things right. Roy will have trouble on his hands as Drake has hired goons who will attempt to take his life.

A lot of plot does convolute what is essentially a B-movie creature feature. Some characters are kind of left hanging such as Michael J Pollard's weirdo Hopper, a collector who has this make-shift museum and feeds blood to his pet mutant mosquito. What we kind of forget about is that he has a live one that ISN'T dead. Then we never really get a resolution to villainous Drake, though it is quite clear he might face ruin if those who stand in his way such as Roy and Sarah aren't silenced. Thankfully, Roy has a loyal partner, a Native American named Hank(the reliable Eloy Casados)who sticks by him. The bugs themselves are a bit of a let-down, but expected as such with the low-budget I'm sure the filmmakers were saddled with. The story, though, plays the silly premise almost completely straight and the story about the citizens losing their community slowly to death and change is really sad. The location of the desert around the plot assists the film in my opinion. I'm a fan of "mutant bug" films so I cut this exercise some slack. If you like these sci-fi/horror creature features which came out in the early 90's during the made-for-video boom then this should be a treat. George "Buck" Flower has an amusing cameo as a mosquito victim.

This film was just plain BAD. But entertaining to watch, it was hilariously bad in almost every scene.

***SPOILER*** The scene where they go into the cave to exterminate the mosquitos is definitely the worst special effects I have ever seen, I was laughing uncontrollably. ***END OF SPOILER***



If you want a movie to watch while bored, I recommend this one for a good laugh.

CONTAINS SPOILERS

This movie really isn't as bad as what some people say. Granted, the acting is nothing special, and the plot isn't very creative, but I did like it a little bit. The most suspenseful part of the whole movie had to be the guy who was killed while he was with his teenage daughter.

Still, you can't really get beyond the terrible cliches that riddle this movie: The concerned scientist who notices that something is wrong before everybody else does (but doesn't know exactly what is going on). The sheriff (or mayor or stubborn scientist, it doesn't really matter) who gets in the way of our heroes. The fact that it happens in a desert town. The fact that nobody knows anything bad is happening until three-quarters of the way through. Also, I couldn't get over the urban sprawl subplot. If you're going to convince me that everything is being developed, don't show wide open spaces everywhere.

The final scene was downright awful. And why the heck was there no conclusion to the guy with the museum?

Still, there were some good things about it. Quantum leaps of logic, such as the scientist who reaches in and grabs one of the mosquito larvae, are some of my favorite. I also enjoyed the mosquitoes in the cave that were obviously animated on top of the film. However, my favorite part has to be the fact that the mosquitoes kill the bad guys even more than the good guys. Even if there is a good guy three feet away, the mosquitoes will all attack the one bad guy, allowing our heroes to run away.

There's also a villainy developer who is so obviously the bad guy, all he needs is a cape and a mustache to twirl his finger around.

All in all, this was not a horribly terrible movie. If you enjoy making fun of these movies, see it.

'Skeeter' is one of the better killer insect movies made in the mid-90's.

**SPOILERS**

Dozens of barrels of toxic waste are removed from an underground facility. The waste attacks a large number of mosquito's to the site. A small town not far from the site is experiencing an unusually large number of cattle murders, so police deputy Roy Boone (Jim Youngs) is assigned by police chief Ernie Buckle (Charles Napier) to investigate. He finds that dozens of cows have been killed, who are lying in a field. He calls in agent Gordon Perry, (William Sanderson) who believes that the town's water supply has been poisoned, which isn't a popular theory around town. The mosquito's attack one of the local townspeople, which sends the community into an uproar. Boone and Deputy Hank Tucker (Eloy Casados) begin a long investigation into the mysterious occurrences that makes them decide to call in a big city coroner, Dr. Jill Wyle, (Saxon Trainor) against Ernie's authority or knowledge, who wants to get the bodies opened up as soon as possible. Because of the attacks, Boone wanders upon on old girlfriend, Sarah Crosby, (Tracy Griffith) the older sister of the second victim. The mosquito's attack more townspeople, finally making them realize what is going on. A crooked land developer (Jay Robinson) kidnaps Boone for interfering with his plans, but the mosquito's kills the goons. This leads him to the facts that the mosquito's were created by toxic sewage created by the land developer's run off program and that the land developer and Ernie were working together. The mosquito's are driving the towns-people away, allowing the developer to buy their land dirt cheap so he can build a wealthy new town on the land. He and Sarah band together with Tucker and Gordon to stop the now out-of-control mosquito's.

The Good News: Despite being very similar to a movie called 'Mosquito's,' 'Skeeter' is the better. The mosquito's are actually pretty cleverly designed and looked and moved realistically, compared to other giant insects movies. It was also a nice change of pace to introduce the monsters early in the film instead of giving them an appearance later in the film after several attacks. That first attack is also a highlight of the film, as the large number of mosquito props covering the actor and is seen to realistically bite into him is a nice sight. It is also a pretty long sequence, so that adds to the scene's creepiness. The ending, too, is pretty creepy. It takes place inside an abandoned mineshaft, so it is full of dark passageways and hidden traps. Justice is served by the killing of the corrupt figures in the town, and we also get to see a flame-thrower brought into action against the mosquito's. The destruction of the mine was nicely done, as fires burn everywhere, capped by the gigantic explosion. It is the best part of the film.

The Bad News: It takes a long period of time in the middle of the movie before anything happens. There was at least a thirty-minute stretch between an attack. This is just too long of a period to not have any action in the movie. Fill it with something: attacks, non-killing screen time for the mosquito's, a sex scene, anything to get and keep the attention of the viewer. The mosquito's' cry was a little annoying, as it never made them seem all that threatening. It almost destroyed their presence. I am an action fan, but the gunfight at Boone's place was so unnecessary that it stuck out like a sore thumb and could've been cut.

The Final Verdict: It's not that bad of a killer insect movie, but it is pretty entertaining for a film with such a low budget, but it could be an entertaining film if given an appropriate amount of time to like. It is recommended for those who like to seek out a good low-budget film or to those who want to see every horror film ever made.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language

SKEETER on the one hand is clearly influenced by typical mutant monster movies of the 50s like THEM or TARANTULA, on the other hand it owes its existence certainly to successful movies of the 90s that tell similar stories, such as TREMORS or TICKS. To come straight to the point: The biggest drawback of the film is its running time of 91 minutes. There is not enough substance to the story for this. In this respect director Clark Brandon should have been guided more by movies from the 50s, which rarely exceeded the 80 minute mark. This could have been a thrilling movie. As it is, we have to deal with a long exposure and a rather dreary love story between a pretty boy Deputy and the red haired village beauty. Even the subplot about a vicious building tycoon seems very much out of place. Regarding the build up of tension, SKEETER works along the line of classic monster movies. But Brandon tries to do something different with the scenes between the mosquito attacks and to not just stretch the running time (well, mostly). Brandon's style deviates significantly from what is common in most contemporary B-monster-movies. He more often than not works with clear, almost static shots, frequently taken slightly from below. Thus, the protagonist are standing around like lost in somewhat unreal and inhospitable landscapes as if they don't belong there. This impression is reinforced by the special light of the desert which is used very effectively by the director. With these scenes, the film, which was almost entirely shot on location, describes man as an intruder into a world, seemingly motionless for ages, a world whose balance is destroyed by man, thus evoking his own destruction. In this sense, quite apart from the rather simplistic presented toxic waste problem, SKEETER is, albeit on a modest level, a warning against home-made environmental disasters. In this regard, the film stands also in the tradition of classic monster movies, who frequently point to the dangers of nuclear disaster. The mostly unknown cast of the film, aside from Napier and Sanderson, are doing an acceptable job, albeit Jim Youngs comes off as a rather pale hero. The incomparable Charles Napier has, in fact, the best scene of the movie, as he, already dying, grabs one of the mosquitoes, crushing it with his bare hands, shouting: "I got one! I got one!" The special effects are mostly acceptable for a low budget movie like this, albeit not entirely convincing. Especially the "mosquito-point-of-view" shots, done with a special camera, are undoubtedly an asset to the film. SKEETER is certainly not more than an average B-monster movie with a few lengths, but due to its effective and sympathetic style it stands out positively from the usual direct-to-video stuff.

Illegally dumped toxic waste causes a bunch of mosquitoes to mutate into huge lethal bloodsucking critters who naturally prey on the local yokel residents of the sleepy hick desert town of Clear Sky. Capably directed with lip-smacking panache by Clark Brandon, with a steady pace, bright, crisp cinematography by John Lambert (the blurry green-tinted mosquito POV shots are a total riot!), deliciously grotesque and disgusting enormous insect monsters, likable well-drawn characters, a lively, rattling, harmonic score by David Lawrence, and a nicely spooky and mysterious atmosphere, this baby rates as a whole lot of entertainingly inane horror creature feature fun. Moreover, the strong cast helps a lot: Jim Youngs and Tracy Griffith are solid and engaging as the main protagonists, plus there's cool supporting performances by Charles Napier as the corrupt macho redneck sheriff, William Sanderson as an affable government health inspector, Jay Robinson as a blithely amoral evil land developer, Eloy Casados as a noble Native American deputy, and John Goff as Griffith's weary rancher dad. The ever-flaky Michael J. Pollard contributes a funny turn as a resident eccentric. George "Buck" Flower has a nice bit as a hillbilly hunter. Granted, the special effects are really hokey and the story is thoroughly cornball, but these admittedly silly elements are part and parcel to the picture's endearingly goofy charm.