Mosquito State is a pretty film. It’s drenched in colors and highly visual in every way. There is a gradual build-up of the incessant hum of the creatures everyone loves to hate. From time to time the film’s lifecycle is represented as though going through the motions of being a mosquito itself. It feels as though the man we were painstakingly watching will eventually transform into one of the insects he so obsessively attends to. Similar to the film The Fly, I waited and waited for Richard Boca to begin to resemble the state of a mosquito. Of course, that didn’t happen. Perhaps this is why the film, represented as a horror film was such a disappointment.
Richard Boca is a stockbroker analyst. Unlike The Wolf of Wall Street, there is no unbalanced affluent behavior. Richards’s office is boring. Richard, as a side note, runs the software code that determines how their company makes money. He is referred to as the Golden Goose, for having made so much money, everyone in his circumference is rich beyond anything considered reasonable. A chance encounter with a beautiful woman, Lena forms the beginning of Richards’s foray into madness.
The Mosquito Lifespan
Trying to make sense of a film as tumultuous as Mosquito State is like trying to understand the existence of mosquitos in the first place. They are at the top of the food chain of the most annoying thing in the entire world. So when Richards’s allergic reaction to a bite he receives results in him beginning a love affair with the insects, in his apartment, the mind begins to try to make sense of it all. He leaves water for them to breed in. Squashes fruit and sets a large table out for them to feed on. At night, he lets them feed on him.
Before long, Richard resembles something like a Frankenstein version of someone who forgot their repellent on a long trip outdoors, only worse. The massive swellings on his face and neck cause particular concern to his secretary who wants him to seek help. But Richard is consumed. Mosquito State, as an allegory, makes me feel a little dense. Firstly due to the specific nature of the context of the story. Stockbroking isn’t my thing. I won’t try and pretend I understand the intricate nature of this topic or the attributed financial crisis and how it all works. Surely it can’t be as simple as one in a group of bloodsuckers succumbing to giving back. However, what I do know is that Richard is unhappy with the work he has produced. His code has made everyone, including himself, rich, and now is the bane of his very existence.
Which Mosquito Repellent is Best?
Sadly, the only thing that made me uncomfortable about Mosquito State was the constant presence of the creatures. It’s a film that desperately feels like it wants you to connect all the dots of movie spray through its wide array of dark and ominous imagery. Performances serve their purpose, and empathy can surely be directed towards Richard both as a social outcast and a weirdo on the dating scene. A particular moment when he visits Lena, after leaving heavy doses of voice messages about still using the wine glass she drank out of was more unnerving than the swarming mosquitos. No amount of mosquito repellent will do. She casually remarked while they talked in his apartment that her cat was missing. Subsequently, he turns up at the bar where she works with a new one. He’s the type of character that frequents a different type of film. One where he would usually murder a whole bunch of people who might have taken her cat.
Mosquito State is not that type of story though. It’s more of a mood piece that makes you think you will eventually arrive at some kind of resolution. A story that draws you into its universe and whispers that it will tell you a secret but then, never does.
I give Mosquito State
2.5 meaningless droning out of 5
Mosquito State Full Movie Trailer
Shudder Movies
- Director Filip Jan Rymsza,
- Writers Filip Jan Rymsza and Mario Zermeno,
- Starring Beau Knapp, Charlotte Vega, and Jack Kesy.
- Produced by Royal Road Entertainment and distributed by Shudder.
- Where can I watch Mosquito State? The film is available on Shudder from the 26th of August 2021.
