Color, 1976, 92m. / Directed by Marijan David Vajda / Starring Werner Pochath, Marion Messner, Gerhard Ruhnke / Astro (Germany R0 PAL) / WS (1.66:1)
This strange precursor to extreme European necrophilia yarns like Nekromantik and Lucker shares its era's fascination with blended art house aesthetics with repellent subject matter, a trait which arguably reached its zenith with Tenderness of the Wolves and Daughters of Darkness.
Still recovering from horrific abuse as a child, a nameless deaf mute accountant (The Cat o' Nine Tails' Werner Pochath) develops a fixation with blood spilling across his skin. Brief flirtations with ketchup and red ink seem to satisfy him at first, but soon he develops a taste for the stuff as well. Though he nurses a weird fascination for a neighbor girl who passes the time by dancing on the rooftop, he remains socially withdrawn with his coworkers and can't even find comfort in the arms of a hooker. One night he breaks into the property of the local coffinmaker and ravages the prettiest female corpse. Now addicted, he habitually raids the tombs of the dead and drinks blood from their throats via a spiked, double pronged glass straw. Authorities and citizens are incensed by the crimes and soon begin to cry for the deviant's own blood.
Shot in a staid and carefully composed style, Mosquito succeeds more by the perverse impact of its story than the uneven quality of its special effects; even an eyeball removal that would have been riotous in the hands of Lucio Fulci seems more disturbing here in concept than in execution. The camera often lingers on the blood spilling from Pochath's lips over the bodies of pretty girls, but overall it's more pathetic and weirdly poignant than disgusting. Add to that a deliberately irritating organ score, some strangely effective German village scenery out of a depraved fairy tale, and an oddly anticlimatic yet appropriate ending, and you've got one seriously twisted chunk of Eurosleaze.
Though not as memorable or accomplished as those two films, Mosquito der Schänder (better known as Bloodlust or simply Mosquito) offers a few haunting moments and maintains an eerie mood throughout, with director Vajda (who turned almost exclusively to German television afterwards) making the most of his grotesque set pieces.
The German DVD from Astro offers both the original German and English dubbed soundtracks. While the lack of optional subtitles is regrettable, the English track is serviceable enough despite the flatness of the voices. Image quality is absolutely beautiful, struck from a mint source with exceptionally robust colors. Detail is razor sharp throughout, and no element damage is apparent. Previous versions (including limitied U.S. and Japanese VHS editions) were fairly attractive, but this is by far the most satisfying of them all. Extras are limited to a photo gallery and a newly created "trailer" generated for the video release.
