Short episode: The Kirlian Frequency: The Masters of the Night

Director: Cristian Ponce

First aired: 2017

Contains spoilers

And this will necessarily contain spoilers as this episode of the Argentinean animation played with genre tropes effectively but did broadcast its twist from early into its ten-minute running time.

The series itself is set in the city of Kirlian and centres on a radio station and the late-night host. In this case the main character of the story is ringing into the station (as she finds the number as an emergency contact – and is told the cops don’t work at night in Kirlian). Each episode is a short horror type story but isn’t that horrific, rather it captures a really nice sense of the uncanny – helped by the stylised animation.

the bikers

The narrator of this tale was travelling to a hospital, where a friend she had argued with had been taken after crashing whilst travelling home alone. A motorcycle passes by her and the pillion passenger looks directly at her with glowing green eyes. Her car breaks down a few kilometres later (in Kirlian) and a good Samaritan calls a friend who has a garage and they take her downtown to get a room for the night.

the Lost Boys

Passing by a plaza she sees the guys from the motorcycle with friends, who shout towards her – which she ignores. She does make a judgement about them sleeping all day, partying at night and thinking they’ll never die (the source of this reference, obviously, the Lost Boys). In her room she washes her clothes but a neighbour starts releasing a smoke – to keep away the bugs, he says, the bloodsuckers. Without him knowing she puts out the source of the smoke.

encounter

She is awoken with the man arguing with others – things go silent and she goes to his room, the door ajar, clearly blood on the floor, but before she enters she is stopped by one of the bikers, who asks what she is doing in Kirlian – she notices that his feet do not touch the floor. Outside the good Samaritan appears, holding a stake, but is grabbed.

mosquito form

The woman, having spoken to the radio host and then discovering that her friend has died in hospital, comes to a conclusion and goes to the plaza, saying they should let the Samaritan go and take her instead. She explains that she doesn’t want to die and knows they are vampires and can make her one of them. And the twist, they are not vampires and will not live forever – they are mosquitoes in human form (so, a kind of vampire then, we’ve covered a few films that merge vampires with human shaped mosquitoes). Will she get to leave Kirlian again?

Salem's Lot

That, of course, is the question and I won’t spoil that but the episode itself is wonderfully off-kilter, the dialogue we hear is from the woman speaking to the radio host, but conversation within the story makes use of subtitles. I rather liked the whole series and this episode was wonderfully referential and enjoyable. I also need to mention a later episode in the season, The King of Christmas, where the radio host tries to make it Christmas Day in spring (due to a predicted disaster threatening to prevent the real Christmas). A caller repeatedly suggests various scenarios are occurring that are clearly from Stephen King and so, at one point, mentions a child next door dying but now floating at his brother’s window, ala Salem’s Lot.

The imdb page for the Masters of the Night episode is here.

A Mosquito-Man – review

Director: Michael Manasseri

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

Science goes mad and creates a mosquito human hybrid… its actually not an unheard of trope and the madness of the science is underlined by the fact that in every example (as well as this film we have also looked at Mansquito & Weresquito: Nazi Hunter) the mosquito human hybrid is male… and male mosquito’s don’t drink blood (they actually feed on tree sap, it’s the female mosquito that feeds on blood). Ok… perhaps that is thinking about it too hard!

bring on the mad science

The other thing to note is that it isn’t always necessarily enough to make the film a fully-fledged vampire movie – Mansquito actually became essentially a giant bug, rather than the hybrid that might lend itself to be called a vampire. But in this case the creature is a hybrid and we are definitely playing with the tropes – indeed vampires are mentioned at one point (in a dismissive way).

being drained

The first thing to note about this budget film is… it's great fun. Silly, yes, but great fun. It starts in a swamp, a mosquito settling on a hunter and being splatted for her trouble. The scene really is just a mosquito moment, with no story impact. Then we are in the city and a woman, Evelyn (Jordan Trovillion), is at an ATM when she realises that two muggers (Derek Faraci & Nathanial McClure) are behind her. She runs and they chase. She manages to mace one but ends up in a blind alley. Across the cityscape runs the Mosquito-Man (Michael Manasseri, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He sucks the blood out of the first mugger with a long proboscis that emerges from his mouth and pierces the victim's throat (similes to the vampire work of Del Toro spring to mind) and then drains the other through his forehead. Evelyn faints.

the cops

She is being removed from the alley on a paramedic’s gurney. Two cops, hard-assed Shanahan (Monty Bane, Sleepwalkers) and Bowen (Danny Mooney), have got the case. They see the coroner (Lee Thomas) who confirms the victims have been exsanguinated. Like some kind of vampire? The coroner says no – a vampire would have left two punctures not one! So more like a mosquito then. The film then folds back to earlier that day…

Jim's having a bad day

Jim (Michael Manasseri) is a nice guy. Too nice (and unobservant) to notice that his shrew of a wife, Jackie (Kimberley Kates, Kindred: the Embraced), is cheating on him – cutting her call to her lover as he walks into the room. On his way to work he picks up co-worker Evelyn – she, it becomes apparent, is in love with him. He is hoping to get a promotion at the nuclear plant he works at but his boss, Mr Kopple (Lloyd Kaufman), promotes his rival Dan (Ted Myers) instead and sacks Jim. Jim’s car has been towed from the company parking lot as he no longer works there. On the way home he spots Jackie’s car at a motel and sees her with… you’ve guess it… Dan.

hybrid

With rain falling he runs into traffic but the car heading for him stops. In it is Dave (Ricky Wayne) who takes him to a bar and gets him drunk. When Jim passes out he takes him to his lab… What I haven’t mentioned is that the world is being ravaged by a mosquito borne virus and Dave is trying to find a solution to it. He injects the insensible Jim with an experimental serum and releases mosquitoes into the room – if it works they won’t bite Jim but he is indeed, eventually, fed upon and goes into a fit and dies. His body is dumped in an alley but a swarm of mosquitoes descend on it and he suddenly revives (so, technically, he has come back from the dead). The mosquito DNA in the serum, the bites and his exposure to nuclear material causes him to mutate. He hears Evelyn scream and we are back at the scene from the start of the film. From there he starts to avenge himself on those who wronged him.

summoning the swarm

So, he is faster, stronger (he is able to punch through three inch, bullet proof glass) and at one point seems to vanish. He now sees in a compound way (his eyes have multiple pupils) and he needs to feed (and, once sated, breed). He can summon swarms of mosquitoes – sometimes, it appears, from nearby and at other times from within him. He is able to see through the eyes of his mosquito swarm. He is able to perch up walls. Much of this comes out of the vampire playbook. Daylight isn’t an issue – but in his lab Dave has a giant bug zapper! And, as I said at the start, it’s fun.

Jordan Trovillion as Evelyn

All the cast seem to be having a blast – specific mention going to Monty Bane, who is great as the hard-headed cop, and Jordan Trovillion who gives some fantastic looks and offers a solid performance. Most of all Michael Manasseri is clearly having a blast. This is not serious, how could it be, but is played with a wink and a tongue in its cheek. The film is on a budget but does great things with it, considering said budget. Its sort of a creature feature meets super (or anti) hero flick with a hybrid bug vampire. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Weresquito: Nazi Hunter – review

Director: Christopher R. Mihm

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

When I looked at the flick Mansquito I did so as an ‘Honourable mention’ on the basis that it was of genre interest but the lack of self-awareness in our victim/villain made it difficult to rationalise any other way than he was a man-sized mosquito. This is not the case here, our primary is very much self-aware.

I will say at the outset, however, that the blood sucking way of the mosquito is a trait of the female of the species – the male would more likely suck sap from trees… Ok, mentioned, we won’t return to that factoid.

We begin with a black screen, the sound of a woman’s heavy breathing and the muffled sound of shouting and breaking objects. Then we see, in a chink of light, that the woman (Christi Jean Williams) is in a cupboard, hiding. The door is broken, punched through, by a monstrous hand and then we see the giant mosquito head… The black and white theme is carries on through the film, adding a dimension, rather than taking away. The film reminded me very much of a 50s drivethru and kudos for adding that genuine nostalgia into the film.

James Norgard as Schramm

A man awakens and we see in blurry POV that he is in some form of hospital or laboratory. Implements adorn the walls as does a portrait of Hitler. The man realises he is chained. Into the room comes Schramm (James Norgard), mad Nazi scientist who refers to the man as Little Piggy. He talks to the man (and mocks him also) and we glean that he intends to experiment on him. That he deems the man hardy enough to survive *the process*. He is an American soldier, his tank became an inferno but he managed to escape it, was shot 17 times but is still alive.

awakening on the road

Years later and the man awakens on the road. He is John Baker (Douglas Sidney) and there is a spot of blood at his mouth – note that blood is red in this, stark against the black and white. He wipes it away with his hand. He follows the road into New Berlin. In a diner a man addresses the waitress, Leisl (Rachel Grubb), in German. She reminds him to use English. Now this isn’t some alternate America, where the Nazi’s won the war, but a town with a large German immigrant population. Baker comes in and the man notices blood on his mouth. Don’t worry, Baker reassures, it isn’t his.

Rachel Grubb as Leisl

When alone with the waitress he asks her if she knows anyone named Schramm – an old war buddy. She doesn’t. He also asks if there is a room for rent. A drunk man, Eric (Daniel Sjerven), enters – he is Leisl’s ex and demands she comes with him, which she resists. John gets involved, saves the girl and is offered a room at hers. At hers Eric comes around again, Leisl is knocked out and at the sight of her blood he changes. When Leisl comes around John suggests he dealt with Eric (by talking him round) and she lets him know that one of his leads, Hans Gruber (Christian Finch), does live in town.

confronting Gruber

So, clearly many of these upstanding US citizens were actually German collaborators and know the whereabouts of Schramm. Schramm himself has created the weresquito and so let us address the “were” aspect. Stoker suggested, “The Wehr-Wolf is but a variant of the Vampire” (Lady of the Shroud), but as the genres developed the werewolf and vampire parted company to quite an extent (which left a trope of bad blood between them and pitched them, often, as enemies). However this is not a were-wolf but a were-mosquito and so that traditional connection is strengthened by the fact that the mosquito drinks blood.

the weresquito

Indeed Schramm suggests (when experimenting on John) that blood will be all he needed to keep going as a super soldier. Schramm also has given John a trigger (and we see that he cannot change by force of will alone), which is the sight of blood. Of course John can force himself to see blood (by cutting his hand, for instance) and force a change. His turn back is after he is spent (there is a degree of Hulk envisioned here, he even mutters a “you wouldn’t like me” line). However when the weresquito he is mentally absolutely still John; aware of what he is doing and able to communicate.

Douglas Sidney as Baker

The film is clearly a budget one, but the black and white brought 50s 'B' to mind and the budget, therefore fit. The physical effects aren’t marvellous but they are adequate due to the deliberate pitching at the drive-in level. The film is 71 minutes so doesn’t outstay its welcome and there is a genuine chemistry between Douglas Sidney and Rachel Grubb that carries the viewer along – indeed Sidney comes across as very personable and very natural in his performance generally. I rather enjoyed this one, as budget and 'B' as it is (or because of that). 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.