User Reviews

Known by several other titles (Mosquito der Schänder, Bloodlust: The Black Forest Vampire, Bloodlust: The Vampire of Nuremberg, Mosquito and Mosquito the Rapist), this is a dark and disturbing 1970's Eurohorror based on the macabre true story of Kuno Hofmann, the "Vampire of Nuremberg."

Mondo Macabro describes this one as a "grown up fairy tale, albeit one that includes bloodsucking, eyeball evisceration and voyeuristic lesbian sex scenes among a host of other activities." That pretty much covers it!

Director Marijan Vajda mainly worked in documentaries, which is a way of seeing this film. No one is named, but The Man (Werner Pochath, who was in both Ratman and Thunder 3, so he's on the Sam movie spectrum) is a deaf and mute accountant who has been abused his entire life, from a father that beat him and raped his sister in front of him to his fellow schoolmates attacking him and now, his co-workers and neighbors with treat him with scorn. Maybe it's because he's weird. Maybe it's because he's so quiet. Maybe it's because he plays with dolls.

The only light in his life is The Girl (Birgit Zamulo), who dresses up all day and dances, and may be potentially just as damaged as our hero. The Mother warns her to stay away from The Man, because there's something off about him.

At night, The Man tries to visit prostitutes, but he can't communicate or perform. Soon, only the dead provide him with comfort, as he starts slicing up bodies, decapitating them, stealing their eyes and even using a glass straw to drink their blood. He starts leaving a graffiti tag behind, the words M.Q. or Mosquito, and the press panics the city with news of a modern day vampire.

The living are still safe until The Girl falls from the roof, in an act that we're left. to believe may or may not be suicide. Losing the only person he really loves sends The Man over the edge and into a spiral of violence after he fails to bring her back to life by feeding her his blood.

This bit of Swiss weirdness isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's slow moving, but I wasn't bored. By the time The Man gets to killing, it descends into the sleazy madness hinted at by the back of the box. But it's a near-silent meditation on trying to escape abuse and man's continual inhumanity to man. It also starts with a great square up real that attempts to paint this movie as an educational experience when all it really wants to do is get you to watch the creeptastic carnage on display.

I'd never heard of this before and was pleasantly surprised that it's such a sensitive -- well, as sensitive as a vampire movie with plenty of gore can be -- and well-acted film.

Don't be fooled people - MOSQUITO THE RAPIST is not nearly as twisted as some reviews would have you believe. To be honest, I think the name alone is misleading, as I don't recall a single actual rape in the whole film...but still - there is something "compelling" about this film...

The story centers around a deaf/mute man who was severely beaten by his father (which caused his condition) and then watched as his young sister was molested by Pops (in a scene that although was not TOO over-the-top...the graphic "old man's hands on young girl's nekkid butt-cheeks kinda bothered me...). Through flash-back sequences, we learn that deaf-guy has been bullied and picked on all his life, and hasn't adjusted too well as an adult. For some inexplicable reason, he finds himself drawn to corpses that he finds at various morgues/funeral homes and plays out different scenarios with them, ranging from stabbing, to head-cutting-offing, to what becomes his personal "favorite" - stabbing them with a pronged tube-like device and drinking their blood. Everything goes down-hill when he starts getting more and more bold and starts leaving evidence behind...

Honestly - MOSQUITO THE RAPIST is a fundamentally flawed film. First off - unless embalming techniques have come a LONG way in Switzerland over the last 30 years, sucking "fresh" blood from a corpse isn't possible. They'd either be drained by the embalmer or the blood would be coagulated - maybe I'm being too picky, but it's true. And again, unless I somehow got a really chopped version (which I doubt) - the MOSQUITO THE RAPIST title is extremely misleading, as there was no corpse-humping to be found - another BIG disappointment. The film also suffers from several dull and unnecessary scenes of Mosquito cruising around town on his little scooter/moped that became boring to the point of distraction (think LUCKER THE NECROPHAGUS and the aimless "walking" scenes and you'll get the picture). The voice-over dubbing is sub-par but passable - I would have preferred to see this one subtitled. The ending is also quite abrupt and leaves nothing really resolved, as though the director had no idea how to adequately end the film and just gave-up.

Now to the good points - Werner Pochath as "Mosquito" was extremely well-cast and believable. He's a creepy guy and he works well in the role. The film itself is pretty well-shot and appears to have had at least a semi-decent budget for being a relatively unknown European exploit film. There's also a weird 70's "charm" about the film that's undeniable.

Obviously MOSQUITO THE RAPIST had a big influence for later necro-themed films such as NEKROMANTIK - but unfortunately, it felt as though the concept was too "ahead of it's time" to be pulled off effectively in this film. As I've been trying to see this film for about a year now, and have heard very good things about it - I was disappointed at the relative lack of "graphic" material depicted. I would definitely say its a "must-see" for hardcore exploit fans, but don't get your hopes up to see any truly sick material...7/10

This German stomach-churner is an example of the exploitation genre at its meanest and most mean-spirited. The slow, slow, slow paced story concerns a young man with a rather morbid obsession – he's infatuated with corpses, and his obsession eventually leads him to suck their blood through a glass straw. There's nothing more to the film than that. Some might say that this is a character study of somebody suffering from extreme perversion, but the film doesn't really have much to say about the protagonist's condition, and instead the director is happy to dwell on one scene of unpleasantness after another.

For a low budget German splatter film of the '70s, the production values are surprisingly high and the camera work is good. It's a shame that the script is almost non-existent and the pacing is so slow; on top of this, the film is largely repetitive, with a scene of bloodsucking followed by other morbid moments, ad infinitum. Thankfully the cheap special effects lessen the revolting nature of Mosquito's crimes somewhat, although all of the gore effects – from the messy blood sucking to the 'hero' removing a corpse's head and pulling the eyeballs from another body – are distasteful in the extreme, and the film opens with a scene of child abuse that proves to be a little bit too near the knuckle and will have most viewers switching off there and then. And, of course, as this is an exploitation movie, there are lots of naked women, both dead and alive, including an obligatory lesbian scene thrown in to pad out the running time.

The only real reason to watch this film is for the performance of Werner Pochath. He's astonishingly good in the titular role; although he plays a deaf-mute, he really puts across his character's psychology and at the same time makes his protagonist a sympathetic one. In a career of playing heavies and bad guys, Pochath may well give his best performance and it's a crying shame that most people will never get to see it, put off by the repulsive subject matter. Still, Pochath isn't enough to lift this sickie from the doldrums, where it carries out the double crime of being utterly unpleasant AND boring, both at the same time.

"Mosquito der Schänder" or "Mosquito the Rapist" or "Bloodlust" is a Swiss film from 1977 made by Marijan Vajda and Mario d'Alcala and it's a German language film. Famous director Jesús Franco is known for producing films in Switzerland during that time that were a mix of horror and sex and this is exactly it. It may not be a Franco production, but it is possibly inspired by his work. Next year, this film will have its 40th anniversary. I cannot say I am familiar with any of the actors in here, but then again, this is not an actors' film at all. It is all about the shock factor and the horror. This may be one difference to Franco, the necrophilia and horror component are bigger than his films and there is less graphic sexuality instead.

The movie runs for slightly under 90 minutes and takes us into the life of a man with severe physical as well as emotional disability. And when another character, the woman of his dreams, dies, he loses it completely and goes out killing people. I must say this is nowhere near the likes of "Angst", not a masterpiece of the genre, but the film still has some solid moments and overall I would not call it a failure. Nonetheless, the story-telling is simply not great, so this film is only enjoyable when you are in search of something to shock you. That's why, all in all I give it a thumbs-down and only recommend it to lovers of then genre. Everybody else should better stay away.

This film is sometimes referred to as Mosquito The Rapist. Bloodlust is a much more fitting title, especially since our "hero" never rapes anyone at all. Although the film was floated around on the tongues of those who sought to ban films under the Video Nasties era, and it probably was banned or severely edited, the movie was not an official entry on that list. Still, it probably should have been. The back of the currently available DVD version(also in Spanish, hurray!) takes you back to the time before the Nasties, as the producers decided to show, on the back of the DVD case, two nude women enjoying a box lunch while Mosquito watches, with smaller photos of blood drinking, disembodied eyeballs, and a decapitation. Let's hear it for the Swiss! The plot revolves around a deaf/mute man who works as a clerk in some nondescript office and lives in a small apartment, and how he is the subject of intense ridicule at both locations. One drunken neighbor slaps him around, other neighbors don't trust him and gossip about him whenever he's around(he can't hear it anyway!). His co-workers are constantly playing jokes on him, including feeding on his love of girl's porcelain dolls by visiting a sex shop and enticing him with a blow-up girl. There isn't one specific instance where Mr Mosquito snaps and becomes a depraved lunatic. His life, often revealed through flashbacks, shows a poor creature who was so severely beaten by his father that Mosquito became deaf and dumb. We also catch an unsettling glimpse of his father, after thoroughly trouncing Mosquito, deciding to fondle his own daughter. Yikes. So, up through manhood, our intrepid hero lived in a world of silence, where we are privy to all that goes on around him, but he is not. His childhood haunts him, his co-workers and neighbors think he's a freak, so, naturally, he simply becomes one.

He's been collecting dolls for some time and has a small collection in his apartment. This dates back to memories of his sister's doll being smashed by their father after the previously mentioned pseudo-incest scene. The dolls are silent and watching, just like him. We never learn what happened to his family as they are never shown or mentioned in the current timeline. Mosquito has no friends, but he does have a slight infatuation with a neighbor girl, a free spirit who seems to love nothing more than to dance the day away whenever you see her. So, after a time, Mosquito does what we all will probably do someday....he breaks into a funeral home and starts stealing body parts! Here is where the gruesome scenes come in. However, we must first note that none of these bodies have been embalmed. Maybe that's a cultural thing, but I'm fairly certain that funeral practice takes place in Europe. Anyway, if the bodies were embalmed, we wouldn't have a film. He begins by cutting a few girls, then later, he removes a girl's eyeballs and takes them home to put in a jar, occasionally playing with them. Then decapitation and general stabbing of corpses takes place.

Now, don't think Mosquito himself doesn't realize he's a freak. He makes several attempts to be intimate with women, living ones, that is, but he just can't seem to get turned on. So, off to the cemetery to dig up a date! But, even then, he never actually has sex with any of the bodies. He does kiss them, and, like his namesake, begins to drink their blood. Purchasing some strange sharp glass tubes that look like straws, he begins plunging the instrument into necks and breasts alike to enjoy a cherry Slurpee.

The best aspects of this film are that, even though it's low budget and horribly dubbed, you can really sense Mosquito's descent into madness, how he really is controlled by his bloodlust, having no will of his own. He's weak, can't stand up for himself, and probably has more than his fair share of real-world people who are exactly like him. A deranged score adds to his unnerving reality during the funeral home adventures. Recommend for fans of the sicko film, but be prepared for the slow burn.

This German horror film has to be one of the weirdest I have seen.

I was not aware of any connection between child abuse and vampirism, but this is supposed based upon a true character.

Our hero is deaf and mute as a result of repeated beatings at the hands of his father. he also has a doll fetish, but I cannot figure out where that came from. His co-workers find out and tease him terribly.

During the day a mild-manner accountant, and at night he breaks into cemeteries and funeral homes and drinks the blood of dead girls. They are all attractive, of course, else we wouldn't care about the fact that he usually tears their clothing down to the waist. He graduates eventually to actually killing, and that is what gets him caught.

Like I said, a very strange movie that is dark and very slow as Werner Pochath never talks and just spends his time drinking blood.

Well, well, this hard to find gem came in my hands as an official remastered DVD. So I was glad to have a go to see what Swiss could offer. Well, from the first five minutes your in a sleazy picture. A deaf mute guy remembers his youth, in a flashback we see him getting punished by his drunken father, but suddenly his teeny sister comes in, she begs her father to stop, but he turn his hands on her, pulling down her underwear and start touching her between her legs. Do I need to say more? The guy likes to have some blood on his body so he starts to find some, where else than at a mortuary. He first starts to rip out eyes or stabbing corpses but he hasn't got enough. He starts to suck the blood out of corpses and so we are in the domain of necrophilia, way before Nekromantik. He wants more so he has to kill persons in life. Beautiful filmed and perfect score makes this one a must see and a must have. As said earlier, it's an OOP and really hard to get. Maybe a bit to slow for some people but remember, it were the seventies. So it's not only watches and cheese that comes from Swiss.

I was on an IMDb quest for Bloodlust, a film from 1961, (horrible movie, btw, don't bother), and came upon this listing in my search. Reading about THIS Bloodlust movie made me curious, so I tracked it down on YouTube.

This is a Swiss horror film from 1977 with the original title Mosquito der Schänder (Mosquito The Rapist). I can understand the name change because our lead never actually has sex in this film, although others do. The version I saw was in the original German, without subtitles. I don't speak German, but as it turned out, I didn't need to. This could be a silent movie and you'd understand it just fine. In fact, the lead in this film portrays a deaf mute, and there is little dialog in the film anyway, as it mostly centers on him, and his violent interaction with dead women. And the great thing about dead people is they have nothing to say.

This is a truly creepy film in many ways, but suffers a bit from a low budget. Had this been an American film, I'm pretty sure it would have received an X rating in 1977, and would still receive an R if released today. The lesbian scenes and violence didn't bother me, but the drunken-Daddy/daughter part had me squirming in my seat. I'm not sure you'd want your kids watching the scenes where he's sucking the blood of dead women with a dual-pronged pipette either.

Definitely worth a watch for adult horror fans. Frankly, I didn't know the Swiss had this kind of movie in them.

Werner Pochtath is excellent as a traumatised deaf-mute office worker who's pushed over the edge by the cruel teasing of his co-workers. He visits a morgue and cuts up the recently dead female corpses with his knife. He removes one corpse's head, and the eyeballs from another. He goes one step further when he buys a glass straw and uses it to drink blood from the dead, and his murder victims. Scenes of Pochtath slurping blood like milkshake (and in one instance dribbling it over a dead person's face) are disturbing and unforgettable. He also collects dolls. This eerie, dreamlike obscurity is well-made and pretty fascinating (it's based on a true story). It should be as well known as George A. Romero's similar MARTIN (made around the same time). With Ellen Umlauf, some surprising nudity, a spooky soundtrack and odd dilaogue on the English language dub.

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