There is no shortage of giant insect horror. The 1950s saw pioneers in this regard, giving us gigantic bugs of all varieties. The insects we saw wreak havoc in the fifties include, but are by no means limited to:

• Giant ants in Them! (1954)
• Beginning of the End’s enormous grasshoppers
• Extra-large killer wasps in Monster From Green Hell (1957)
• And you’ll never guess what was gigantic in The Deadly Mantis (1957)

Ants and spiders, especially, would be visited and revisited with time. However, surprisingly, it wasn’t until the nineties that giant mosquitoes began to grace silver screens. Since then, numerous movies have portrayed the blood-sucking creatures as gigantic. But Popcorn (1991) was the first horror movie to give us a giant killer mosquito, and we must pay homage to the OG.

On the instance that in the bowels of old Hollywood, there exists a gigantic mosquito horror movie that has been buried with time, I gracefully stand corrected – but still assert that Popcorn was the first to do so iconically.

Popcorn is an Underrecognized Horror Movie Pioneer

Released in 1991, Popcorn follows a group of film students organizing a horror-a-thon at a local theater. Each of the films they planned to show was individually equipped with interactivity for their theater audience, paying homage to one of horror’s greats: Willaim Castle.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, William Castle was a showman of horror. When his movies were released to theaters, he would find ways to make the horror interact with the viewers. This audience interactivity included things like:

• Having a giant skeleton fly over the crowd during House on Haunted Hill
• Giving the audience a chance to “vote” for the outcome in Mr. Sardonicus
• Installing buzzers underneath movie seats to “shock” audience members during showings of The Tingler

Anyone familiar with the film Popcorn will recognize the utilization of at least one of these methods in the film. As Popcorn’s film students and their teacher devise multiple schticks to accompany the films they will show throughout the night, they’d see these things go wrong in myriad ways that I won’t spoil for those unfamiliar with the film. We’re just here to talk about that giant mosquito.

Popcorn’s Giant Killer Mosquito

The first time we see the gigantic blood-sucking fiend in action is during Popcorn‘s “film within a film,” Mosquito!

Inspired by the 1950s horror trend of bugs turned giant, ‘Mosquito!’ seems like it was ripped from an actual black-and-white fifties horror film. In fact, Mosquito seemed so authentic that many moviegoers of Popcorn believed the movie existed in real life.

In reality, it was Alan Ormsby, the then-close friend of producer Bob Clark, who directed the movies within the Popcorn movie. In Joe Bob’s Haunted Halloween Hangout, horror connoisseur Joe Bob Briggs shared that Alan Ormsby was supposed to direct all of Popcorn, but unfortunately, their financiers were getting impatient with how long everything was taking to film.

Bob Clark was subsequently tasked with firing the leading actress and the director. Alan Ormsby was so dismayed at being fired from the film (by his friend) that he wanted no credit for his work, and the two men never spoke again. Because of this, you won’t see Alan Ormsby’s name come up on the credits. It’s a shame he didn’t want credit for his work, as the film’s many mini-movies are just as entertaining as the film itself: Mosquito standing chiefly among them.

Death by Mosquito

On the silver screen, Mosquito! gives us an exquisite kill as the bug bursts through the roof of a car with its gigantic hose nose and begins slurping the contents from a passenger’s skull. We’re treated to a lovely little deflated-head moment that immediately begs the question: Why is Popcorn the first to give us a killer mosquito of this magnitude? Others must have wondered the same as the horror movies Skeeter and Mosquito (1995) released a few years later – and we haven’t even gotten to the William Castle-inspired aspect yet.

At the risk of referring to the mosquito’s protuberance as a hose-nose again so soon, let’s delve into mosquito biology for a brief moment. The sucker on a mosquito is called the proboscis, and only the female’s proboscis is strong enough to pierce flesh. In the film Popcorn, the professor and film students devised a giant model mosquito to swoop over their movie theater audience during the showing of Mosquito! Unfortunately for them, this flying mannequin mosquito must have been female because its proboscis was strong as hell. The mosquito flies across the air, dazzling the movie audience, until finally coming to a stop when its hose-nose gets impaled deep into the chest of an unsuspecting victim.

This isn’t the only death by proboscis in the film, and it makes me shudder to think of what those hose noses would be capable of on a larger scale. Thankfully, the horror industry caught on, and now there’s no shortage of gigantic mosquitos in scary movies.

Over the years, many may come and go, but Popcorn is the innovator of brain-sucking, proboscis-impalement horror. Mosquito! alone proved that of all the bugs that can grow to obscene sizes, the mosquito is an underrepresented nightmare.

Before we go, I also want to recognize the Shock Clock in Popcorn. Please help me raise a massive demand for this clock in hopes that they’ll begin to manufacture it. Then, we can all enjoy one of the coolest clocks ever featured in a horror movie. Until then, a Felix the Cat clock will have to do.

Thanks for reading! For more fun horror content, discussion, contests, giveaways, news, and more, follow Horror Press on social media (@HORRORPRESSLLC).

The Silent Hill game franchise has been considered among players to be one of the biggest influences in the horror genre. Between its thought-provoking plots and truly unnerving monsters, complemented by the incredibly atmospheric music composed in most installments by Akira Yamaoka, it’s no wonder that the first game was chosen to be adapted into a feature film.

In April 2006, Silent Hill broke into theaters in the United States. I was still rather new to the world of horror gaming. With no real context or knowledge of the series, I went to see the movie anyway. Now I know that although the story of the film may change several key concepts about the plot (Rose taking the place of Harry being the biggest one and focusing hard on the whole, “Mother is God in the eyes of a child” thing). Overall, the film wasn’t necessarily a masterpiece. Still, there was something in that movie that amazed me: The incredible police officer Cybil Bennett, portrayed by the gorgeous Laurie Holden.

Cybil initially appears in the movie as a motorcycle-riding, no-nonsense, dedicated, driven cop. She even wears riding-appropriate attire, donning a leather jacket and a helmet! I immediately admired her for not only looking awesome but being smart. (I know wearing her sunglasses at night isn’t at all practical, but it still made her look tough and cool, okay?) However, what sealed the deal for me was in her first scene against a monster. A shambling creature approaches and spews noxious, acidic black goo all over Cybil, who stumbles away for a moment before ripping her helmet off. The rage on her face as she turns back around and fires on the monster, her short platinum blonde pixie cut mussed in this super slick and sexy way… I was taken aback at the level of unabashedly badass this character was. It might also have been one of the first times I realized I thought girls were cute. 

In a world full of horror adaptations, it seems many of them feature women with shoulder-length or longer hair (looking at you, Alice from Resident Evil), which I couldn’t identify with because I’d always kept my hair on the much shorter side. When Cybil graced the screen, it was incredibly refreshing to see that the film had shunned some of the more Hollywood-insisted “feminine” aspects that many female leads get pigeonholed into. She had short hair, she literally kicked ass, she carried confidence on her left and cunning on her right; she was a fighter that exhibited courage to the very end. 

Laurie Holden gave a performance that was moving and empowering, especially to a teenage girl looking for new role models (even if they were fictional). I had experimented with my hairstyle and color for years, but I will be damned if Holden’s short blonde pixie cut didn’t inspire me to keep my hair short and, years later, be comfortable being a blonde bombshell. Cybil’s portrayal of strength and powerful, capable femininity was a mind-blowing concept for me. I have seen some women in horror films be fearless and tough, but in the face of nightmarish abominations and the fires of misguided cults, Cybil remains at the top of my list for one of the baddest bitches in cinema.

The movie may not be the greatest, and it definitely changes things from its source material, but Silent Hill gave me more than entertainment value. Because of Cybil, I found the ability to embrace my own strength in a way that is both powerful and feminine. I have developed an appreciation for the horror genre and its representation of women. I have gained confidence in rocking short hair. Most of all, however, I experienced a whirlwind of inspiration that has stuck with me for the last 18 years.