Ticks (1994)

Absolutely Fantastic

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Director Tony Randel who also created other classic flicks, Amityville 1992: It's About Time 1992 and Hellbound: Hellraiser II has created a another gem in Infested.Starring Seth Green who has also been in another classic flick, Idle Hands 1999.Also starring Ami Dolenz.Also starring Rosalind Allen.I enjoyed the violence and special effects.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic insect flicks, Phenomena 1985, The Fly 1986, The Thaw 2009, Infestation 2009, Mimic: Sentinel 2003, Mansquito 2005, Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 1990, Sucker 2013, Bite 2015, Stung 2015 and Starship Troopers 1997.

Yet another creature feature about people going out into the wilderness and getting slaughtered by creatures. Well actually in "Ticks" the characters are considerably less expendable compared to other horror movies.Unsurprisingly there's also a couple of human antagonists. It's unsurprising for today, actually, but considering we're talking about something produced before Anaconda this actually slightly innovative I presume.As expected there's a few ticks running about, ticks that are large compared with average ticks but aren't say, giant monster size. They also sometimes burrow into their victims, causing average encounters to be pretty gory.Pretty generic, but Carlton's actor of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" playing a street thug was pretty entertaining. "Ticks" isn't bad although it's nothing I'd recommend.

"Ticks" is an absolute blast of a creature feature with a lot to love about it.**SPOILERS**Joining up on a wilderness retreat, Tyler Burns, (Seth Green) Darrel Lumley, (Alfonso Ribeiro) Dee Dee Davenport, (Ami Dolenz) Melissa Danson, (Virginya Keehne) Kelly Mishimoto, (Dina Dayrit) and Rome Hernandez, (Ray Oriel) go along with Holly Lambert, (Rosalind Allen) and her partner Charles Danson, (Peter Scolari) to an abandoned part of the forest. Adjusting to the quiet after living in the city, they try to adapt to the lifestyle but are soon at each other's throats. When they start to suspect that something maybe wrong with the local insect life after finding a gigantic tick, and find out that they're regular ticks overloaded with steroids from a local drug field. When they become trapped with the creatures in a cabin, they try to get out of the woods away from the bloodsuckers alive.The Good News: There was some great stuff in this one to help it out. One of it's biggest factors is that this one has a large amount of blood and gore, which is a great thing for this. The kills, what few there are, are incredibly bloody and have a lot of great stuff to them. There's a foot torn up from being caught in a bear-trap, a bite to the neck, a decapitation with the mandibles, the image of thousands of ticks exploding out of the face, some stabbing, tons of scenes of the ticks swarming over the victim and biting away as well as the single greatest scene in the film, the birth of the giant tick. This is a fantastic scene, and a lot to like here. The beginning, when the mandibles burst free from each leg is fun, the bulging limbs and stretching skin serve as tense moments before the rest of the legs break out, and then the splitting head where the horned head comes out is fantastic. When the rest of the body is ripped in half and the creature in full skitters out of the carnage, it's a fantastic image and works wonders for the film in several ways. Beyond the fantastic gore it provides, this one has a great representation scene to put the whole thing into context and also gives the film a look into it's area, the fantastic-looking ticks. These are truly fantastic-looking, not even remotely close to the CGI that plagues so many of the films but also gives them a realistic looking design as well. Their menacing looking and realistic execution of them is what drives them home as being believable creatures, and they're a lot of fun. The film's also got a lot of nice action scenes as well, with the chases through the pot-field away from the growers and the cultivating shack being big ones to generate some excitement. There's also the finale, which is absolutely fun. With the invasion from the pot-growers terrorizing them while the ticks converge on the outside and utilize every opportunity to get in. Those scenes are the best in the film, with the pot-growers trying to ward them off while keeping the hostages, causing a ton of collateral damage around the cabin and the exploding ticks being fun, the outside forest-fire closing in on them makes for some nice tension, and the fact that the ticks are constantly in the mix attacking them makes for some high-energy moments that work wonderfully. This one even has some really decent suspense scenes that generate some nice chills. The scene in the doctor's office is outstanding, as the surgery to get the tick out is pretty nice, the sight of the suddenly-springing-to-life creature is a nice jolt and the chest around the room is sheer gold. Long, drawn-out and tense, with some nice searching and inventive techniques to get it from both sides, and helps the film out. The other good scene, where the group discovers the dead patron in the pond after thinking it's only a fish is a nice jolt and actually worthwhile. The last big plus is that the film decides to use something else other than a human killer despite being in a campground setting. Making a creature feature out of the usual madman slasher set-up is something to be admired, and along with the other factors in here, constitute what make the film so entertaining.The Bad News: There's only one minor flaw to this film, and it doesn't really hurt it all that much. The fact that this one should've had a higher body count is the worst thing about it is a good thing, but it is somewhat irritating to see that most of the film has a lot of survivors here. Despite their being a lot of gore in this, the fact that almost all of the cast in here survives is a little troubling and a little more getting knocked off wouldn't have been a bad thing, but as it stands, it's really the only thing wrong with it.The Final Verdict: Without a whole lot to really dislike, this one is a really enjoyable and certainly entertaining creature feature. Worth a look for those who love these kinds of cheesy films or have an inordinate amount of love for the creature feature, while those who don't should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and drug use

Ticks is another entry in what seems to be an ongoing competition between B-grade film-makers to produce movies featuring the most harmless and innocuous of creatures turned into monsters- frequently made gigantic or at least larger than they normally are. Killer Ticks aren't the most ridiculous menace ever created in one of these movies as anyone has seen Night of the Lepus (killer bunny rabbits) or various 50's B-movies will attest but they certainly aren't convincingly threatening enough to be the monster in any movie. That is the main problems with Ticks, which is basically a serviceable B-movie. The Ticks are certainly icky little creatures which have gross-out value which is used to good effect here and the prospect of having one of them attached to you and sucking your blood is not a pleasant thought. The SFX used to portray the Ticks are actually pretty good and they are suitably gross little critters, a case of practical special effect doing a better job than CGI ever could and the gory scenes of them burrowing into the flesh of their victims are quite well rendered. My favourite scene was that of a Tick with a syringe stuck into it skittering across the floor, complete with the silly movie skittering sound. However, the Ticks could only be seen as a real threat in the most contrived of circumstances, which the movie does it's best to provide, via an area selective forest fire toward the end of the movie and are certainly not enough of a threat to pad out a 90 minute movie.It is clear the makers realised this and added in other elements such as the some human bad guys, in this case some gun wielding dope growers to generate some more conflict and danger (Not to mention running time) into the proceedings. None of this is particularly interesting nor is the clichéd character interaction between our group of main characters, some troubled teens from LA out in the woods with their counsellors on some kind of bonding. get back to nature program (The details are never made clear). The characters are barely sketched in and their interactions and conflicts are painfully hackneyed e.g. the teenage daughter of the lead counsellor who resents her father for dragging her along on these excursions and hates her step-mother. We don't even get a lot of detail about what the problems of these trouble teens are, in some cases none at all. The acting is pretty average and you get the impression that nobody is trying too hard.Despite this there is some fun to be had. The Ticks are actually pretty cool little creatures even if they aren't a believable threat and there is enough blood and goo around to liven things up between the bad character stuff. There are some really bizarre plot twists which succeed in making the movie more entertaining, such as the contrived circumstances in which the forest fire is started and the uber-ridiculous way in which an even bigger monster tick is created in the movies climax. I didn't know steroids could do that. I also liked the fact that the ticks became the way they were not because of government experiments or evil big companies dumping waste but because of weird growth agents being used by the Marihuana growers. It doesn't make much more sense but it is at least one lame cliché avoided. Then again it still has time for the lame clichéd kicker ending. I also got some entrainment from seeing a young Seth Green on screen, before he developed much personality and Alfonso Ribiero AKA Carlton Banks from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Anyone familiar with the character he is on the show will find his performance as the tough guy from the streets here most amusing.