Ticks (1994)

The "nature strikes back" sub genre was particularly big in the 1970s after the success of "Jaws", but it's proved to have real staying power ever since, as evidenced in this no-fooling- around, gleefully gory mutant killer insect flick. The title insects have increased in size and become more vicious than usual. This is all thanks to local marijuana growers who have used herbal steroids to speed up the growth of their crops; their system has developed a leak and contaminated the resident ticks. Now a group of troubled kids and their two chaperones have come to the woods for a getaway and will serve as a potential smorgasbord for the ravenous blood sucking beasts. You know you'll be in for a good time perusing the cast list of this one: Rosalind Allen, Ami Dolenz, Seth Green, Alfonso Ribeiro, Peter Scolari, Barry Lynch (younger brother of Richard Lynch), and Clint *and* Rance Howard. The assorted young ladies are all quite attractive to look at, and the performances are all pretty entertaining. As many others before me have noted, it's hard NOT to be amused by the prospect of Ribeiro, otherwise known as Carlton from TVs' 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', unleashing his inner gangsta. Green is a likable enough young hero, Clint H. is an absolute hoot as always, and Lynch is, like his sibling, good at creating a suitably scuzzy villain. Director Tony Randel ("Hellbound: Hellraiser II") keeps everything moving at a good clip, and gets things off to a truly juicy start. The KNB makeup effects group create lots of wonderful visuals bound to get the audience going "Ewww..." on a regular basis. The highlight involves a sort of giving-birth type gag, and people are sure to love it. Things build nicely to a fairly exciting climax with the characters confined to a small rural location in the "Night of the Living Dead" tradition, and a forest fire raging out of control. All in all, this is very acceptable "turn your brain off and enjoy" gooey and grisly mayhem done with style and humour, and an unsurprisingly "it ain't over yet" kind of ending. Seven out of 10.

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.

The woods are teeming with a mutant strain of ferocious ticks, bred on the cannabis residue from a massive hydroponics operation. Motley crew of kids and their counsellors become the menu when the ticks begin to hatch and hunt the local townsfolk. Geeky agoraphobic (Seth Green, pre "Austin Powers" fame) proves his inner mettle as the group battle to escape from the clutches of the over-sized parasites, and two local crooks intent on protecting their 'agricultural' interests.Competently handled and taut little time-filler with above average visual effects starts off a little slowly, but soon accelerates into over-drive with action and gore galore. Local weed weasel (Clint Howard) utters the immortal line (which is also this film's alternative title) as the rampaging critters course throughout this body, exiting via his face as he contends with a bear trap on his leg, and multiple self inflicted shot gun wounds. His painful-looking, prolonged writhing lasts well over half the length of the film, so his eventual demise must have been welcome relief.There's some sentimentality and character development interspersed, but it by no means inhibits the full-throttle approach by director Randel, demonstrating the value in containing arbitrary plot diversions and focusing on the core action. Picturesque scenery and pulsating music underscore the horror, while the stop-motion visual effects look impressive (if sometimes a little too paced). As you'd expect, each of the characters define themselves with various acts of heroics, in the process, restoring the confidence and self-image issues with which they arrived to take part in the retreat. Overall, it's an entertaining (if somewhat gruesome at times) way in which to spend an hour and twenty minutes, and save for a pedestrian first thirty minutes or so, should have you on the edge of your seat thereafter.

This was a decent effort from Tony Randel who doesn't have much more to his credit than Hellraiser II and Amityville '92. It's another uninspired "giant animals created by toxic waste" plot but it turns out to be surprisingly watchable. A group of city kids in one of those "fresh air" programs take a vacation to the countryside. In the woods nearby a marijuana grower (Howard) is testing an illegal steroid on his plants, but the chemical apparently gets to a nest of ticks in the barn where he works. The ticks get out into the woods and terrorize the group of kids and two social workers. A lot of people that saw this movie said it had a terrible plot, crappy acting and fake special effects. Well it is a horror movie. What do you expect? I looked at it less as a boring low-budget effort and more as a retrospective homage to older drive-in monster movies, much like 1988's "Slugs" and "The Nest" (which is very similar in pacing, sequencing, and special effects to Ticks). The effects in my opinion are great, done by stop-motion animator Doug Beswick of Terminator fame. The ticks are hideous, slimy, misshapen things; they pop out of these slimy egg sacs filled with dark brown goop. There's buckets and buckets of slime and nasty stuff here; there may not be a particularly high body count but it's more than made up for with plenty of other nasty effects. (A tick burrows under one guys face and blood sprays from his empty eye socket) Also the ending is a bit far-fetched and amazingly over the top. You'll see what I mean.