Jul 11

Why You Should Watch 'Ticks' (1993 Horror Film)

Pitching You Something Watchable to Check Out: 'Ticks'

Ticks is this 1993 direct-to-video sci-fi horror film which was directed by Tony Randel (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Amityville 1992: It's About Time, Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth). If your memory is still good then you might remember it being called 'Infested' in some countries - which is an apt description!

Ticks features a number of well-known to semi-well known character actors. You have Seth Green (of Buffy, Family Guy and Robot Chicken fame). There's NZ actress Rosalind Allen (shout out to our NZ listeners/readers) who played the ridiculously sexy Doctor Wendy Smith on SeaQuest DSV. You have Ami Dolenz who is the daughter of Micky Dolenz (from pop band The Monkees) and who appeared on a slew of 90s tv shows and movies like Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, Murder She Wrote, Saved By the Bell: The College Years and even starred on the Ferris Bueller tv show as fan favourite character Sloane Peterson.

Then you have Barry Lynch who won an award for starring in a theater production for Of Mice and Men. You have Ron Howard's brother, Clint Howard, who always plays the weird or homeless or drug-fucked or loner or misfit guy on movies and tv shows like Apollo 13, most of the Star Trek iterations throughout the 1990s, Fringe, My Name Is Earl, and The Waterboy. Then finally, you have Alfonso Ribeiro, who we all know and love as Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air who is (hilariously!) the bad guy in this movie.

And that's just mentioning a few of the main players in the cast!

'Ticks' Still Photo: Clint Howard's character runs around panicking as a Tick has burrowed itself deep inside his face!

So you have all these incredible character actors in this direct-to-video sci-fi horror movie about a drug dealer who is using steroids to enhance not only his marijuana plants but also in his side-project where he's using the 'roids to experiment on ticks. Unfortunately, for this group of teens who are on this inner-city wilderness project as a form of therapy to overcome their fears (and in some cases addictions), the ticks mutate into super large bugs that either attach themselves to trees or to the unsuspecting humans themselves.

I won't spoil too much of Ticks for you but because the movie culminates in the ticks overrunning the woods and laying siege on this cabin where the teens and their guardians are staying, it becomes like this mix of Aliens meets Dog Soldiers. You see them skittering all over the ground and squealing when they're killed which adds this creepy, goosebump inducing level of fear to the viewing.

Funnily enough, this movie was marketed in video stores with a movie poster that looked very much like it could've been part of the budget promoting a film in the Alien franchise. There's even a chest bursting moment but I won't spoil who that happens to. Ticks is absolute schlocky, B-rated, sci-fi horror greatness that clocks in at well under 2 hours!