loomis78-815-989034 Some marijuana growers in the California forest area are using steroids to enhance their plants. Unfortunately the effect has mutated the Ticks in the area to grow to about the size of a human hand. This happens at the same time that two social workers (Scolari & Allen) have brought a van full of troubled teens into the same area on a retreat that is supposed to help the kids with their problems. The group of kids is written as obnoxious or stupid so we could care less about what happens to them. Director Tony Randel seems to know this so he brings the ticks on early and the gooey bloody fun begins. Following a 1950's style monster movie plot, this movie has fun with the crawling creepy ticks doing maximum damage. Clint Howard as one of the pot growers makes the most of his limited screen time in a truly inspired and nasty demise. He gets his leg caught in a bear trap and the ticks burrow into his flesh which includes his face as he overacts and screams into the camera "I'm infested"! A truly fun scene that should put a smile on any horror film fans face. Randel keeps the action coming and the top notch gore by KNB will amaze and keeps any monster movie fan watching. The gory entertainment continues as you continue to ignore the bad characters being introduced and concentrating on what crazy thing the creepy little ticks are going to do next. The great mix of gore and entertaining fun doesn't necessarily make this frightening, but it does make it a great no-need-to-think action horror film that delivers. You may find yourself watching this one with your feet of the ground.

kclipper Here's a delightfully fast-paced film from the director who brought us such pleasantries as 'Hellbound: Hellraiser II'. Originally and appropriately titled, 'Infested' is an icky, gooey good time as an experimental bi-product of a marijuana growing process accidentally infects tick eggs and caused the deadly little buggers to grow into abnormal sizes (approximately that of sea-crabs). Meanwhile, The L.A. city Wilderness retreat, a program designed to help troubled teenagers adapt to new environments, is plummeted directly into the infestation.This is a rip-roaring homage to the classic "nature runs amok" genre, and a talented, young cast and good direction make it all work. These nasty, killer critters are fast and furious and burrow under the skin just as this flick will for it's audience as a cast of likable (and unsavory) characters must use their wits to survive in a really horrifying situation. This has above-average creature effects combined with some nice touches. (the ticks' venom causes hallucinations in their victims to add to the mayhem!). The band of youths and their adult supervision must barricade themselves into a cabin along with a couple of despicable cash-croppers, and it all lunges towards an unforgettable climax where Alfonso Ribeiro (of 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fame') projects one humongous insect from his writhing corpse in a spectacular showdown. Other good genre performances include Seth Green as a resourceful juvenile and Clint Howard as a wacky pot-farmer. It's a perfect example of how imaginative plot devices and suspenseful set-ups used in the right brew can make for a fun, comedic horror film.

TheDraytonSawyer I wanted to see Ticks for years! My local Blockbuster use to have a copy on VHS, but it was never in. It never did come in so I finally decided to just buy the movie. I'll have to say this movie was worth the long wait. Ticks has some great special effects and some very memorable scenes. Clint Howard is in the movie for quite awhile, he has one disgusting yet hilarious scene involving Ticks! You've also got Seth Green and the lady that played in Pinocchio's Revenge as the girl's mom. Ticks is about this group of teenagers that go in the woods to bond with each other. They don't end up bonding though, but the ticks sure like to bond to them. The ticks in this movie looked very creepy and were very well made too. I figured they'd look cheap, boy was I wrong. They ran, got bigger and even crawled around in places I never thought possible. This is a great horror comedy and one of the best killer ticks movies possibly ever made! I highly recommend it to any fan of killer bug type movies! Ticks gets a blood sucking 10/10

Skutter-2 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.