{"id":8909,"date":"2024-11-25T15:10:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8909"},"modified":"2024-11-25T15:10:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:10:46","slug":"ticks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/25\/ticks\/","title":{"rendered":"Ticks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ticks <\/strong>(1993)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Republic Pictures\/Horror-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (sci-fi gore and violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tony Randel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Brent V. Friedman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christopher L. Stone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Steve Grass\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 25, 1994 (DTV)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rosalind Allen, Ami Dolenz, Seth Green, Virginya Keehne, Ray Oriel, Alfonso Ribeiro, Peter Scolari, Dina Dayrit, Michael Medeiros, Barry Lynch, Clint Howard, Rance Howard, Judy Jean Berns, Timothy Landfield, J.D. Stone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0POP QUIZ, MOVIE HOT SHOTS! What direct-to-video horror flick has a Bosom Buddy (NOT Tom Hanks), a Monkee\u2019s daughter, Scotty Evil, Carlton Banks and two Howards (NOT Ron)? Give up? The answer is Ticks<\/strong>, a surprisingly fun monster movie about killer mutant ticks. Directed by Tony Randel (Hellbound: Hellraiser II), it has more going for it than most DTV horror movies. It\u2019s set in a rural wooded area with a marijuana farm run by the two human villains, Sir (Lynch, Demonic Toys) and his flunky Jerry (Medeiros, Shakedown). Sir looks like the blonde-haired bad guy from Quiet Cool. Jerry may as well have stepped off the set of Deliverance right into this movie. They appear to be the only ones working the farm except for Jarvis, a weird little guy (and human victim #1) played by the one and only Clint Howard proving that he can get acting gigs in movies NOT directed by big brother Ron.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I never would have watched Ticks<\/strong> if I wasn\u2019t looking for something appropriate to pair with Slugs, TBT\u2019s other creature feature. I settled on it because I remember the poster hanging on the supply room door of the Pizza Hut I worked at in the late 90s. They must have gotten it from the West Coast Video that used to be next door. ANYWAY, I totally didn\u2019t expect to enjoy Ticks<\/strong> as much as I did. I figured it would be another crappy DTV movie best left to gather dust on the shelf. Boy, was I ever wrong! It\u2019s actually pretty great.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot has a group of troubled inner city teens going on a wilderness retreat led by Holly (Allen, Children of the Corn II) and Charles (Scolari, Bosom Buddies). Yes, they\u2019re romantically involved. The reluctant campers consist of Tyler (Green, the Austin Powers series), a kid with a fear of the woods related to a childhood trauma; Panic (Ribeiro, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), a thuggish type accompanied by his dog; spoiled princess Dee Dee (Dolenz, She\u2019s Out of Control), her boyfriend Rome (Oriel, Blood In, Blood Out), Charles\u2019 sullen daughter Melissa (Keehne, Invaders from Mars) and traumatized teen Kelly (Dayrit).<\/p>\n

\u00a0So where do the killer mutant ticks come from? They\u2019re a result of exposure to the run-off of the steroid concoction Jarvis uses to grow the marijuana plants. They grow to be big, vicious and aggressive. They burrow into the skin of their victims. They also cause their victims to have LSD-like hallucinations. I just thought that could use some clearing up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ticks<\/strong> unfolds just like you\u2019d expect. The teens do stupid stuff, the adults are oblivious, the situation spirals out of control and everybody (bad guys included) ends up trapped in the same cabin by an army of killer ticks while a forest fire approaches. Of course, the bad guys will show just how really bad they are by trying to steal the only means of transportation out of the area at gunpoint. As if they didn\u2019t already prove it by killing the sole representative of law enforcement in that neck of the woods played by Howard #2 Rance, father to Ron and Clint.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When I watch horror movies where teens act like idiots, I always think of the immortal words of the late, great Mr. Hand (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) when he said, \u201cWhat are you people, on dope?\u201d Haven\u2019t they learned by now that going off to have sex in an isolated place is a BAD IDEA? It\u2019s also a bad idea to leave the campsite in an attempt to return home while there are gun-toting pot farmers afoot. And shouldn\u2019t Charles be a little more concerned about the big tick that attacks his daughter in the woods? He acts like it\u2019s no big deal. Why doesn\u2019t she show him where it got her? It\u2019s dumb stuff like this that makes Ticks<\/strong> a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The creature effects by Doug Beswick are terrific. I love that the ticks aren\u2019t CGI. They\u2019re puppets and models which adds to the movie\u2019s campy charm. The gore is authentic stage blood. There\u2019s plenty of it especially in the scene where a gigantic tick monster emerges from the dead body of a major character. The effects work in this movie is superior. It\u2019s one of the many praises of Ticks<\/strong>, a total throwback to the creature features that used to play at drive-ins on balmy summer nights. It takes place at an old summer camp. It has loony locals (but no Crazy Ralph), grotesque creatures, gross body horror, blood, ooze and slime. It has a decent cast that includes a few actors too old to be playing teens. Green is pretty good as anxiety-ridden Tyler. Ribeiro isn\u2019t entirely believable as an urban tough. Dolenz, daughter of Monkee Micky, is HOT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0What\u2019s cool is that Ticks<\/strong> has a sense of humor about itself. It\u2019s about killer mutant ticks, how serious can it afford to be? It\u2019s as silly as they come. That\u2019s what makes it great fun. I never dreamed I\u2019d lavish such high praise on a DTV horror flick but it goes to show you can\u2019t always judge a movie by its VHS cover.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ticks (1993)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Republic Pictures\/Horror-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (sci-fi gore and violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tony Randel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Brent V. Friedman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christopher L. Stone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Steve Grass\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 25, 1994 (DTV)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rosalind Allen, Ami Dolenz, Seth Green, Virginya Keehne, Ray Oriel, Alfonso Ribeiro, Peter Scolari, Dina Dayrit, Michael Medeiros, Barry Lynch, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ticks-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9152,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8909\/revisions\/9152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}