Horror Movie Review: Ticks (1993)

Imagine a horror B-movie about ticks that are juiced up on herbal steroids making them bigger & nastier. Now imagine the film has Carlton of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air fame playing an inner-city badass (They call me Panic ‘cos I don’t). Oh & include that it’s directed by the man who did Hellraiser 2: Hellbound & also has a young Seth Green involved.

How much fun would this movie be? Don’t you just want to see it? Well fear not because this movie does exist & it is brilliant.

So…in some back-water town the local farmers are spraying their crops (marijuana) with some form of herbal steroids to make them grow better. Unknown to them a bunch of tick larva also gets sprayed & it has a bad effect on them.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Holly & Charles run a ‘wilderness project’ for troubled teens. It involves taking them out somewhere isolated & helping them deal with their issues through team-bonding & work. Can you see where this is going yet?

Anyway, after getting the whole gang together they pile into a van & drive off into the woods right where the infected ticks are hanging about. These things have gotten big, are breeding all over the place & it doesn’t take long before the group are under attack.

Ok, a lot of people hate this movie but I have to stick up for it. For starters ticks are kind of creepy…I mean they attach themselves to you, find the warmest, darkest spot on your body & then spend a few days drinking your blood. That’s pretty nasty…in this movie the ticks are now the size of spiders & in an absolute belter of an ending…even bigger.

The movies biggest flaw comes with its slow pacing…for the first hour not a lot really happens but it’s worth hanging around because the payoff is well worth it.

The acting is pretty good overall but special mention has to go to Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton) for trying his hardest to come across as someone from the ghetto.

He can’t pull it of but you just find yourself rooting for him even if every line has you wanting to see ‘that’ dance.

Ticks has classic B-movie effects & they are pretty good especially at the movies climax, the gore gets ramped up & the silliness factor goes into over-drive.

(Can you tell I think you should watch it just for the last 20 minutes?)

Come on…its has mutant ticks, it has Fresh Prince’s Carlton trying to be a badass, it has some serious cool shit going down at the end. This is B-movie goodness….