Let's see...spiders, ants, piranha's, rabbits, bees...No, we didn't have giant murdering ticks yet. BRING 'EM ON !!! Maybe that's a bit rough, but in fact it's the basic idea behind this movie. The story is as old as horror itself but it still works and, more importantly, it's still fun !
Somewhere in a God-forsaken town, the local farmers found a new spray for their crops ( their crops are marijuana in this case. That's new! ) but of course the bugs start to grow to enormous size as well and begin to attack humans! A group of troubled teenagers who're there for some sort of consciousness-weekend become the main target. OK, Ticks is filled with the obvious "monster-clichés" but it's a well made and highly entertaining B-movie. I confess, director Tony Randall can't do much wrong in my eyes. This man made the very good Hellraiser sequel Hellbound, so I'm interested in all other films he made. Ticks also has a few familiar faces. Clint Howard to begin with. This guy is doomed again to play the weird loner who becomes the first victim of the killer bugs. Seth Green had one of his first major film roles in this film as well. He looks pretty dorky here, but it sure didn't stop him from building up a decent career in Hollywood. Alfonso Ribeiro is also a part of the cast but it's pretty laughable to picture him as a "bad-ass" from the ghetto, when you keep in mind he played Carlton in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for so many years. I didn't recognize the rest of the cast, but all the girls have sweet faces. Unfortunately, Ticks goes very much over the top near the end. But by then you already forgave Tony Randall and the rest of the crew for that stupid ending. Bad case of Writer's Block, I guess...
