Ticks (1993)

A Killer What?

It didn’t occur to me until I had watched them back to back but Zombeavers takes a lot from Ticks. Our beasts are normal wood ticks exposed to magic movie chemicals (in this case herbal steroids used by marijuana growers to increase their crop yield) that turn them into fist-sized monstrosities that eject large doses of neurotoxin in their vixens brains causing them to hallucinate as they’re eaten alive. They’re twitchy, covered in slime, and come out of white undulating egg sacs that would make David Croenenberg smile with pride.

Is It Any Good?

Yes, actually. It involves an eclectic group of troubled inner-city teens (including Seth Green and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Alfonso Ribeiro) and their two chaperones (one of whom is the great Peter Scolari) going out to the woods and being attacked by giant killer ticks and gun-toting Marijuana growers.

The movie’s well-written and well shot and the special effects (mostly puppetry but a small amount of stop-motion animation as well) look great. The drama is simple but effective, the characters are all fairly likeable (Seth Green’s agoraphobic nerd is the lead but Alfonso Ribeiro’s tough thug with a heart of gold is the real heart of the movie.)

There’s a lot of delightful splatter effects and some pretty good body horror stuff and the movie manages to amp itself up in the last act b introducing the logical conclusion: a man-sized tick monster.

Watch, Toss, or Buy?

This would be a solid buy but unless you got in on the DVD before it went out of print (the lowest price for one on Amazon right now is just under $100) you’re going to have to engage some illicit means to see it right now. Hopefully some distrubutor will pick it up fora blu-ray release.