Teens camping in a northern California retreat are terrorized by mutant insects created by evil, polluting pot farmers, what will throw them into a terrifying fight for their lives.
I feel like this movie should have been so much better than it was. First of all, the cast is pretty decent: Carlton Banks, Seth Green and Clint Howard? Not a bad mix to start with. Then you have Brian Yuzna (Re-Animator) as the executive producer. And add on KNB for the effects? That is a solid combination.
And to be fair, the acting was decent, the direction was pretty good and the effects were definitely excellent (the pods looked cool and the big transformation sequence was well-executed). I see the flaws coming in to the film from two directions:
One, it does not balance the humor and horror properly. It has a few moments that are almost funny, but not outright so. You either need to be straight horror, or the right balance of horror and humor -- and the balance was way off here. They took themselves too seriously for what they were working with.
Second, it seems that two stories were conflated in to one, and that made the plot convoluted. Mutant ticks are bad and homicidal farmers are bad... but did they both belong here? I think not. I understand the hormone on the plants made the ticks big... but we never needed to actually see the farmers. It turned what could have been a fun, simple film into a messy triangle.
From what I understand, this film is pretty hard to find on DVD outside of bootlegs. And I am okay with that. I have little interest in ever seeing it again.
I feel like this movie should have been so much better than it was. First of all, the cast is pretty decent: Carlton Banks, Seth Green and Clint Howard? Not a bad mix to start with. Then you have Brian Yuzna (Re-Animator) as the executive producer. And add on KNB for the effects? That is a solid combination.
And to be fair, the acting was decent, the direction was pretty good and the effects were definitely excellent (the pods looked cool and the big transformation sequence was well-executed). I see the flaws coming in to the film from two directions:
One, it does not balance the humor and horror properly. It has a few moments that are almost funny, but not outright so. You either need to be straight horror, or the right balance of horror and humor -- and the balance was way off here. They took themselves too seriously for what they were working with.
Second, it seems that two stories were conflated in to one, and that made the plot convoluted. Mutant ticks are bad and homicidal farmers are bad... but did they both belong here? I think not. I understand the hormone on the plants made the ticks big... but we never needed to actually see the farmers. It turned what could have been a fun, simple film into a messy triangle.
From what I understand, this film is pretty hard to find on DVD outside of bootlegs. And I am okay with that. I have little interest in ever seeing it again.