I'll say this when it comes to killer animal horror films, you sure get a good variety of them (we're actually spoilt-for-choice, in this particular area). The typical examples of "when nature attacks" creature features you'll most commonly find are about sharks and crocodiles/alligators eating people. But every so often, there'll be some right skin-crawling ones which involve overgrown "bugs & insects" that'll leave you feeling thoroughly creeped-out. The specific ones in my head that always stick-out are Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), The Swam (1978), The Nest (1988) and Arachnophobia (1990), which I personally consider to be the all-time greatest natural horror film featuring supersized beasties ever made (honestly, it's absolutely the best one). On a purely surface level, Ticks (1993) may just come off as a paint-by-numbers survival-horror flick at first glance (the pretty generic, run-of-the-mill type stuff you'd normally expect to find), but it's got a few extra twists and turns along the way to make it feel different enough (might not be all that sensational, but there's no denying it certainly manages to be somewhat entertaining).
To summarise what this film is, in essence, isn't really a necessary thing to do because it's very self-explanatory; a diverse gang of juvenile delinquents (each with their own unique set of problems) are overrun and overpowered by endless hordes of oversized, flesh-devouring tick-like creatures (which were once just plain old, ordinary ticks until they "accidentally" became enlarged by the leftover residue of toxic waste), as they try to get away from the hectic "hustle & bustle" stress of everyday inner-city urban life for a quiet getaway to a secluded rural location and just recuperate inside a nondescript cabin in the woods. So rather than calling John Goodman's exterminator character out from Arachnophobia to fumigate the place, it looks like this dysfunctional group of misfit teenagers will have to take care of their little parasitic infestation problem themselves... which probably entails an awful lot of senseless squashing (haha).
In an attempt to make their characters seem more complex than they actually are, the adolescent youths (all of which are in their formative high-school years) each come with the heavy baggage of a serious issue in their lives that they're fathoming out at counselling meetings (fighting their inner-demons, if you like). The little interactions they all have between one another at the camp grounds appear intriguing at the start, but it can soon dwindle down after a while and sometime later it becomes not even all that interesting anymore. Very quickly, there's friction within the group and it's established early on in the film's runtime, which is supposed to help set-up the thinly-layered characters. When put into this sort of situation, what other option do a load of ratty teens with shallow personalities have other than to just bicker a lot amongst themselves (I can't even remember any of their names).
I can't not mention the fabulous Alfonso Ribeiro (still best-known for his role as the zany Carlton Banks), who's untimely demise in the film is an integral part of the horrific events that unfold later on as the steroid-induced queen tick makes her epic emergence (what a great death scene). Behind his stereotypical "tough guy" exterior, there's the slightest semblance of an actual character with some mild-depth who's genuinely a caring soul deep down but he's seemingly too afraid to show that there's a more softer side to himself. He's my favourite one out of the whole lot and deservedly so, as he's the only character who initially comes up with the idea of lighting the ticks on fire to kill them off for good (which by the way, I never knew was the most effective method of dealing with the ugly little monsters in real-life). I've been a long-time fan of Seth Green's trademark comedic style, especially in his Robot Chicken (2005-) sketch-show. Although his brand of humour may not be for everyone, he certainly gets my vote (he's that kind of funny guy who you'd like to hang out with because he just knows how to have a proper good time). Working through their differences together, these two characters slowly gain each other's mutual respect.
Ultimately, this film's saving grace is the realism factor of its old-school effects, which a lot of people will surely find to be utterly spine-chilling. These mutated aberrations of nature were brought to life via good old-fashioned practical-special-effects work and created as a result of utilising several different in-camera techniques, ranging from a decent number of elaborate animatronic props (especially with the supersized mamma tick posing a serious threat) and even some stop-motion models in a few scenes (mostly for the more common titchy ones). For a short while's time, you're suspension of disbelief starts to set in and you totally believe they look real enough to be convincing. Nothing today comes anywhere near as close to looking this authentically lifelike. It's easy to feel disenchanted nowadays as CGI honestly doesn't have the same impact on a person's eyes like this can, so your sensibilities aren't affected by it because your brain is telling you that it's just a meagre digital-graphic (it often seems as though I'm just going through the motions). Don't get me wrong, CGI has it's place in the world. But I personally don't think it looks the same, in my opinion (sorry to say this, but computer-generated horror simply isn't scary to me). Sure, CGI can efficiently produce masses and masses of them, but it only diminishes the tangibility of their appearance as it feels like they're not actually part of the scene itself and only composited in there during post-production (it leaves me feeling desensitised, most of the time).
With this being a horror movie, of course there'll be a body-count of innocent victims (it's only natural to the genre and comes with the territory). But it's often quite shocking when one of the casualties is a beloved household pet, like a dog for instance. To quote Joe Bob Briggs (and I maybe paraphrasing a little, here); "One of the main rules of horror films is that you can kill off as many people as you like, sure. But you should never kill a pet, because then people get upset". And it's true, as a gruesome ordeal such as this will more than likely turn most audiences off your film. It's usually very sad when either a domesticated animal or young child dies in a movie because half the time, they aren't truly aware of what's going on in the grand-scheme of the story's plot (not like how us humans are aware). Something like this will always bring about a great deal of compassion from the viewer, which is the reason behind why they sometimes decide to do it (I just wanted to briefly touch on this subject).
I'm surprised this film never spawned a bunch of lazy straight-to-video sequels, as is the unfortunate case with most other horror movies you see out there which inevitably get turned into an ongoing series. You'd think that a horror franchise centred around a swarming bombardment of fiendish blood-sucking nasties with sharp skin-piercing mandibles would've been ripe for the picking (only to have it be milked dry and run down into the ground). My consensus is that if you're brave enough to take a gander at this film and aren't too freaked out by creepy-crawlies (by which I mean you don't have entomophobia), I say check it out because it's worth a viewing.
To summarise what this film is, in essence, isn't really a necessary thing to do because it's very self-explanatory; a diverse gang of juvenile delinquents (each with their own unique set of problems) are overrun and overpowered by endless hordes of oversized, flesh-devouring tick-like creatures (which were once just plain old, ordinary ticks until they "accidentally" became enlarged by the leftover residue of toxic waste), as they try to get away from the hectic "hustle & bustle" stress of everyday inner-city urban life for a quiet getaway to a secluded rural location and just recuperate inside a nondescript cabin in the woods. So rather than calling John Goodman's exterminator character out from Arachnophobia to fumigate the place, it looks like this dysfunctional group of misfit teenagers will have to take care of their little parasitic infestation problem themselves... which probably entails an awful lot of senseless squashing (haha).
In an attempt to make their characters seem more complex than they actually are, the adolescent youths (all of which are in their formative high-school years) each come with the heavy baggage of a serious issue in their lives that they're fathoming out at counselling meetings (fighting their inner-demons, if you like). The little interactions they all have between one another at the camp grounds appear intriguing at the start, but it can soon dwindle down after a while and sometime later it becomes not even all that interesting anymore. Very quickly, there's friction within the group and it's established early on in the film's runtime, which is supposed to help set-up the thinly-layered characters. When put into this sort of situation, what other option do a load of ratty teens with shallow personalities have other than to just bicker a lot amongst themselves (I can't even remember any of their names).
I can't not mention the fabulous Alfonso Ribeiro (still best-known for his role as the zany Carlton Banks), who's untimely demise in the film is an integral part of the horrific events that unfold later on as the steroid-induced queen tick makes her epic emergence (what a great death scene). Behind his stereotypical "tough guy" exterior, there's the slightest semblance of an actual character with some mild-depth who's genuinely a caring soul deep down but he's seemingly too afraid to show that there's a more softer side to himself. He's my favourite one out of the whole lot and deservedly so, as he's the only character who initially comes up with the idea of lighting the ticks on fire to kill them off for good (which by the way, I never knew was the most effective method of dealing with the ugly little monsters in real-life). I've been a long-time fan of Seth Green's trademark comedic style, especially in his Robot Chicken (2005-) sketch-show. Although his brand of humour may not be for everyone, he certainly gets my vote (he's that kind of funny guy who you'd like to hang out with because he just knows how to have a proper good time). Working through their differences together, these two characters slowly gain each other's mutual respect.
Ultimately, this film's saving grace is the realism factor of its old-school effects, which a lot of people will surely find to be utterly spine-chilling. These mutated aberrations of nature were brought to life via good old-fashioned practical-special-effects work and created as a result of utilising several different in-camera techniques, ranging from a decent number of elaborate animatronic props (especially with the supersized mamma tick posing a serious threat) and even some stop-motion models in a few scenes (mostly for the more common titchy ones). For a short while's time, you're suspension of disbelief starts to set in and you totally believe they look real enough to be convincing. Nothing today comes anywhere near as close to looking this authentically lifelike. It's easy to feel disenchanted nowadays as CGI honestly doesn't have the same impact on a person's eyes like this can, so your sensibilities aren't affected by it because your brain is telling you that it's just a meagre digital-graphic (it often seems as though I'm just going through the motions). Don't get me wrong, CGI has it's place in the world. But I personally don't think it looks the same, in my opinion (sorry to say this, but computer-generated horror simply isn't scary to me). Sure, CGI can efficiently produce masses and masses of them, but it only diminishes the tangibility of their appearance as it feels like they're not actually part of the scene itself and only composited in there during post-production (it leaves me feeling desensitised, most of the time).
With this being a horror movie, of course there'll be a body-count of innocent victims (it's only natural to the genre and comes with the territory). But it's often quite shocking when one of the casualties is a beloved household pet, like a dog for instance. To quote Joe Bob Briggs (and I maybe paraphrasing a little, here); "One of the main rules of horror films is that you can kill off as many people as you like, sure. But you should never kill a pet, because then people get upset". And it's true, as a gruesome ordeal such as this will more than likely turn most audiences off your film. It's usually very sad when either a domesticated animal or young child dies in a movie because half the time, they aren't truly aware of what's going on in the grand-scheme of the story's plot (not like how us humans are aware). Something like this will always bring about a great deal of compassion from the viewer, which is the reason behind why they sometimes decide to do it (I just wanted to briefly touch on this subject).
I'm surprised this film never spawned a bunch of lazy straight-to-video sequels, as is the unfortunate case with most other horror movies you see out there which inevitably get turned into an ongoing series. You'd think that a horror franchise centred around a swarming bombardment of fiendish blood-sucking nasties with sharp skin-piercing mandibles would've been ripe for the picking (only to have it be milked dry and run down into the ground). My consensus is that if you're brave enough to take a gander at this film and aren't too freaked out by creepy-crawlies (by which I mean you don't have entomophobia), I say check it out because it's worth a viewing.