Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

loomis78-815-989034 Some marijuana growers in the California forest area are using steroids to enhance their plants. Unfortunately the effect has mutated the Ticks in the area to grow to about the size of a human hand. This happens at the same time that two social workers (Scolari & Allen) have brought a van full of troubled teens into the same area on a retreat that is supposed to help the kids with their problems. The group of kids is written as obnoxious or stupid so we could care less about what happens to them. Director Tony Randel seems to know this so he brings the ticks on early and the gooey bloody fun begins. Following a 1950's style monster movie plot, this movie has fun with the crawling creepy ticks doing maximum damage. Clint Howard as one of the pot growers makes the most of his limited screen time in a truly inspired and nasty demise. He gets his leg caught in a bear trap and the ticks burrow into his flesh which includes his face as he overacts and screams into the camera "I'm infested"! A truly fun scene that should put a smile on any horror film fans face. Randel keeps the action coming and the top notch gore by KNB will amaze and keeps any monster movie fan watching. The gory entertainment continues as you continue to ignore the bad characters being introduced and concentrating on what crazy thing the creepy little ticks are going to do next. The great mix of gore and entertaining fun doesn't necessarily make this frightening, but it does make it a great no-need-to-think action horror film that delivers. You may find yourself watching this one with your feet of the ground.

ObscureCinema101 I am of the opinion that eighties monster movies were the best monster movies. I know the fifties is typically the popular choice, but the eighties had THE THING, THE OUTING, FRIGHT NIGHT, BRAIN DAMAGE, and more than I can name. So an early nineties monster movie like TICKS ought to capture some of that magic…right? Tyler is a nerdy redhead whose father signs him up for an "inner city nature retreat" (or something like that) because his drunken father left him in the woods for a while and Tyler's been scarred ever since. So a bunch of inner city kids head out to the woods where, unbeknownst to them, marijuana farmers have been operating. However, the growth steroids they use for their marijuana have caused the wood ticks in the woods to grow to huge sizes. So now, the group faces a triple threat of the giant man-eating ticks, the hostile marijuana farmers, and the forest fire drawing closer.TICKS is one of those movies where it feels like the director was given a 2-hour time slot to fill, and after he shot an hour of material, the studio came to him and said now he had to fit it in an 85-minute time slot. The movie seems to focus more on the marijuana farmers and character interactions for the first hour instead of the ticks, and finally, with about twenty-five minutes to spare, the ticks actually begin to attack the whole group. Therein lies my biggest complaint; I love a little time being spent to flesh out the characters, but in a monster movie, most of the time should be focused on the actual monsters! The characterization does pay off, as we do get a lot of likable and well fleshed out characters. However, I thought the quiet Asian girl was really superfluous because she really doesn't contribute anything. Oh, and Clint Howard is in this, and he acts exactly like you expect him to as a backwoods marijuana farmer. He even spews the movie's classic line, "I'M INNFEEEESSSSSTTEEEEEEDDDD!!!" It also features Alphonso Rebeiro (Carl from THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR) as the "bad" kid (who's pretty likable), Panic.However, the final siege on the cabin with the ticks is really entertaining! The practical effects are fantastic (they were done by the renowned KNB effects) and some of the gore is really good. However, it began to wear on me because it was so repetitive and I realized what it needed. Then, as if my prayers had been answered, what the film needed was included. And it was awesome.TICKS is an alright watch, but it's far from perfection. It tends to drag considerably in the middle and it really isn't that original. But then again, lack of originality is better than throwing everything at the audience and hoping something works a la THE UNNAMABLE. It has good acting, likable characters, fantastic effects, good gore, and it's just FUN. It may bore you, but in the end, everything is all right.Take a look.

lost-in-limbo 'Ticks' which is aka 'Infested' is an above-par straight to video effort that surprisingly slipped passed a wider release. Even with my optimistic thoughts to open with, I still couldn't help but feel I was brought up a little short.A group of troubled teens led by councilors head to remote woodlands to bond and hopefully escape their problems, but there they find they must survive against blood-sucking ticks that have largely mutated from herbal steroids being used by the local marijuana growers.The well-worn concept (large creepy crawlies run amok, dangerous drug dealers and teens caught in the middle of it all) is strong enough, but the script is predictably lazy (plus there's a lot of dialogues) and I wished it was a little less forgiving. I just wanted it to up the ante and get the skin crawling with some unpleasantly icky encounters (well more than what we got), but for most part it's kept in check (or better put minimal) and the body-count remains low. Hey I'm not blood-thirsty, but there being numerous characters and some had a minor affect on proceedings so their presences could have been made for good use instead of taking an easy way out. Anyhow the FX work and tick creations are outstanding, and there are some effectively gross inclusions. Tony Randel's verve-like direction creates arresting suspense when the ticks enter the frame, like the scenes involving an unlucky Clint Howard and when their victims begin to hallucinate. The jolts work, but the stabs of humour was ridiculously stupid and the final third of the film goes totally berserk. That's when the make-up FX kicks into gear and the music score consolidates a creepy charge. The performances are mainly lackluster (due largely to their characters) with some recognizable faces appearing; Seth Green, Rosalind Allen, Ami Dolenz and an out-of-place Alfonso Riberio playing out of character with laughable results. Another eye-catching name for horror fans would be that of Brian Yunza, who's tagged as executive producer.

The_Void Insects make good horror movie material due to the fact that a lot of people are scared of them. There have been movies about giant spiders (Kingdom of the Spiders), scorpions (The Black Scorpion) and ants (Them!), and while ticks aren't exactly the most exciting insects around; their bloodsucking nature does make them a good subject for a film such as this. As you might expect considering the fact that this film was a direct to video release, most things about it aren't exactly brilliant. However, it's obvious that the most important thing about a film like this is the gore and Ticks certainly isn't lacking in that department! The story is obviously just a means to an end and sees a class of delinquents going out into the forest for some sort of moral building exercise. However, their little trip is interrupted by a bunch of bloodthirsty ticks that have grown to massive sizes because of chemicals put on weed plants to accelerate their growth. Unfortunately for the kids, the ticks' appetites have grown with them; and now they are on the menu...The film has a good basis for gore, as it's directed by Hellraiser 2 director Tony Randel (who also directed the less than impressive Children of the Night) and the executive producer is one Brian Yuzna, who every gore fan should recognise. The plot doesn't contain a lot of surprises, although it deserves some plaudits for staying interesting for most of the way through. The story progresses in the usual way for this sort of film - i.e. there are a few clues that something bad is going to happen, then bad things do happen and eventually everything gets out of control. The film doesn't pay a lot of respect to it's insect star as there aren't many references to real life ticks, but then again I didn't go into this movie expecting a natural history lesson. The cast is only notable for the fact that it stars a young Seth Green, although he really isn't that much of a highlight. Alfonso Ribeiro, who is more famous for playing Carlos in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, also makes an appearance (which is completely unlike his TV persona) though he is underused. The film ends well, though too many people survived for my liking, but all the same this is good fun and recommended.