Welcome to the second edition of April Showers! After bonding over our mutual appreciation for the 1988 Canadian flick The Brain, I've been trading discs with a dude down in Massachusetts over the last few months. April Showers' first entry is one of said titles sent through the mail.
A group of troubled youths on a camping trip are set upon by insects mutated by a strain of steroids used in a nearby marijuana grow op.
Ticks was a movie we had at my store that I just never got around to watching. If I'd known back then that Brian Yuzna was involved, I probably would have got to it a lot sooner. His nineties track record speaks for itself and Ticks is no exception because it is a pretty fun flick. There are tons of familiar faces in this and afterwards, I was a bit puzzled about the billing. Pretty much the only thing I remembered about this movie was that Ami Dolenz was in it, but she's one of the least consequential members of a large ensemble, which I should add, was the strangest motley crew of delinquents I'd seen since Friday the 13th Part 5. While it is true Dolenz made a splash around that time as the title character in She's Out Of Control, I would have thought that Seth Green or Alfonso Ribeiro would've had more credit, considering their time onscreen. Then again, when it comes to selling a movie, who are you going to put on the coverbox, but the hottest girl in it? It worked for Witchboard II.
I wonder if Ticks was a response to Arachnophobia, as there are definite similarities, except it was less family-friendly, with an emphasis on gore. Speaking of which, the effects were quite solid and though the smaller creatures were cheesy at times, the big bad at the climax was pretty badass. I should also mention that Ticks gives you not just one Howard, but TWO, as low-budget horror mainstay Clint appears with his father, Rance.
So, all in all, Ticks was watchable fare. I don't think it's quirky enough to be as memorable as some of the like minded Full Moon stuff of that era, but it was still better than I was expecting from a direct-to-video title called Ticks.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go buy a case of Raid.
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