Ticks Blu-ray Review
Where's a mutant can of Raid when you really need it?
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, January 19, 2013
When asked what trait they most desire in a prospective mate, men, horndogs that we are, typically opt for some
physical attribute, part and parcel of how many of us define ourselves as being a "leg man" or—well, some other
anatomical region that isn't appropriate to print on a G rated site. Women on the other hand routinely choose "a sense
of humor" as one of their top priorities in the man of their dreams, a window into why at least a few of us who don't
exactly sport matinee idol good looks have been able to land a wife or girlfriend. And truth be told, there really
is nothing like a sense of humor to get you through the trials and tribulations of modern day life, whether that
be the vagaries of a long term committed relationship or just reading the morning paper. The same might be said for
being able to enjoy horror films, and one of the manifold saving graces of
Ticks, a little remembered 1993 opus
that has built up a rather formidable cult following over the years, is that it not only doesn't take itself seriously in the
slightest, it's overtly hilarious at times. It's also gorey, gooey and spectacularly gross at
other times, but mixed
into that slimy
stew is a very piquant sense of humor that keeps the film's outright silliness on a near pitch perfect level where the
audience doesn't know whether to scream or shriek (with laughter). There's a decidedly lo-fi ambience to
Ticks
that may bother some more discriminating viewers, but which will actually
recommend the film to others, and
there's a certain cult appeal to the cast as well, which includes such (semi)-notables as Seth Green, Ami Dolenz, Alfonso
Ribeiro and, in a role that certainly should have sparked major talk of an Oscar nomination (well, maybe not), Clint
Howard as a kind of mad scientist whose attempts to engineer some "super weed" ends up creating a plethora of
mutant ticks.
Seth Green portrays Tyler, an agoraphobic youth who is haunted by memories of a childhood hide and seek game in the woods gone bad.
So
of course his father has signed him up for an "immersion" experience where he, along with a coterie of other troubled kids, is taken to an
isolated campsite by well meaning couple Charles (Peter Scolari) and Holly (Rosalind Allen). Among the other kids involved in this obvious
setup
for disaster are Holly and Charles' own petulant daughter Melissa (Virginya Keehne), "Panic" (Alfonso Ribeiro), a tough street kid who of
course
turns out not to be so bad after all, Kelly (Dina Dayrit), shy to the point that she can barely make eye contact, and Dee Dee (Ami Dolenz) and
Rome (Ray Oriel), obviously the two most likely teens to go trotting off into the woods for some illicit sex and tick attacks.
The film really doesn't waste a whole lot of time on exposition, giving just enough character information to get the ball (and/or tick) rolling.
Scenarist Brent V. Friedman utilizes repeated returns to the mad marijuana grower's facility to show the poor hapless man getting more and
more infested by the mutant jiggers, with his addlepated response to be to shoot them (if you think about it for a moment, you'll realize the
folly of that strategy). It's gross, disgusting—and laugh out loud hilarious. It also has evidently given Clint Howard a signature line of sorts,
as he goes into in the commentary track included on this Blu-ray as a supplement (we won't spoil it for you here, but rest assured both the
line and the delivery are indeed timeless, right up there with "We'll always have Paris" and "Rosebud".)
Ticks is fairly ruthless, at least as far these sorts of films go, in dispatching characters right and left, with a lot of horrifying special
effects accompanying the demises (the ticks burrow into the skin, in case you weren't aware). But the film also never loses sight of its very
real sense of humor, delivering a sort of deadpan (emphasis on the
dead) humor, as in one fantastic scene where a doctor is
attempting to figure out what's going on with the little critters, and drives a hypodermic into the back of a tick, only to have it manically
scurry around the office as she and other characters attempt to track it down. It's flat out ridiculous, seeing this patently fake looking
creature zinging to and fro around the room with a syringe sticking out of its hindquarters, but you're a perhaps more demanding viewer
than I am if you're able to watch it without bursting into laughter.
The highlight of this film is Clint Howard, who doesn't just chew the scenery, he basically digests it and regurgitates it right before our very
eyes. For those who think of the actor only as Ron Howard's brother or the long ago co-star of such short-lived television series as
Please Don't Eat the Daisies or
Gentle Ben, his mad marijuana grower may be some surprising evidence of the actor's
"range"—if that's what you want to call a depiction of this lunatic variety. That's the
pater familias of the Howard family, Rance
Howard, playing the Sheriff. Special mention must also be made for the luckless Peter Scolari, an actor who started his career on
Bosom
Buddies and then watched his co-star (someone named Tom Hanks or something like that) become the multi-Oscar winning James
Stewart of his generation, while Scolari was relegated to amiable enough sitcoms like
Newhart and films like, well,
Ticks. It's
a credit to Scolari's professionalism that he manages to make his role even marginally believable. Maybe that's small consolation when
compared to the overwhelming success of Hanks' career, but no one said acting was for the faint of heart.
Ticks Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
I've tried to be relatively objective in assessing the overall merits of
Ticks, given the fact that readers here have extremely varied tastes
and not everyone is going to cotton to a film of this type. Therefore, those who
love this kind of film could well add another point to my
score above, while those who detest "critter" films will probably want to
subtract a point (at least). The one thing about
Ticks
that potentially recommends it to those who can't stand this genre is how undeniably funny it is. Yes, you have to see a lot of pretty disturbing
imagery while you're laughing, but I can pretty much guarantee you
will be laughing. This new Blu-ray offers very good video and audio,
and the commentary is, to coin a phrase, a hoot.
Recommended.
