The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Pretty gross and pretty average MST3K style b-movie horror. There is a big monster and it kills people. The monster is particularly horrible looking. It is still using ropey special effects like normal. Worth watching for Seth Green but Alfonso Ribeiro is just plain annoying. Story is silly. Effects are acceptable. Not scary or a classic but still worthy of viewing time for cheesy fun.

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.

The "nature strikes back" sub genre was particularly big in the 1970s after the success of "Jaws", but it's proved to have real staying power ever since, as evidenced in this no-fooling- around, gleefully gory mutant killer insect flick. The title insects have increased in size and become more vicious than usual. This is all thanks to local marijuana growers who have used herbal steroids to speed up the growth of their crops; their system has developed a leak and contaminated the resident ticks. Now a group of troubled kids and their two chaperones have come to the woods for a getaway and will serve as a potential smorgasbord for the ravenous blood sucking beasts. You know you'll be in for a good time perusing the cast list of this one: Rosalind Allen, Ami Dolenz, Seth Green, Alfonso Ribeiro, Peter Scolari, Barry Lynch (younger brother of Richard Lynch), and Clint *and* Rance Howard. The assorted young ladies are all quite attractive to look at, and the performances are all pretty entertaining. As many others before me have noted, it's hard NOT to be amused by the prospect of Ribeiro, otherwise known as Carlton from TVs' 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', unleashing his inner gangsta. Green is a likable enough young hero, Clint H. is an absolute hoot as always, and Lynch is, like his sibling, good at creating a suitably scuzzy villain. Director Tony Randel ("Hellbound: Hellraiser II") keeps everything moving at a good clip, and gets things off to a truly juicy start. The KNB makeup effects group create lots of wonderful visuals bound to get the audience going "Ewww..." on a regular basis. The highlight involves a sort of giving-birth type gag, and people are sure to love it. Things build nicely to a fairly exciting climax with the characters confined to a small rural location in the "Night of the Living Dead" tradition, and a forest fire raging out of control. All in all, this is very acceptable "turn your brain off and enjoy" gooey and grisly mayhem done with style and humour, and an unsurprisingly "it ain't over yet" kind of ending. Seven out of 10.

'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.