Vinegar Syndrome has a new 4K Ultra HD edition (from the 35MM interpostive) of director Tony Randel’s creepy-crawling horror tale, Ticks, ready for genre fans to enjoy in all of its hi-def glory (or is it gory?) on Nov. 30.
Giant blood-sucking insects, bad drugs (enhanced marijuana to give it an extra kick) and a teenage victim pool at summer camp. The perfect combination!!!
Filmed in and around Big Bear Lake in California, we have Jarvis (none other than Clint Howard — as the kid from the Gentle Ben television series, and a regular in his brother Ron Howard’s films), a grower of marijuana, who has hit upon the crazy idea of using steroids to boost the potency of his crop. The chemicals have seeped into the local stream and, as with any good sci-fi film from the 1950s, the insects that live there, in this case ticks, have started to mutate.
With that tease in place, we shift to the victim pool, a group of teenagers heading to a wilderness camp (think: Friday the 13th and Camp Crystal Lake), where they encounter some “locals” — Sir (Barry Lynch — Demonic Toys, Sleeptalker, The Whisperer in Darkness) and Jerry (Michael Medeiros — RoboCop 2, Sunset Grill) — who hassle the kids, especially Melissa (Virginya Keehne — The Dentist, Invaders from Mars). This is foreshadowing.
Melissa is the daughter of Charles Danson (played by the late Peter Scolari — perhaps best known as Michael Harris on the Newhart sitcom … where he was nominated for Emmys on three separate occasions), who, along with Holly Lambert (Rosalind Allen — Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult), run the camp.
Meanwhile, our boy Jarvis is having his first of two horrific encounters with bear traps and the ticks are starting to rampage through the forest.
The unlikely hero of the piece is Tyler Burns (Seth Green … before becoming an Emmy-winning voice actor and series producer), who is the nerd of the unruly teens.
Once all of this is established, director Tony Randel just lets it rip. Killer ticks (getting larger all of the time), a forest fire and the foreshadowed bad guys all fighting for survival!! A nice twist at the end.
Bonus goodies include two commentary options. The first features director Tony Randel, who is joined by actor Clint Howard, with moderation by Nathaniel Thompson. The second is with f/x supervisor Doug Beswick and stop-motion animator Yancy Calzada, with moderation by Joe Begos.
There is also the three-part making-of documentary titled, Under the Skin: The Making of Ticks.
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