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.

Director Tony Randel who also created other classic flicks, Amityville 1992: It's About Time 1992 and Hellbound: Hellraiser II has created a another gem in Infested.Starring Seth Green who has also been in another classic flick, Idle Hands 1999.Also starring Ami Dolenz.Also starring Rosalind Allen.I enjoyed the violence and special effects.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic insect flicks, Phenomena 1985, The Fly 1986, The Thaw 2009, Infestation 2009, Mimic: Sentinel 2003, Mansquito 2005, Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 1990, Sucker 2013, Bite 2015, Stung 2015 and Starship Troopers 1997.

"Ticks" is an absolute blast of a creature feature with a lot to love about it.**SPOILERS**Joining up on a wilderness retreat, Tyler Burns, (Seth Green) Darrel Lumley, (Alfonso Ribeiro) Dee Dee Davenport, (Ami Dolenz) Melissa Danson, (Virginya Keehne) Kelly Mishimoto, (Dina Dayrit) and Rome Hernandez, (Ray Oriel) go along with Holly Lambert, (Rosalind Allen) and her partner Charles Danson, (Peter Scolari) to an abandoned part of the forest. Adjusting to the quiet after living in the city, they try to adapt to the lifestyle but are soon at each other's throats. When they start to suspect that something maybe wrong with the local insect life after finding a gigantic tick, and find out that they're regular ticks overloaded with steroids from a local drug field. When they become trapped with the creatures in a cabin, they try to get out of the woods away from the bloodsuckers alive.The Good News: There was some great stuff in this one to help it out. One of it's biggest factors is that this one has a large amount of blood and gore, which is a great thing for this. The kills, what few there are, are incredibly bloody and have a lot of great stuff to them. There's a foot torn up from being caught in a bear-trap, a bite to the neck, a decapitation with the mandibles, the image of thousands of ticks exploding out of the face, some stabbing, tons of scenes of the ticks swarming over the victim and biting away as well as the single greatest scene in the film, the birth of the giant tick. This is a fantastic scene, and a lot to like here. The beginning, when the mandibles burst free from each leg is fun, the bulging limbs and stretching skin serve as tense moments before the rest of the legs break out, and then the splitting head where the horned head comes out is fantastic. When the rest of the body is ripped in half and the creature in full skitters out of the carnage, it's a fantastic image and works wonders for the film in several ways. Beyond the fantastic gore it provides, this one has a great representation scene to put the whole thing into context and also gives the film a look into it's area, the fantastic-looking ticks. These are truly fantastic-looking, not even remotely close to the CGI that plagues so many of the films but also gives them a realistic looking design as well. Their menacing looking and realistic execution of them is what drives them home as being believable creatures, and they're a lot of fun. The film's also got a lot of nice action scenes as well, with the chases through the pot-field away from the growers and the cultivating shack being big ones to generate some excitement. There's also the finale, which is absolutely fun. With the invasion from the pot-growers terrorizing them while the ticks converge on the outside and utilize every opportunity to get in. Those scenes are the best in the film, with the pot-growers trying to ward them off while keeping the hostages, causing a ton of collateral damage around the cabin and the exploding ticks being fun, the outside forest-fire closing in on them makes for some nice tension, and the fact that the ticks are constantly in the mix attacking them makes for some high-energy moments that work wonderfully. This one even has some really decent suspense scenes that generate some nice chills. The scene in the doctor's office is outstanding, as the surgery to get the tick out is pretty nice, the sight of the suddenly-springing-to-life creature is a nice jolt and the chest around the room is sheer gold. Long, drawn-out and tense, with some nice searching and inventive techniques to get it from both sides, and helps the film out. The other good scene, where the group discovers the dead patron in the pond after thinking it's only a fish is a nice jolt and actually worthwhile. The last big plus is that the film decides to use something else other than a human killer despite being in a campground setting. Making a creature feature out of the usual madman slasher set-up is something to be admired, and along with the other factors in here, constitute what make the film so entertaining.The Bad News: There's only one minor flaw to this film, and it doesn't really hurt it all that much. The fact that this one should've had a higher body count is the worst thing about it is a good thing, but it is somewhat irritating to see that most of the film has a lot of survivors here. Despite their being a lot of gore in this, the fact that almost all of the cast in here survives is a little troubling and a little more getting knocked off wouldn't have been a bad thing, but as it stands, it's really the only thing wrong with it.The Final Verdict: Without a whole lot to really dislike, this one is a really enjoyable and certainly entertaining creature feature. Worth a look for those who love these kinds of cheesy films or have an inordinate amount of love for the creature feature, while those who don't should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and drug use

Being an outdoor instructor I have had my fair share of ticks. The thing is, I have been constantly amazed by the number of people who don't even know what they are. So if you don't know, here it is. They are little insects, about 2mm in size. As you walk through the hills or woods of Britain, they jump on to you from passing foliage and crawl up your leg / body. Then they try to find the darkest, warmest and juiciest part of your body (hmm..yep, somewhere around THERE), bury there heads inside you and drink your blood for a few days, before dropping off and finding another food source. If you ask anyone who spends a lot of time in the outdoors, it won't be long before you find someone who has a tick story about a disturbing place they have found one (or more ..). I have mine, but that's another story.So anyway, the movie. Well, for starters, I feel that this show is somewhat stolen by the rather entertaining character 'Panic' (because he never panics apparently). He seems to be trying to be a bad-ass Gangster come eighties break-dancer throwback. Now this guy swears, threatens to kill geeky kids, plays basket ball on wasteland, has violent outbursts, throw axes and wears a trench coat and shades (some of the time). All in all, he sounds like a bit of a hard nut. that is until he spends half the movie wearing pyjamas, and no matter how much effort (and believe me, he puts in too much effort) he puts into his role, he will always be Carlton from the 'Fresh Price of Bel Air'. hmm.The ticks themselves actually look like ticks. Except for the fact they are the size of your hand. But a movie about 2mm insects that suck blood out of your genitals wouldn't be that great a plot, and probably quite hard to sell to the movie companies. For a crap movie, though, the effects are pretty good. In fact, this movie is a little bit too good to be considered a real bad movie. But it's just too bad to be considered a good movie. Its one of those movies that float in the zone of watchable trash. Which is a shame. It had so much potential to be terrible.In ConclusionWorth a watch just to see Carlton in the final scene, and for the quote "I'm infested!!"