Ticks

An ecologically sound update of the classic '50s bug movie, efficiently directed by Tony (Hell-bound) Randel and featuring 'the vampires of the insect world'. Two social workers take a party of misfit city kids to the woods for some therapeutic communing with nature. Instead, they're attacked by ticks affected by the steroid fertilisers sprayed on a secret marijuana crop. Cue scenes of scuttling blood-suckers burrowing into their victims and, in one case, growing giant-sized inside a body-builder's steroid-saturated body. Unusually for a low-budget horror film, Randel takes the trouble to establish his characters before the ticks start bugging them, which means we care a little more when they're confronted with pulsing egg sacs and fearsome claws. The suspenseful, crowd-pleasing 'bug hunt' finale rounds things off nicely.