Jarvis (Clint Howard) is growing a very special marijuana crop using an experimental steroid he’s concocted. Unfortunately, the machine he uses to produce this particularly volatile chemical is all kinds of leaky and it drips on some tick eggs in his cellar. Now the surrounding forest is chock full of super ticks just in time for a busload of troubled teens to roll in for a nature rehabilitation retreat lead by Peter Scolari. No, he’s not playing himself in this one, but he should have! Can agoraphobic Tyler (Seth Green), street tough Panic (Alfonso Ribeiro), teen angst poster child Melissa (Virginya Keehne), or bratty Dee Dee (Ami Dolenz) save the day? Watch and find out, you blunt monkey freaks!

I must’ve walked by the VHS for Ticks (1993) and its amazing cover art about a hundred times at the video store and never took the bait. Now I totally wish I had because this one is so much fun. The whole setup of the troubled youths heading out to nature reminds me of Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989) and that pleases me. Oh, Angela. But I digress. Director Tony Randel of Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) fame and Fist of the North Star (1995) uh… fame (?), brings us a 100% factual documentary about ticks (and marijuana). Heck, this film is so informative that it’s still shown in high schools to this day. That’s a fact. Brent V. Friedman, the screenwriter of Ticks, also penned The Resurrected (1991), an awesome H.P. Lovecraft adaptation. That’s an actual fact.

My only nitpick about Ticks is how the serious issues that the wayward teenagers are struggling with mixed with the campy horror vibe gives my neck some tonal whiplash pain. But that oddness is one of the things that makes Ticks different from some of the other intentionally goofy “nature run amuck” horror movies out there. So I can’t really say I was all that put out by Ribeiro getting his Oscar moment. Here’s comes a long sentence with lots of commas! This cast is awesome, the killer critters are fun, the marijuana farmer villains are totally ridiculous, the goopy special effects are nasty, the film is beautifully shot, and it is certainly never boring. Fans of Ticks already know how great this, but if you’re on the fence about checking it out then get off of it! Right now! And stay off of my property!

Ticks is presented in this double disc set on both Region Free UHD and Blu-ray from a freshly scanned and restored in 4K from the 35mm negative. And goodness gravy gosh, this film looks and sounds amazing. Full disclosure: since I don’t have a 4K TV or UHD player, I’m only working with the Blu-ray here. I can only imagine how much hotter and tastier these ticks look in all of their UHD glory.

For extras, there’s a “making of” doc about Ticks and two audio commentary tracks. The doc clocks in around 35 minutes and is totally awesome. There are lots of cool details about how the screenplay was tinkered with on and off for about 20 years and a buttload of behind-the-scenes trivia about how the effects were done. The first audio commentary is ported over from the old Olive Films disc. It features director Randel and the always entertaining Clint Howard. The second track is a newly recorded one with special effects supervisor Doug Beswick and stop-motion animator Yancy Calzada.