December 12th, 2003

By Red, staff writer of The Video Graveyard.

December's here, the streets are cold and littered with fallen leaves, the air holds a chill that permeates your very mind, bad things are coming, but most importantly, worse things are gone. Worse things like blood suckers, murders, monsters, and alien horrors - don't think they're not still there, they're much closer now, living in your very home.

Of course I mean bugs, insects, arachnids, and their kin. At least with the colder weather here, they seem to be gone, so you can feel safer talking (or in this case, reading) about them. I've put together a small selection of overlooked killer insect movies from the past few years, they're all direct-to-video, but don't let that deter you.

Ticks [1993] features Clint Howard, do I really need to hype it any more? Oh yeah, have to fill the page, it also features giant, ugly ticks that have grown large and angry (although they may have already been angry) because of marijuana. Well, it wasn't actually the marijuana that did it, but rather chemicals used to grow that marijuana. Good times.

Ticks, while being a little derivative, does have some great stuff in it. First, it has Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton from Fresh Prince) as a street-wise thug who spouts every line you'd expect from a character of that sort. Second, it has Seth Green, embarassing himself before he got famous by crying every few minutes. Of course, it also has the ticks and Clint Howard.

Even if the other two don't appeal to you, Ticks has to, there's just too much good in it.

Arachnid [2001] features what else, giant spiders - the staple of this sub-genre and arguably the best subject matter for these films. Arachnid also branches out into other species, including aliens and some particularly nasty ticks. It should also be mentioned that the spider(s) look great, much better than their counterparts both high and low budget.

The entire story takes place on an island crawling with alien enhanced, super bugs - it also happens to be the island our group of heroes crash lands upon, how's that for timing. Of course, the acting isn't the best, but that can be forgiven if you're used to films of this sort.

.

Infested [2002] is the only killer fly movie I can think of, and it's definately the goriest. Infested got a very limited release, even for a DTV genre flick, but definately deserves more attention. Where else can you see yuppies, and Amy Jo Johnson, fighting government engineered killer flies? That's right, nowhere.

Infested's story is similar to Night of the Living Dead's, and quickly becomes a siege movie, but why mess with what works? Of course, it has it's fair share of gore and violence, and very little is left to the imagination. For a low budget film, most of the effects are really well done, even the flies are passable. The only weak point is the cast, who aside from Johnson, aren't all that believable.

.