Ticks

A group of troubled teenagers from Los Angeles is sent into the northern California woods as part of a nature program run by the social worker Holly Lambert and the sociologist Charles. The trip is meant to build character, but the campers find little to enjoy in the outdoors. Local marijuana growers have been using growth agents on their crop, and the chemicals have done more than speed up the plants: the ticks in the area have grown far beyond normal size and turned aggressive, and they begin attacking the group and its guides.

Tony Randel directed the film, his third feature after Hellbound: Hellraiser II and Amityville 1992: It's About Time. Brent V. Friedman wrote the screenplay, and Jack F. Murphy produced. The cast includes Rosalind Allen, Ami Dolenz, Seth Green, Virginya Keehne, Ray Oriel and Alfonso Ribeiro. Made for about two million dollars, it is a low-budget creature feature set almost entirely outdoors and running a brisk 85 minutes.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.5 from roughly 6,600 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 5.7 from close to 200 votes. A critics' rating of 5.6 from seven reviews falls in the same narrow band, so viewers and critics have responded to it in similar, middling terms.