Opening this year’s ScreamFest Film Festival, we had the chance to see “Ick”, the new film from Joseph Kahn, a director with a MASSIVE career directing Music Videos, and a very distinct sense of humor. 

 

In the past, Kahn brought films like “Detention” and “Bodied”, along with a very dark and twisted short film based on the Power Rangers franchise. This time with “Ick”, Kahn tries to bring a PG13 gateway horror Creature Feature to the TikTok generation.

 

Onto a brief synopsis!

 

For quite some time, a strange herb has been growing in the small town known as Willow Creek. Affectionately called by the locals as “The Ick”, the herb seems to sprout in just about everywhere, and for some reason, nobody in Willow Creek seems to be bothered by it, nor interested in finding out where it came from. What they care most for, is their Football team, especially its star athlete Hank. 

 

Hank’s apparently idyllic life as the town’s Golden boy comes to an abrupt end due a weird accident in one of the most important games in his life. In just a few weeks, he loses his scholarship, his girlfriend, job opportunities and pretty much, the control of his life, falling into depression and alcohol, until he finds a new purpose, teaching science in the same high school he used to attend. 

 

After several decades being dormant, The Ick starts to show a strange behavior and even a mind of its own, managing to infect and control some of the residents of Willow Creek as Zombies, starting a hostile takeover little by little. This will make Hank finally step up from his meaningless existence and fight to save not only his town, but also the girl that could be the daughter he never knew he had.

Ok. 

I am a fan of “Detention” … Up to a point. In that film, Joseph Khan brought a sort of parody of the slasher films and threw some time travel elements 6 years before “Happy Death Day” did (In a more serious tone), but “Detention” had a problem balancing out the humor (in my opinion) and had a messy resolution, as if the writers had too many ideas and wanted to put all of them in the film, regardless if they would fit or not. 

 

And with “Ick” it happens again.

 

Let me start with the positives: For starters, the cast was very good. I think Brandon Routh did a great performance, but I think his character needed more spark. I found it a little bit too repetitive how we see that he is still hooked on his first long-lost love, and seems to not even try to move on, even after recovering from being an alcoholic and finding a new passion in teaching. This rut helps for some comedy in some scenes, but it wears out very fast. 

 

Another nice performance was done by Malina Pauli Weissman, who plays her character Grace in a very grounded, serious manner as opposed to the rest of the characters around her, who are played in a more jokey and exaggerated style. I bet this was not easy, but she pulled it out very well.

 

The creature (“The Ick”) in the film is very interesting, and while we could argue that the special effects regarding the creature looks fake. It is clearly on purpose, since before the screening, Joseph Kahn explained that he wanted this movie to be more in line with the creature features he saw as a child, where the monsters were not that realistic. They were scary enough in order to scare you, but not enough to traumatize you, or leave you unable to sleep at night. I think the special effects works very well for the movie, so I got no problems with that, and I enjoyed all the scenes where the creature is causing chaos. 

 

There is some gore and guts, and there are some good kills, both played for laughs and other ones in a more serious tone. 

 

There are several great tense scenes, and some action scenes are very well executed. 

 

And here is where I go to my negatives:

 

The pacing is very choppy and irregular. While I said there are several good scenes filled with tension, there are also other scenes that drag the pace, and feel like padding that could be cut. 

 

At the beginning of the film, we get TOO MUCH information VERY FAST and later…. It takes forever to get into the real action. While most of the jokes and witty commentaries are well executed, there are times where (like in “Detention”) we get too many dialogues or jokes that are derailing the story, as if (again) the writers had too many ideas in mind, and did not want to leave anything out. 

 

I guess that is just Khan’s style. 

 

I understand that this film is a satire and a critic about how a lot of times people do not react to something horrible happening if it does not affect them directly, and how in other cases they rather disregard any safety concerns if it means to cancel any celebrations (cough, cough, COVID), but I think this idea could have done in a faster manner. 

 

The film takes a little bit too much time to get to the point (When the Ick starts to attack) and after a very solid tense moment, the pace goes too slow and takes (again) too much time to get to the next scary scene. 

This problem is felt even in the last part of the film. We see a very tense confrontation, and the film could have ended right there, but then decides to raise the stakes and continue to another bigger confrontation. This is not bad in itself, the problem is that the set up for the climax felt clumsy and not that interesting. 

 

I will admit though, that the final act ended on a high note, and I loved it. I was wondering who would be a corpse before the credits started to roll and that uncertainty is always a plus in my book. 

 

Final thoughts? “Ick” is messy, it could use some trimming, less exposition and go to the point a little bit faster (which is ironic, since the beginning of the film, like I said, is FRANTIC). Still, the movie is very enjoyable, with some interesting funny characters and several quick whips that made me laugh. Also, when the film wants to be scary, it does get scary. 

 

If you liked “Detention” you will enjoy this one, but If you did not like it, you should probably skip “Ick”. 

“Ick”  was directed by Joseph Kahn, and co-written with Dan Koontz and Samuel Laskey,

The cast includes the talents of Mena Suvari, Brandon Routh, Malina Pauli Weissman and more. 

ScreamFest is taking place from October 8th through October 17th, in Los Angeles California.