No Need to Get the Ick (FANTASTIC) From This Gateway Horror Sci-Fi Romp

Title: Ick

First Non-Festival Release: TBD

Director: Joseph Kahn

Writer: Joseph Kahn, Dan Koontz, Samuel Laskey

Runtime: 87 Minutes

Starring: Brandon Routh, Mena Suvari, Malina Weissman

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

This film’s review was written after its screening at the Fantastic Film Festival in 2024.

Ignoring problems seldomly leads to them getting resolved on their own. When they get too big to handle, it’s easy to let apathy overtake even the most well-meaning of people.

This is true for the world regarding the ick, an unknown alien species that has taken root on earth. Without making an initial attack and its generally inscrutable nature, people just ignored it, even as it grew for decades. Hank (Brandon Routh) owes his life’s decline to the ick, after it tripped him during a football game, shattering his leg and all his future dreams.

Nearly twenty years later, he still lives in his hometown as a science teacher and part time bar owner when something strange begins happening with the ick. The only person who shows any concern is Grace (Malina Weissman), the daughter of his high school flame Staci (Mena Suvari), who might also be his daughter. It’s up to Hank to save Grace and save the town from the ick as it escalates its series of attacks.

Thoroughly enjoyable gateway teen sci-fi horror Ick offers plenty of creature mayhem and sugary sweet sentimentality.

Ick starts hard and fast with a stylish and engaging sprint through Hank’s rise and fall as a midwestern hometown hero. Covering twenty years of important character and plot information, Ick might feel rushed at times, but it manages to build its world in an endearing and memorable way. Its use of quippy dialogue and quirky characters allows the story to expand without glossing over any important plot elements. Rapid fire jokes keep the pace of the film quick even when the action lulls in the middle. The strong writing of Ick allows it to play with teen horror conventions while serving as a strong allegory for pandemic response.

Drawing parallels to the past and present response to COVID-19, the ick serves as a sounding board for all the worst qualities that society let loose during the height of the pandemic. Present long before it becomes a problem, alarm bells are only raised by the few passionate people that identify it as a threat before it reveals its true nature. Once it does, it’s too late. Even still, there are plenty of people that willfully ignore its dangers. The spiteful and the stupid persist despite the ick claiming more lives. It’s hard not to see the resemblance to some of society’s response to the reasonable cautionary directives to minimize loss of life during the height of COVID-19.

While lacking in gore, Ick makes up for its constraints by incorporating plenty of exciting set pieces in its gloriously high number of chase scenes. Roadside pursuits, football field confrontations, and a race to the top of a radio tower are just some of the highlights of the constant action in Ick. Director Joseph Kahn has an incredible sense of timing, squeezing the suspense out of each sequence while maintaining the film’s kinetic energy. Ick never lets up, allowing its unbridled teen horror heart to burst through the screen in the best ways.

A character of its own, the largely pop-punk soundtrack serves as an updated form of nostalgia bait that feeds into the film’s underlying themes of letting the past influence the present. With every needle drop, Ick establishes itself as a film for audiences who came of age in the early 2000s, an emerging and underserved market in the current nostalgia-influenced industry. The soundtrack is great, featuring a smattering of needle drops from Creed to Wheatus that weave into the motivations of the characters while highlighting the absurdity of the ick. Horror fans without a connection to the time period, or those who dislike this type of rose-colored storytelling, may find Ick gaudy in its attempts for sentimentality. That rings true for the core of its story, however, so maybe that’s a good thing?

With so few quality gateway horror films being released nowadays, there is something special to be said about creating for this underserved market. Ick is a fun, fast-paced sci-fi horror film that never holds back on scares even when it keeps the gore and other adult elements firmly in check. Quirky characters, quippy dialogue, and a fascinating antagonist make Ick an easy sell to any horror fan looking for breezy popcorn fare. One thing is for sure, if you are already a fan of Kahn’s mile-a-minute movies, you won’t get the Ick for this alien caper.

Overall Score? 7/10