[ Seen as part of Overlook Film Festival ]
Growing up, I remember hearing things about movies like The Blob and Invasion of the Body Snatchers having political messaging reflective of the times they were made. Glimpses of Abel Ferrara’s “Body Snatchers” blended together with Philip Kaufman’s, blended with Chuck Russell’s Blob in my imagination before I had actually ever seen any of the films. I gently understood though, that stories could mean things beyond their surface. I put that away for years before it became something I actively sought out.
Ick slides its way into the pantheon of symbolic slimy intrusion. Successfully invoking millennial hyper nostalgia and weaponizing it against the viewer. Endless early 2000’s needle drops take you back to a time when radio was king, lending to a toe tapping dance plague in your seat even if pop punk wasn’t necessarily your style. The top paced editing as well as the inclusion of Brandon Ruth bring back the fan service favorites of Edgar Wright like Saun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim. Joseph Kahn use of nostalgia here however is more in line with Paul Verhoeven’s sort of satire. Over the top as Starship Troopers was, the films omnipresent tentacled horror achieves its own invasive propaganda.
In a time when massively successful directors make comments distancing themselves from the politic of art, its great to see horror that still has some teeth to bite back.
