Watching this film, I was amused by the apathy of it all—the way the ick was treated, the way characters reacted, heck, the way some of them viewed themselves. Mixing that with high-adrenaline action/horror scenes was a bizarre yet entertaining combination, and the cast seemed to be all in. However, the highs, lows, and strange plot points made Ick uneven and, while fun, ultimately a little frustrating to watch.
Brandon Routh plays Hank, a big-time high school football star back in the day, but an injury not only derailed his career but his life. He watched his high school crush, Staci (Mena Suvari), move on, get married, and have a child while he was stuck as a janitor at his old high school. Kudos to Hank, though, as he pulled up his socks and became a science teacher. However, the change in the ick’s behavior and finding out Staci’s daughter Grace (Malina Weissman) might actually be his daughter changes his life, and everyone’s life, for that matter.
The ick is a weird organism that has been in the town seemingly forever and something people have accepted as a way of life. It could sometimes be annoying and an eyesore, but it didn’t do much to change their lives. However, for some reason, the ick becomes aggressive, and in a quick switch that looks like The Blob met Venom, it becomes a killing machine. The ick starts to infect everything around them, and it’s left to Hank, Grace, and a handful of others to figure out how to stop it before it envelopes the town and kills them all.
Director and co-writer Joseph Kahn moves this film along quickly, moving from one scene to the next as if to show off even more of the apathy running through this film. While there are many longer scenes and moments of dialogue, the quick panning of the camera and repeated short moments are fun once you get used to them. The problems arise when the film slows down, and by that, I mean almost to a crawl. At times, it is like someone on a massive caffeine/sugar high is running around filming this, only to suffer from the inevitable crash that comes later, grinding the story to a halt.
Routh is a joy here, embracing the character of Hank completely and making his awkward/science teacher/possible parent act very believable. He has great chemistry with Weissman as Grace, and the two of them share some fun and awkward moments while at the same time, not realizing they are bonding at the same time.
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Staci and real estate hubby Ted (Peter Wong) also provide some great side moments along the way. All of the actors here seem to understand the assignment are on board, especially Routh and Weissman, who sell their roles with great conviction, making for some truly laugh-out-loud uncomfortable moments between them.
One of the other issues I had was with the ick itself. It seemed to react differently depending on what was going on in the story. It has a weakness, but its strengths came and went. It could do things one moment, but it was seemingly incapable of the same acts in another scene. The actual look of the ick was fine. It was a sort of weird Venom/Blob hybrid with an old-school fun vibe many times but suffered other times, looking like the budget ran out of money. It did provide some fun, chaotic moments at the end, though, making for a fun, high-energy final act.
There is always a fine line to walk when you do a comedy-horror film, and while there were many enjoyable moments, Ick ultimately suffered from being too slow in some of its scenes and too inconsistent in terms of flow and plot lines. At just over ninety minutes, it’s worth a look, if nothing else, to enjoy Routh and Weissman navigating their awkwardness and the ick at the same time.
Ick had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
