Ticks are back in the body horror business with Tick Fever, an absurdist horror movie in development from writer-director Sebastian Granskog and producer Mia Palmgren.
“Every Finn has learned to live in fear of ticks since the summers of their childhood. It’s a tiny insect that latches onto your body, breaks through your skin, starts drinking your blood and grows bigger as it takes what it wants from you,” Granskog explained to Variety in a first look that reveals concept art behind the film.
Tick Fever was presented at the Finnish Film Affair, which spotlighted similar films with Nordic Lab Genre this year.
Whereas the 1993 Brian Yuzna-produced Ticks saw the parasitic bloodsuckers mutate via steroids, unleashing goopy body horror, Tick Fever is applying a more grounded metaphor.
In Tick Fever, “Years into being together, a co-dependent couple’s relationship starts crumbling due to a suspected tick bite. As Victor spirals into anxiety over his alleged bite mark, Stella pulls away, burying herself in her work. Victor’s anxiety starts manifesting itself as a giant, bloodthirsty tick, pushing the couple further from each other. When Victor notices Stella is also being slowly devoured by a tick similar to his own, he realizes the anxiety and fear keeping them together is the very thing that’s killing them.“
In other words, it’s a body horror film centered on a relationship past its expiration date.
Actors Elias Salonen (“Kalevala: The Story of Kullervo”) and Anna Böhm (“Valhalla Project”) portray the doomed couple in the first concept art for the film, above and below.
Like the ’93 creature feature, Granskog wants to make Tick Fever utilizing practical effects. “As a horror fan, gore has me giggling in my seat when I’m watching a movie. I would love to make this film with practical effects. I hope we can accomplish that, at least mostly,” he tells Variety.
“Sebastian brilliantly balances horror, relationship drama and social satire in this film, and the world he has created is horrifyingly relatable,” Palmgren adds.
Tick Fever is still in active development, so stay tuned for more as we learn it. It certainly sounds as though more horror from Norway is on the way.
