TheIckis about to take over theToronto International Film Festival. Tomorrow, the annual event celebrating the latest and most exciting new projects in cinema from around the world will kick off withDavid Gordon Green’sNutcrackersstarringBen Stiller. However, viewers looking for a sci-fi horror comedy treat will have to wait for Midnight Madness, where the festival’s wild side comes out with actioners, horror features, and generally some of the biggest crowd-pleasers. DirectorJoseph Kahn, whose 2017 flickBodiedscored the People’s Choice Award at the program that year, returns to the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 2024 with his latest,Ick, in hopes of repeating that success and offering laughs and scares in equal measure. Ahead of its world premiere on September 7, Collider is excited to share the spooky official poster from Creepy Duck Designs showingBrandon Routhand his students facing a terrifying infection.
Ickfeatures theSuperman Returnsstar as former high school football standout turned science teacher Hank Wallace, who’s caught in an apocalyptic scenario. Once in line for a career as a professional athlete, he winds up instructing disinterested kids about chemistry until the school itself is overtaken by the titular infectious substance. With the town having grown complacent about the dormant alien threat, everything is thrown into chaos when it begins to attack everyone around. It’s up to Hank and his students to put their differences aside to take on the menace, though the situation becomes more complicatedas he also sorts out his complex feelings towards the daughter of his childhood sweetheart.
In addition to directing, Kahn also co-wrote the screenplay for the satire film withDan KoontzandCaptain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon RemixwriterSamuel Laskey. His ultimate goal was to create a humorous horror feature that could be enjoyed by the entire family, with a heavy emphasis on old-school practical effects to capture the same energyas classic creature featureslikeJurassic Park,Godzilla, andThe Blob. The poster similarly seeks that tone as Routh leads his students against the low of the full moon while the titular Ick closes its fingers around them. Kahn described the movie in his director’s statement as a modernized twist on the monster genre that, at its heart, has family front of mind.
Ick is my dream of making an old-fashioned monster movie for a modern world. The keyword here is movie. Ick is an unapologetic creature feature. Instead of relying on gore and sex, we will thrill the audience with chases and escapes while a broken hero tries to mend family wounds. However, in our version, we are waiting on the DNA test to see if it’s actually a family (the world today is complex).
‘Ick’ Is Steeped in Social Commentary and a Strong Cast
Like many great creature features before it,Ickalsohas something to say about societyand, particularly, the tendency toward indifference. Though it can be taken as a metaphor for a whole host of issues about the environment, politics, and other forces around the world, Kahn says the goal is tosatirize people’s willingness to ignore glaring problems despite obvious warning signs. All of it is then wrapped in an Amblin-tinted adventure with a strong cast, as the director said:
“Ick could be a metaphor for many things: viruses, terrorism, global warming, politicians. However, there is a difference between Ick and monsters of the past. Ick is there in plain sight. The generation today has lived through many real monsters. What we’ve learned is when the monster appears, people eventually… ignore it. Ick takes place in a world where the mind control of the monster and the apathy of the people become indistinguishable.”
Joining Routh on-screen isMalina Weissmanas his maybe daughter Grace andMena Suvarias his former sweetheart Staci, withHarrison Cone,Debra Wilson,Taia Sophia,Zeke Jones, andJeff Faheyrounding out the bunch. This won’t be Routh and Suvari’s only upcoming team-up, as they joined the cast of the starry romantic dramaFatewithCheech Marinback in May.
Ick premieres during TIFF’s Midnight Madness at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on September 7 at 11:59 p.m. Further screenings for attendees will be held at Scotiabank 4 on September 8 at 9:30 p.m. and Scotiabank 7 on September 11 at 9:40 p.m. More information is availableon the official website. Check out the exclusive poster in the gallery above and stay tuned here at Collider for more coverage of the festival in the days to come.
A former football star turned science teacher becomes embroiled in a strange situation when he suspects a new student might be his long-lost daughter while a mysterious alien substance starts attacking his town. As he battles the bizarre creature and tries to navigate his newfound paternal role, the story blends horror and humor, utilizing old-school practical effects and modern visuals to create a grotesque yet comedic experience.
