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Joseph Kahn (Detention, Bodied) again confirms himself to be one of the most underappreciated filmmakers working today with his new sci-fi horror-comedy Ick.

The era of early-aughts nostalgia is clearly fully upon us now with this gloriously extra homage to Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty, centered around a high school science teacher (Brandon Routh) who teams up with a student and his first love (Mena Suvari) to fend off an alien invasion in their town.

Everything about Ick is firmly in love with the 2000s, from the wink-wink casting of Routh and Suvari to the utterly stupendous collection of needle-drops, ranging from The All-American Rejects to Hoobastank, Good Charlotte, Creed, and Wheatus.

This ensures the film will appeal most of all to the millennial crowd, though on its own terms, Kahn's approach lends Ick a flavour that sets it apart from superficially similar fare.

Despite premiering at TIFF 2024, though, Ick ended up getting dumped on streaming without much interest last summer.