Tina Kakadelis
“A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.” So reads the opening quote of the 2025 SXSW-selected The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick. The words linger, unattributed to anyone for a little longer than necessary, but enough to ponder the depth of this sentiment. Maybe life really is only half-lived if you’re terrified. Then comes the kicker: it’s a Baz Luhrmann quote. Such is the essence of The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick, a bizarre one-two punch of ideas of grandeur that are knocked down by a choking air of desperate, hollow intellectualism.
Yvonne (Zoë Chao) is going through something deeply traumatic. The audience doesn’t quite know what it is that has sent her into this frantic tizzy, but the voice on the other end of the line calms her down. That voice belongs to Yvonne’s longtime friend, Camille (Callie Hernandez), who has just purchased a secluded house in the countryside. She offers it as an escape for what Yvonne is experiencing and, initially, Yvonne is relieved. Unfortunately, that feeling of peace is almost immediately ruined by the presence of houseguests. AJ (James Cusati-Moyer) is a cook and Isaac (Jeremy O. Harris) is the real estate agent who sold Camille the house. All is well until a tick bites Yvonne and she experiences some strange side effects.
The question that likely led to you clicking on this review is about what sort of beauty comes from being bitten by a tick. Right? It’s the sort of title that comes across as entirely nonsensical until the shoe-drop moment when it all clicks in place. The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick has one of those moments, and even if this review were to spoil things, which it won’t, it would sound too peculiar to believe. What makes The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick so refreshing is that its mysterious, perplexing atmosphere amounts to something. Far too often, TV shows and movies ask questions they can’t possibly answer in a way that pays off. Luckily, that’s not the case here.
The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick comes from a collaborative mindset. The four main actors and director/editor Pete Ohs all share a writing credit on the film. The premise came from a trip to western Massachusetts and the looming fear of being bitten by a tick. And it’s not about some millennials living in fear of this tiny insect. It’s about a different type of fear that gives it a place in the growing millennial horror genre. This generation has come of age in the shadow of 9/11. They were raised to believe they’d have their own white-picket-fence-dream-house, just like their parents, but that illusion shattered long ago. What remains are the desire to have that traditional life and the fear of a world that is growing more unstable by the second.
It’s these dueling, at-odds ideas that are the basis of many anxieties in the millennial generation and the group in The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick. How can a person define themselves as a high-brow erudite while indulging in trash television? Can someone who thrives on the mayhem of city life actually find peace in the countryside? The film looks at these questions and through the lens of psychological horrors like Rosemary’s Baby without losing its distinct millennial voice. The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick is a horror for those of us who might be more than a little afraid of becoming an adult.
If we return to the film’s opening quote, you’ll notice that it primes viewers to start in a place of fear. To let the anxieties one tries to keep at bay come to the surface and imagine a world where there is nothing to upset you. The film is born out of a fear of domesticity and comes from a group of writer/actor combos who are likely in the midst of their own life crises. The collaborative effort of The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick pokes fun at the absurd contradictions that exist in this specific generation, while providing a genuinely spine-chilling sensation for the viewer.
