I was reminded by a Twitter post that the movie Tremors just recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. I had seen this movie back when it first came out (in the olden days when we went to the video store to rent movies on VHS), and had enjoyed it very much then. Seeing that Tremors was playing on Netflix, I decided it was time for a re-watch. And I was very glad I revisited the little town of Perfection, Nevada once more. Tremors is a great, remarkably smart horror/comedy about a pair of handymen named Earl and Valentine, superbly played by Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon, respectively, who come across massive killer subterranean worms under the dirt of their one-horse desert town.
If this sounds silly, it is. But the movie works so well because it leans into the goofiness of its situation and characters by playing up the humor of the eccentricities on display. However, the film (well-directed by Ron Underwood--who also helmed City Slickers and The Mighty Joe Young remake starring Charlize Theron) treats the Graboids (the name given to the monsters) with complete seriousness. Enough of people are viciously slaughtered by the Graboids to make the viewer both fear and hate them in equal measure, and the Graboids wind up being dangerously intelligent, which puts them in the same ‘killer horde’ league as the Aliens from James Cameron’s Aliens, and the Raptors from the Jurassic Park films.
Tremors features a great cast, including Victor Wong, from Big Trouble In Little China, as well as Ariana Richards, who would appear in Jurassic Park and its sequel, and Bibi Besch, from Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan. Finn Carter is also extremely engaging as geologist Rhonda. But it’s Michael Gross (best known from Family Ties) and country singer Reba McEntire who damn near steal the movie as Burt and Heather Gummer, a husband and wife team of survivalists who give the Graboids a run for their money. It’s Burt who says the line that I quoted above, after a Graboid bursts into their well-armed house.
As along as you’re armed with superior firepower, which Burt and Heather have in spades, a full-on assault against guns will kill a Graboid--but only after a long, drawn out slug fest with bullets (as shown in a very well done scene). But the Graboids are smart enough to stay under the earth, where they can attack and pull people down below with them while being protected by the dirt from bullets. And so our endearing band of mismatched have to work out a daring plan to escape the Graboids once and for all.
Tremors holds up remarkably well for a thirty year old movie. Along with its great cast of actors, it also has a strong script that humanizes its characters to the point where you easily sympathize with them, thus making the movie all the more enjoyable because you’re so caught up in it. There have been a number of sequels, and even a TV series, that followed in the past thirty years. But the first Tremors is where it all began, and even after all these years, it’s still an enjoyable monster movie ride. --SF
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