The Tremors franchise

Tremors (1990)

Rating: A

Dir: Ron Underwood
Star: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross

I ended up having to check four different genre boxes for this one, which may be a record: action, comedy, horror and SF. What’s even more remarkable is that it works very well in at least three of those categories. The exception might be science fiction: it relies a little too much on hand-waving, as regard to the origin of the species. Various theories are put forward – “I vote for outer space. No way these are local boys” – but the writers, very consciously, opted to leave things unexplained. That’s a small complaint though, because the movie is such a barnstorming success in all the other genres.

I think the key is simply the characters, which come to life as a combination of good writing and good performances. I’m hard pushed to think of another movie with such a good ensemble set. Aliens might be about the closest, in terms of creating memorable roles in just a few lines. What this also has in common with Cameron’s classic is the relentlessly quotable nature of the dialogue. I think those two films, along with Shaun of the Dead, are probably the movies whose lines are most often to be heard echoing around the halls of Film Blitz Towers. Have a few samples of why that’s the case.

  • “Yeah, well, I’m a victim of circumstance.” “I thought you called it your pecker.”
  • “We plan ahead. That way we don’t do anything right now. Earl explained it to me.”
  • “Here’s some Swiss cheese and some bullets.”
  • “Oh, sure, Earl. Everybody knows about them. We just didn’t tell you.”
  • “Running’s not a plan. Now, running’s what you do when a plan fails.”
  • “-oids… I like snakeoids.”
  • “This valley is just one long smorgasbord.”
  • “Broke into the wrong goddamn rec room didn’t you, you bastard?”
  • “A few household chemicals in the proper proportion.”
  • “Cannon fuse.” “What the hell you use it for?” “My cannon.”

Put simply, these are characters you would want to spend time with. Earl Bassett (Ward) and Valentine McKee (Bacon) have an easy-going relationship born of long familiarity, evident in their friendly banter. They are blue collar heroes, of the kind not often seen in Hollywood. But they’re positively Commies beside the husband and wife couple of Burt (Gross) and Heather Gummer (Reba McEntire). Hardcore redneck survivalists depicted as actual people, rather than lampooned as knuckle-dragging cretins? Truly, the nineties was a different time. Gross somehow parlayed this supporting role into starring in six more movies and a TV series – albeit none as good as the original. Still, not bad for the dad in Family Ties.

There is a delicious sense of escalation on the side of the monsters too. Initially, we don’t know what they are. Then is seems like they’re snake-sized underground creatures. It’s not until the first one is dispatched (technically, dispatching itself by running head-first into a concrete canal wall) that we and the heroes can appreciate their size and bizarre nature. Yet they continue to surprise, quickly learning to counter the town’s efforts to defend against them. This keeps things fresh for the whole running-time, and it helps that the special effects very good too. They use a lovely mix of hand puppets, miniatures and full-scale creatures in a way that’s almost seamless. It certainly doesn’t look over thirty years old.

There’s hardly a slack moment to be found. I guess I did roll my eyes at the romance between Valentine and seismology student Rhonda LeBeck (Carter). As a character, she’s fine. But this is not a film that needs to check yet another genre box, and the chemistry is underwhelming. It’s not a significant flaw – a couple of minutes of screen time at most. But it still feels bolted on, and it is the case that the kiss between them at the end, was only added in response to test screening reactions. Everything else is as near perfect as it gets, and I was wondering why we never heard much more from director Underwood after this and City Slickers. Turns out he then directed a series of box-office flops, peaking with one of the biggest bombs of all-time, The Adventures of Pluto Nash. That’ll derail anyone’s career.

December 2006. For sheer entertainment, this is almost impossible to beat. Right from the start Ward and Bacon show great chemistry, with Valentine and Earl a great pair of characters, stuck in rural Nevada with dreams of big-city life – or, at least, anywhere that’s not their current location. However, the day they try to leave, the valley inhabitants are attacked by giant, underground worms, and the survivors must figure how to deal with an enemy that can’t be seen until it’s too late. And as monsters go, the “Graboids” are fabulous creations, and the film makes full use of them, even though it’s a good way into proceedings before it becomes clear what the humans are up against. They show remarkable intelligence too, learning from experience and adapting their hunting tactics, which makes them even more formidable foes.

The human cast are generally great, not least the survivalist Gummers (Gross and Reba McEntire, showing comic timing she’d later use for her TV show), in a sympathetic portrayal light-years from what the type usually gets. But even the bratty kid has redeeming qualities – we’ve all faked attack by a plush sabertooth in the LaBrea Tar Pits gift-shop. Er, just us then. 🙂 About the only weakness is Carter’s bland seismologist, whose dialogue lacks the spark which illuminates almost every other line: “You see, we plan ahead. That way, we don’t do anything right now.” Even without the creatures, this would still be a sublime pleasure; add them, and despite all the sequels of diminishing return, it’s a big, goofy throwback to another era. Yet the modern sensibilities and production values ensure you laugh with it, not at it. A

Original review [6] Wonderfully gloopy monster movie provides us with another new way to cook spam: spam-in-a-vallry, an allusion made concrete when one character says, “This valley’s one long smorgasbord”. The inhabitants of Perfection, Nevada (pop.14 – no, make that 13. Oh, now 12…) are under attack by giant worms: wisely, there’s no attempt as justification or explanation. “Them’s not local boys for sure”, being all we have time for. The rest of the film is just as unpretentious, social comment being restricted to a husband and wife survivalist team (car registration UZI 4U). Likable characters and a lot of orange slime add to the ambience – it’s really tough to think of anything that would make this film any better as sheer entertainment. Even the ’15’ certificate is on the lenient side! 9/10

Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)

Rating: C+

Dir: S.S. Wilson
Star: Fred Ward, Christopher Gartin, Michael Gross, Helen Shaver

After thrashing around for a bit trying to find its feet, this sequel eventually settles down and becomes something that would be quite worthy, if it didn’t have to live up to the wonderful first film. At first, it seems bereft of ideas (as well as bereft of Kevin Bacon, no doubt too expensive now), merely re-locating Ward to Mexico to bounty-hunt giant worms. These seem to possess far less intelligence than their American cousins, and there’s only so many times you can shower people in exploded worm intestines.

Thankfully, things perk up with the return of Gross, every bit as gung-ho as last time, and now with all the resources of the Mexican army at his disposal. He finds worthy adversaries as the worms metamorphose into a new form, beautifully realised in a mix of puppetry and CGI (the latter by Phil Tippett, employing the same style he’d use in Starship Troopers). There’s too much slack in the script, with a lot of dead air in the first half, and the new characters don’t do much to grab attention. Still, the Jurassic Park approach i.e. many small creatures rather than one big one, provides a whole new set of challenges, and enough drive to make this worth the effort.

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

Rating: C

Dir: S.S. Wilson
Star: Michael Gross, Shawn Christian, Susan Chuang, Tony Genaro

After the pleasant surprise that was Tremors 2, this doesn’t quite match up, yet still delivers enough to satisfy. No Fred Ward this time – and I suspect the entire budget wouldn’t have paid for Kevin Bacon – so attention is focussed fully on survivalist Burt (Gross), who returns to where it all began, to meet friends old and new as well as, inevitably, the next stage in the monsters’ life-cycle. This isn’t quite as groundbreaking as you’d hope, but that may be because the CGI is often flakey.

Still, it’s the characters that drive this one: besides Gross, we have obvious cheap alternative to Bacon, Shawn Christian as an enterpreneur who specialised in fake Graboid tours (until the real thing shows up and eats a customer), and Chuang, the second-generation grocery store owner, whose father was also consumed in part one. The interplay between these is grand and it’s the little things you’ll take away, such as the Dark Horse comic book titles in the store – “Graboids”, “Shriekers” and “Graboids vs. Shriekers”. It’s fluffy fun, though I can’t say I’m particularly eager to see Tremors 4, since I can’t see where they could go. Except perhaps to a big city… hmmm, where did I put my typewriter?

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)

Rating: C-

Dir: S.S. Wilson
Star: Michael Gross, August Schellenberg, Sara Botsford, Billy Drago

To their credit, the creators realised that the existence of the Tremors TV show means that something new had to be done in the films. Unfortunately, what’s new here isn’t interesting, and what’s interesting isn’t new. The setting remains the same, but the era is shifted back to 1889, a time when the town was named Rejection and home to a thriving mine. Workers there accidentally hatch the monsters’ eggs and flee in panic – cue the now-traditional new stage of Graboid development, in this case strangely reminiscent of Piranha 2. Owner Gummer (Ward) then turns up to see why his mine has closed, and things proceed as you’d expect from there.

Too much, especially in the second half, is a retread of the very first movie. Once more, plucky townsfolk slowly find out what they’re facing, and take on the beasts with wile, guile and a few household chemicals in the proper proportions. Well, almost: this Gummer only slowly (and amusingly) feels the gun-love of his descendant. Ethnically mixed in a painfully obvious way – in 1889, rich Caucasians always hung out with Mexicans, Red Indians and Chinese! – it also lacks the body-count necessary for tension, though things perk up a little when Billy Drago appears as a hired gun. That thrashing sound you hear is a dead horse being thoroughly flogged: evolution is vital for the series to survive. I start writing Tremors 5: Graboids Go Vegas immediately…

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015)

Rating: C

Dir: Don Michael Paul
Star: Michael Gross, Jamie Kennedy, Pearl Thusi, Lawrence Joffe

11 years after the last installment, and 25 after the glorious (and still wonderful) original, the giant worms are back – I guess Gross must have needed a new car or something, since I don’t recall ever seeing him in anything outside the series. As in most of the later sequels, he’s about the only connection to that first film. He’s still playing survivalist Burt Gummer, and after the Wild West prequel which was #4, we’re back in the present day, with Gummer hosting his own web series out of Perfection, Nevada. He’s approached by hot-shot young film-maker Travis Welker (Kennedy), who gains Gummer’s trust by helping him negotiate a deal to go to South Africa, where the graboids, shriekers and ass-blasters have reportedly been seen, for the first time outside the Northern hemisphere.

Turns out their employer is not seeking to address the problem caused by the creatures, so much as exploit it, by selling the monsters’ eggs on the black market. Stopping them will also involve taking down the “Queen Bitch” of the species, in what is basically a thinly-veiled Aliens reference. Sigh. As with the previous three sequels, this one’s purpose appears mostly to generate a desire to watch the first film again, which got the combination right of monsters, characters, action and humour. Here, there’s little in the way of development of either humans or animals; the tentacles of the African graboid can separate and operate independently, but with the life-cycle fully established, there’s nowhere else to go [the paucity of invention here explains why they opted to go back in time for the fourth movie].

Kennedy certainly doesn’t have the charm or charisma of… Well, let’s be honest, the giants worms probably do better in both departments. The foreshadowing here is pretty painful – as soon as you see a small African child using a car battery to bring up worms, and someone mentions the storms which appear, regular as clockwork, in the afternoon, you’ll be able to piece together the climax. There are occasional moments of some wit; I actually liked Gummer’s monster-hunting show, and would have liked to see more of it. Yet it doesn’t change the underlying problem, that this has been flogging a dead invertebrate for far too long.

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015)

Rating: C

Dir: Don Michael Paul
Star: Michael Gross, Jamie Kennedy, Pearl Thusi, Lawrence Joffe

11 years after the last installment, and 25 after the glorious (and still wonderful) original, the giant worms are back – I guess Gross must have needed a new car or something, since I don’t recall ever seeing him in anything outside the series. As in most of the later sequels, he’s about the only connection to that first film. He’s still playing survivalist Burt Gummer, and after the Wild West prequel which was #4, we’re back in the present day, with Gummer hosting his own web series out of Perfection, Nevada. He’s approached by hot-shot young film-maker Travis Welker (Kennedy), who gains Gummer’s trust by helping him negotiate a deal to go to South Africa, where the graboids, shriekers and ass-blasters have reportedly been seen, for the first time outside the Northern hemisphere.

Turns out their employer is not seeking to address the problem caused by the creatures, so much as exploit it, by selling the monsters’ eggs on the black market. Stopping them will also involve taking down the “Queen Bitch” of the species, in what is basically a thinly-veiled Aliens reference. Sigh. As with the previous three sequels, this one’s purpose appears mostly to generate a desire to watch the first film again, which got the combination right of monsters, characters, action and humour. Here, there’s little in the way of development of either humans or animals; the tentacles of the African graboid can separate and operate independently, but with the life-cycle fully established, there’s nowhere else to go [the paucity of invention here explains why they opted to go back in time for the fourth movie].

Kennedy certainly doesn’t have the charm or charisma of… Well, let’s be honest, the giants worms probably do better in both departments. The foreshadowing here is pretty painful – as soon as you see a small African child using a car battery to bring up worms, and someone mentions the storms which appear, regular as clockwork, in the afternoon, you’ll be able to piece together the climax. There are occasional moments of some wit; I actually liked Gummer’s monster-hunting show, and would have liked to see more of it. Yet it doesn’t change the underlying problem, that this has been flogging a dead invertebrate for far too long.

Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)

Review coming… eventually

Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

Rating: C+

Dir: Don Michael Paul
Star:  Michael Gross, Jon Heder, Caroline Langrishe, Richard Brake

Coming in, I wondered why we were bothering. The last entry in the series which was good, by any objective standards, might have been… Tremors 2? Since then, it had felt like a generally diminishing set of returns, apparently existing solely to keep Gross in work. I couldn’t honestly tell you what number this was in the franchise, and don’t think I even bothered to write about the last one. But by chance, we watched a documentary on the making of the original movie a couple of days ago. It reminded us why the original – now 30 years old – is still a classic, and of everything it did right. Which by and large, is everything the sequels do wrong. Would this be any different?

Don’t look for originality in the story – roughly equal parts TremorsJurassic Park and Predator. The last gets explicitly name-checked more than once (as do Rambo and The Evil Dead), and some of the audio cues are… suspiciously similar. There’s even a guy wielding a Jesse Ventura-like mini-gun, though the impact is limited, due to the poor digital FX used to represent its results. Park is apparent in the uber-wealthy guy (Brake) who has brought a quartet of graboids to a private island, and “enhanced” them (an angle which goes nowhere much) to provide a big-game hunting experience for millionaires. This goes as well as meddling with nature always does. It is up to Burt Gummer (Gross), his ex (Langrishe), the likable guy (Heder), and a Lara Croft wannabe to save the day. Meanwhile, the creatures take their cue from Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and eat the rich.

There seems to have been a fair bit of money spent on this, not least the location shooting in Thailand, which is well utilized. There’s good, slo-mo use of flamethrowers and if you ever wanted to see Napoleon Dynamite yelling “Suck on this!” and carving apart Shriekers with a chainsaw… Well, that’s a strange and very particular fetish, but to each their own: this movie will keep you happy. It is n improvement over the last couple of entries, simply through Jamie Kennedy not being present (his character is locked up in a Mexican jail, according to a conversation here). The ending though… Well, let’s say, I kept expecting it to go one way, and it resolutely refused to do so. Definitely the most downbeat of the franchise. 

That said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, and does set the series up for a possible future. Though whether fans will embrace the potential new direction is hard to say. I certainly didn’t hate this as an entity. Indeed, it’s likely the most entertaining one since #2, though that’s not exactly a high bar. The presence of an F-sized Graboid as a final boss adds enough variety, even if its method of dispatch is rather familiar. But let’s give the makers the benefit of the doubt, and call it a loving homage to the finale of the original film, rather than a shameless rip-off.