Tremors

What we have in this film is the atmosphere of some of the old 50's B movie classics with an 80's touch added,and very well done at that. We have unique and rather intimidating monsters,as well as a very unique cast of characters to battle them.While Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward may be listed as the leads,I think that Michael Gross practically steals the entire show.While it isn't flawless,it certainly is entertaining enough.I would recommend it to any fan of 1950's B horror films.It is well worth the rental and would be a good addition to anyone's library.

18. TREMORS (SCI-fiction, 1990) Welcome to Perfection, Nevada. Population: a couple. Opportunities: none. That's why handymen Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) have always planned to leave town. And this time they mean it. Suddenly a series of bizarre killings prevent them from leaving. With the help of a seismology student, they discover giant-worm like creatures living under the desert sand. Now their goal is to leave town in one piece.

Critique: Lighthearted horror, sci-fi, comedy 'mish-mash' has an interesting premise, oddball characters, and wonderfully ferocious action. As our embattled heroes struggle to survive against the relentless creatures, the battle of wits that ensues becomes inventive and exciting.

The film shares strange similarities with Spielberg's legendary 'Jaws'. As the suspense and body count mount, the threatening desert sand (water) becomes an infinite playground for the bloodthirsty worms (sharks), as they use scare tactics against their unbeknown victims (swimmers). Not knowing where they will strike next, people tiptoe their way across town trying not to alert the creatures. It all makes for 'TREMEndous' fun.

Loved the movie. How could you not? It has two lovably bumbling buddies, Val and Earl, played to perfection by Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. It has a remarkably funny gun crazed survivalist couple played completely straight-faced by Michael Gross and Reba McEntire. It has a wonderfully batty bunch of "townsfolk," a winsome heroine and bad lot of underground drag racing worms looking to eat the characters mentioned above. The movie stands out from the "trapped and pursued" genre because it contains tongue-in-cheek humor, comedic escapes, inspired foreshadowing of doom and nutty monster mayhem. This is a delightful B monster movie that would best be watched with fellow funny movie buffs, popcorn and beer.

This movie caught me by surprise: I worked in a video store, and one day we got a preview tape of this movie, prior to its video release. I hadn't heard much about it, so I watched it, and was quite surprised at how enjoyable it was. Since then, I have seen the movie about ten more times (at least), and still get a kick out of it.

Tremors is basically a landlocked variation on 'Jaws' and those 1950s giant bug movies: the isolated town of Perfection, Nevada (population 16), finds itself under seige by four monstrous, subterranean wormlike creatures, that hunt by sensing vibrations in the ground. The plot revolves around the townspeople trying to outwit and escape the creatures (dubbed 'Graboids'), which are tearing the town out from under them.

What really makes the movie work is the characters: all of them come across as real people trapped in an insane situation, and all have a lot of charisma, even though the film doesn't have tons of character development. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are a hoot as a pair of low-rent handymen who become reluctant heroes. The byplay between the two is a lot of fun.

Usually movies like this revolve around stupid people doing stupid things, just to raise the body count. Tremors is different: the characters react believably, and do smart things to try and escape and/or kill the Graboids. The creatures too are also fairly smart, and are not just mindless eating machines with no brains.

Given its premise, Tremors is not a gory or violent film (although it has a couple of minor gross bits), and has a very good sense of humor. The film-makers are aware of their far-fetched premise (a couple of key questions go unanswered), but they treat it with respect and a certain amount of affection.

Tremors didn't have much life in theaters, but has become something of a 'Midnight Movie' on home video, with definite cult possibilities. Check it out, and don't be surprised if you end up buying it.

On paper I would have expected 'Tremors' to suck - a low budget sci fi action comedy written by the 'Short Circuit' guys, and directed by a hack who went on to make 'City Slickers'. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it? But if you put your prejudices aside you'll find that this is a surprisingly enjoyable good old fashioned monster movie. There is humour here, sure, but thankfully the movie doesn't go for a camp, tongue in cheek parody style, something for me that almost never works. The movies real strength is the perfect casting of Kevin Bacon ('Diner') and Fred Ward ('Henry And June') as the small town handymen turned reluctant heroes. They are supported by the left field but inspired casting of 'Family Ties' Michael Gross and country singer Reba McEntire as a couple of gung ho survivalists. 'Tremors' succeeds in what it sets out to be, an exciting and wonderfully entertaining b-grade horror thriller. A lot of fun and highly recommended.