Tremors
"Jaws? Never heard of 'em!"
I remember watching this movie when I
was little. I wasn't a fan of horror movies when I was younger
because like most (read: normal) kids, they scared me. It was bad
enough thinking there's monsters under your bed and vampires in your
closet, I sure didn't need to watch scary movies. Freddy Kruger was
particularly terrifying to little kids and with good reason. There
were certain movies, though, despite being horror, that didn't strike
fear into a young me and allowed me to enjoy the movie for what it
was. One of those movies was Tremors.
Tremors is a 1990 horror comedy
starring Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Apollo 13) as Valentine “Val”
McKee and Fred Ward (Naked Gun 33 1/3, Road Trip) as Earl Basset.
They word odd jobs around the miniscule Nevada town of Perfection.
They meet a graduate student conducting seismology tests named Rhonda
LeBeck (Finn Carter, Ghosts of Mississippi, As The World Turns).
Rhonda tells them that her machines have been picking up some odd
seismic activity, but they don't know anything about it. Fed up with
Perfection, Val and Earl decide to head to Bixby, a bigger town about
40 miles away. On the road, they notice a local man holding onto an
electrical tower. Val goes to check on him and is shocked to find him
dead. The local doctor says that the man died of dehydration, meaning
he had to have been scared of something so bad that he stayed on the
tower for days. Val and Earl try to leave again, but come across
another dead local, this time only finding his severed head. They try
to flee, but something is holding their truck. Val floors it and they
finally break free. When they arrive in town, the phone lines are
down and the only road to Bixby is now blocked because of a rock
slide. They discover a hideous dead snake creature had wrapped
itself around their axle. The next day, Val and Earl leave by
horseback to get help, but the horses are attacked by more snake
creatures. The snakes are actually tentacles that shoot out of the
mouth of a much larger burrowing sandworm creature. They make a run
for it and dive into a concrete aqueduct. The sandworm slams into the
concrete and kills itself. Rhonda appears and determines that there
are three more creatures based on her seismic readings. They also
discover that the creatures sense their prey through vibrations in
the ground They make it back to Perfection, where the creatures,
renamed Graboids by the package store owner Walter, now have the town
trapped. Everyone gets on their roofs to avoid making sound of
vibrations. The Graboids start to knock down the buildings and Val
and Earl come up with an idea; make it to the local mountains where
they can't be followed. Will the entire town be able to make the
journey or will they become a lunch for these subterranean monsters?
"Hi! Can I interest you folks in some band candy?"
I loved this movie when I was young and
I love it as an adult. The movie does have it's moments of horror and
action, but it's biggest strength is it's humor. When I say humor, I
don't want you to think I mean something like Family Guy or Two and a
Half Men. I mean writing that is actually clever, well-thought act,
and perfectly executed. The writing is really solid and is totally
believable thanks to the great performances and chemistry between
Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. Tremors is practically a buddy movie with
some horrible man-eating worms thrown in to the mix. Finn Carter also
has really good chemistry with the two actors. Even the various
townspeople play their parts well, particularly Michael Gross (the
dad from Family Ties) and Reba McEntire (yes, the country music star)
whole play survivalist gun nuts. The great writing and acting make
for a thoroughly fun watch from beginning to end. It's not easy to
make a monster/horror movie fun, but they managed to do it.
The Graboids, though hidden for most of
the movie, look pretty good. They do draw a considerable amount of
fear, mostly thanks to some good effects and clever camera shots.
Director Ron Underwood gets the most out of his cast and the desert
surroundings. It's such a shame that he was involved in the
disastrous The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Despite being a horror movie
about giant sandworm creatures, it's still very believable. The movie
employs fast camera work along the ground shots, similar to those
used in Evil Dead. The movie has plenty of action with most of the
blood coming from the monsters themselves. There are a few good
scenes of people being attacked and some creative deaths.
"If lassos don't work, I give up"
Simply put, Tremors is a fun horror
movie. With the thousands of horror movies out there, it's hard to
find one that is legitimately fun and funny with a good mixture of
action and a few scares. The acting is great and the writing is
spot-on. The dialogue is natural and nothing feels forced. The
monsters look convincingly scary. There's a good reason that the
movie spawned 3 sequels and a television show in 2003. Do yourself a
favor and check out Tremors. You won't be disappointed.
9/10
