Posted in: Movies | Tagged: comedy, film, horror, movies, sci-fi, tremors

Tremors: The Sci-Fi/Horror/Comedy Franchise You've Been Rumbling For

Every Friday night I and my daughter settle in for a movie night.  Chips, cookies (gluten-free of course), and an array of fruits, juice, and wine for mom. She and I go "rock paper scissors" for who gets to choose the movie: she cheats and I always lose. Her taste typically gravitates towards old school Sci-Fi/Horror/genre movies like Jaws, the original Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and children's horror like Monster House. One week, we settled on Netflix and (losing rock to paper) she chose the 1990's comedy horror film Tremors. The Tremors movies being some of my favorite growing up in a video store, she was getting no complaints from me although I did question whether it was appropriate for a 5-year-old. After five consecutive Fridays, we got through Tremors, Tremors 2: Aftershock, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins and Tremors 5: Bloodlines (with A Cold Day in Hell and Island Fury are on our to-watch list).

Here is our collective pitch for why if you've never seen Tremors, you should absolutely watch it, and we recommend at least the first two (which we have binge-watched multiple times), but you might as well go for all seven. Tremors centers around subterranean creatures called Graboids and other creatures that live underground and stalk the living through their vibrations and… well… eats them. In typical comedy-horror style, the main characters hunt the creatures infesting their town and try to take them all out with an arsenal of weapons thanks to supporting actor and dedicated survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). The Graboids hunt, lay and wait, and pluck the residents off one-by-one in a bloody and sadistic manner. They spend hours just waiting because apparently, they have nothing else to do, one victim in the original actually dies of dehydration: too afraid to step on to the desert ground. There are new species being born out of the Graboids, evolving in their intelligence, and hunting styles and patterns, but the end goal is always the same: feed on a flesh source, or rather anything with a heartbeat.

In the original film, Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) are two guys looking for bigger and better than the small town of Perfection, Nevada. Having had enough of the desert heat and taking on odd jobs, they pack up their trailers and hit the road. Their trip is cut short when they find a neighbor dead, then another, and another without any real explanation – that is until the Graboids appear. Together with seismologist Rhonda (Finn Carter), they track the underground vibrations of multiple warms and seek out to blow them all up. Getting creative by seeking elevated areas such as rocks and hopping on rods, with many hysterical anecdotes amidst bloodthirsty beings, the most hilarious of them being Burt who lives in an arsenal of weaponry and sees his life quest complete. So why did we love it? Blood and comedy, limbs getting chopped off, rolling heads, creepy-looking creatures popping out of nowhere to make our hearts skip a beat. Of course, the good guys win and the Graboids are blown up, but they also end up losing the town.

Tremors 2: Aftershock is bloodier and even more fun minus Kevin Bacon but still featuring Earl and Burt. My daughter runs around the neighborhood promoting the movies on the basis of one word "Pedro". Who is Pedro? A mechanic who is eaten by the newly evolved Graboids called Shriekers, only his hands remain (I'm still not sure why she finds that hilarious and her take away from the sequel).  These bad boys literally rip out of the Graboids stomach, metamorphosis at it's best and they can easily walk on land. They seem dumber and attack anything that gives off heat. Earl is dragged into a Mexican oilfield to help capture the Graboids for 50,000 a pop with help of Grady Hoover (Christopher Gartin) and of course, Burt Gummer whose tanker is bigger and weaponry more expansive, yet even that is not enough when he gets ambushed by the Shriekers and makes it back covered in what's left of them. These new hermaphrodites reproduce at super-speed after consuming a meal. So essentially more fun, bizarre almost comical like monsters with antennas on their head, attacks, blood, and explosions.

So we continue to watch the original and its sequel again and again, and I've even tried to persuade a few runs of Tremors 3: Back to Perfection strictly for the comedy of the newest evolved Graboids being called Ass Blasters. The movies are a stampede of entertainment and simplistic in their special effects and backdrop yet utterly entertaining and a pleasure to watch apparently even for children. To me they are reminiscent of the pleasure I get from films like the Alien franchise and yes even Sharknado's minus the really bad acting. Next up, we will give Tremors 6 and 7 a try and might even shoot for Tremors the TV series.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!