“This valley is just one long smorgasbord.”
Tremors is awesome. That is all. Well, not ALL, but it had to be said up front. Released 34 years ago today, Tremors is one of the all-time great monster movies.
When I first saw Tremors I was not expecting much. Yeah, it had Kevin Bacon and that guy from Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (I keed – I love Fred Ward), but come on. It was a monster movie. In 1990. That was a year that brought us films like Pretty Woman, Ghost and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. To be fair, we also got Arachnophobia, but in general, monster movies were not expected at the theater. (Nobody expected Frankenhooker in 1990 either, and am I the only one that sees similarities between the plot of that movie and Poor Things? Just me? Okay, then.)
The point – if I can get myself to make it – is that I was not expecting any monster movie at all in 1990, much less one with a fun ensemble cast, excellent practical effects and a wicked sense of humor. Much like with Galaxy Quest, I was in-part blown away because I had no warning and no expectations of quality. Also much like Galaxy Quest, Tremors quickly become a favorite. I watch it every few years, and it’s probably time to watch it again. (If only to bust out that Arrow Blu-ray again and finally listen to the commentary track.)
The Medium
I have the basic Blu-ray from Arrow, released in 2020. It’s the best I’ve ever seen it, but there’s also a 4k version that came out in 2021. I think Tremors is a decent looking film, but I’m not sure you need the 4k upgrade. (Both versions are much better than the 2010 Universal release.) The Blu-ray comes with a ton of extras, including two commentary tracks, a documentary, featurettes and more.
For streaming options, Tremors is available for subs on fubo and USA and can be rented/purchased at the usual places.
The Movie
Monster movies often start off with a sequence featuring the monster – whether it’s shown fully or not. It’s designed to heighten tension – this is what the characters will be facing – and it’s a tactic to keep your interest. The monster IS coming, see, here it is now! Now just wait 45 minutes or so until the budget lets us show it again… Tremors foregoes this tradition (though they did shoot just such a scene) in favor of introducing the real stars of the movie – Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward). Two of the most loveable losers to grace a monster movie, Valentine McKee and Earl Bassett are general handymen in the western US desert town of Perfection and, like the town itself, they’ve seen better days. Today is the day they finally have had enough of the crap (literally) they have to deal with, and they pile everything they own (not much) onto their truck to high-tail it to the next town over. Maybe even further!
Earl: Damn it, listen to me. I’m older and wiser.
Val: Yeah, well you’re half right.
You gotta love Val and Earl – the chemistry between Bacon and Ward is perfect. You can believe these guys have been friends for years and that they – despite their bickering – will stick up for each other, even if they think the other one is doing something incredibly stupid. (And let’s face it, they probably ARE doing something incredibly stupid.)
On the way out of town they run across something that’s the first note of unease in the film. An old man stuck up on an electrical tower with his rifle still clutched in his cold, dead hands. Seems the man passed away from dehydration – he was so afraid to come down that he died of thirst. There are other strange deaths, and Val and Earl start to think there’s a serial killer on the loose. Well, hell, that’s just one more reason to get out of town, right? But there’s an inconvenient rock fall on the only road out of town and then something latches on to the axle of their truck. Something…. snake like.
Tremors reminds me of nothing so much as a classic 1950’s monster film, like Them! or Tarantula. It’s even got the classic desert setting that adds so much to the eerie, abandoned feeling of the towns in those films. There’s also the pretty, young scientist – Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter) – and the accumulating attacks before we finally see the monster in all its cheesy glory. The main difference between Tremors and the classic 50’s monster movie is that in the older films the heroes are generally scientists and heroic men of action. Val and Earl are… well, neither of those things. It’s a nice twist on the formula, and provides much of the humor.
Earl: Is this a job for an intelligent man?
Val: Well, show me one and I’ll ask him.
Another difference is that the 50’s monster movies – and maybe even most movies – had a definite reason for their monsters. Radiation was a popular one, pesticides another. Sometimes the monster is mutated Earth life, sometimes it’s from space. There’s no such clarity in Tremors. I love the scene where Rhonda, Val and Earl are stuck on the boulders. Everyone takes turns trying to figure out where the creatures are from. It reminds me of a similar scene in The Birds and has a similar outcome – nobody has any clue.
When Val and Earl return to town they and the other townsfolk discover the monster wrapped around their axle. With the only road cut off and the radio useless beyond the confines of their valley Val and Earl head out on horses, hoping to bring help – you know, just in case there are more of the “graboid” things. Well, yeah, there are. And there’s a lot more to them than the “snake” things – which turn out to be nothing more than a prehensile tongue of a much, much bigger monster.
The town is full of fun characters, including well-known character actor Victor Wong as the store owner, Michael Gross (mostly known at that point as the TV dad on Family Ties) and Reba McEntire as local survivalists Heather and Burt Gummer, and Arianna Richards as a little girl menaced by monsters some 3 years before she starred as Lex in Jurassic Park. Even local punk-ass-kid Melvin (Bobby Jacoby) is entertainingly annoying. They’re not given a lot to do, but there’s just enough character interaction to make you care when the monsters finally come calling.
If I’m honest, the plot line – monsters attack, the characters have to figure out a way to either get out of town or kill them – doesn’t stick out to me as much as the individual set pieces. Val, Earl and Rhonda pole-vaulting between boulders to try and escape the monsters. The little girl pogo-sticking around town after we’ve learned that the creatures attack using sound. Everyone getting on the roof of the general store. The moment when the graboids attack the Gummers in the basement. It’s mostly fun, but there are moments of scariness (I still think of poor Bibi Besch in her station wagon, getting slowly pulled into the dirt).
“Broke into the wrong goddamn rec room, didn’t ya you bastard!”
The special effects still hold up for me, even though some of them can look a little puppet-like. There’s a solidity to them that CGI can’t always manage, and the designs themselves are unique and gross. I even like the “monster vision” shots of the graboids moving through dirt and rocks. Sequels have expanded on the graboid biology (including giving them flatulence powered flight), but these initial designs are still my favorites – looking like a cross between a giant grub and some kind of beetle, with those snake-like tongues. (That ass-blaster version of the graboid highlights my problem with most of the sequels – they cross the line from funny to campy.)
Eventually the survivors make a break for the mountains, hoping to put solid rock between themselves and the monsters. This leads to a final confrontation at the convenient cliffs (which I note are where Val takes a leak in the first scene of the movie). The ending seems definitive, but it wasn’t. While the film didn’t do well at the box office it was a huge success on home video and success inevitably breeds sequels. There have been six follow-up films and one TV series in the years since, none of them quite living up to the sheer fun and enjoyment of the original. (That none of them have both Val and Earl has to be part of the issue.)
The Bottom Line
A throwback to 1950’s monster movies, Tremors pays tribute to its inspirations while elevating the characters and the humor and the monsters. While the special effects can sometimes look dated in this era of CGI, they retain a fleshiness that makes the monsters feel believable and the film as a whole maintains a level of quality you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a 1990’s monster flick. It’s a fun, scary and funny film that’s just a blast to watch and remains a favorite even 34 years later.
