Tremors (1990)
Directed by Ron Underwood
Hey it is basically Jaws in the sand right? Desert Jaws, if you will. This is a movie that many of us have seen at a younger age. It is intense at times, but not scary, it has action but not much blood, a little swearing and no nudity. So it makes it a good gateway horror film for younger kids, being only PG13. I remember watching this at a younger age on tv and enjoying it. Recently saw this in theater at Historic Howell Theater, so let’s give it a review then.
Tremors is about a small town in the Nevada desert that must band together to take out large underground creatures from killing them and destroying the town. A movie with a simple but effective plot. Pretty similar to Blood Beach, which I believe I mentioned Tremors in my review of it. The poster is very misleading, the “graboids” look nothing like the one on the poster, which is much more dinosaur looking.
The acting is pretty good in this because it has a great cast. Kevin Bacon is the star and he always puts in a solid performance. His friend is played by Fred Ward, whom also is always good. The two have great chemistry and seem like legit friends. They banter back and forth and give each other shit quite a bit, which is fun. Reba McEntire is in this too, which thankfully she isn’t singing. She plays Michael Gross’s wife, the two are gun nuts. Finn Carter plays Rhonda, a scientist that is studying earthquakes, and soon becomes Bacon’s love interest. Another person to mention is the shop owner, whom is played by the grandpa from Three Ninjas haha. Also the wise ass teenage kid is played by Bobby Jacoby, brother of Billy Jacoby, the horny brother from Just One of the Guys.
The monsters are pretty cool looking. Think large grubs with tentacles they shoot out and grab ahold of you with. The tentacles basically act like large snakes, which is a cool feature. The graboids are blind and navigate under the earth with the use of sound. The towns people realize this early on and use it to their advantage but the graboids are capable of learning and adapting. They have a variety of different ways to fight the creatures. They use guns, bombs, and whatever the terrain offers such as large rocks and cliffs.
The ending is quite fun as well. They run out of bombs and realize the last creature has smartened up to them, and is waiting to strike. Kevin Bacon comes up with an idea to lead the graboid to him, then he dives out of the way at the last second and it flies off the cliff and splats on the ground below. It is a tense scene and handled super well.
If you haven’t seen Tremors, you probably should. It is a fun 90s horror comedy worth a good laugh. The cast is fun and recognizable. There are tons of sequels to this, which I haven’t seen and I might have to some time. I give Tremors a B, it is good mindless fun worth your time.
