Valentine and Earl, a pair of down and out handy men, accidentally discover a giant worm-like creature which has begun to pick off the residents of their small, secluded town. Matters go from bad to worse when a seismologist, who had been sent to the area to investigate the unusual tremors that were being caused by the monster, discovers that it is not alone.
The road is blocked, the phones are down, and the situation looks grim. Now Valentine, Earl, a greedy shop keeper, a pair of gun nuts, an obnoxious teenager, and other members of the towns tiny populace, must find a way to escape without becoming worm food.
From a horror fans perspective, it would be easy to be pretty sceptical about this film. It's written by the same people as Short Circuit. It's directed by the guy who did City Slickers. And it's starring Kevin Bacon of, among other things, Footloose. But don't let those credentials dissuade you.
Tremors is a giant monster movie with a comedic twist. It is far from the only, or even the first (see Blood Beach) giant worm movie to be released. But it might be one of the most fun ones.
The characters, over the top as they may be, are likeable and entertaining. In particular, the main characters Valentine (Kevin Bacon), and Earl (Fred Ward), but also the two survivalist loonies played by Reba McEntire and Michael Gross. By way of useless trivia, the movie also co-stars Ariana Richards, who went on to act in Jurassic Park.
The monsters, which incidentally look nothing like the image on the cover, are rank, monsterous worms with horrid snapping tentacles protruding from their mouths. Everything is pretty tame on the gore front here, but there are some pretty nasty looking worm explosions.
The film is a horror-comedy through and through. Even its darkest moments are quickly relieved by an antic or a one liner. This isn't the one if you are in the mood for a gritty, scary, gore fest. But with that said, Tremors as still a funny, entertaining, family friendly, monster flick. And if you like it and just can't get enough, fear not... three sequels have followed and a fourth is rumoured to be on the way.
4 stampedes out of 5
PG-13 for intense, creature violence/gore and language.
I had never thought of Tremors as a horror flick, I guess to me the comedy just took over from the horror side of the movie. I can see where it would get that from all the death and destruction, but I can’t get past the comedy of the movie. Out of the sequels that have been released I think I’ve only seen the second one when they have the little ones that walk, but you know as movie companies squeeze a franchise for every dollar, the cheese factor comes into play, and that definitely happened in this franchise as well. Not that it keeps me from enjoying the original when I can; I found it on the Cinemax page on DISH Online last weekend, so I had to stop and watch it, still as funny as I remember it. This is one of the only movies I can agree with the self proclaimed movie nerd I work with at DISH, he hasn’t put up one con to me about the movie, which he always has something bad to say about every movie.
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