by Billy Russell, Staff Writer

Growing up in a small town in the country, I identified with the rural town of Perfection, Nevada, the fictional center of action in the film Tremors. My hometown had a population of about 7,000, a sizeable difference from the population of 14 boasted by Perfection, but there were still similarities. The climates were just about identical. When I would watch the movie when I was a kid, I’d pretend that the movie took place where I lived, and when I’d go outside I’d jump from rock to rock to keep from being eaten by Tremors—I know the movie dubbed the monsters “Graboids” but I always liked the name “Tremors” better. It’s like, I know the shark in Jaws is named Bruce, but I want to call it Jaws, anyway. It’s like calling John McClane “Die Hard.” It just feels right. 

Roger Ebert nailed it in his description that these kinds of movies only go so far as the human characters allow it to go. The more we care, the more we identify, the higher the stakes. We love these people and don’t want to see them get hurt. I tend to think of Tremors as being just about the perfect monster movie. I don’t think it’s Citizen Kane, obviously, but as far as monster movies go, you just can’t do any better than Tremors. 

The monsters are smart, and just when the heroes begin to outsmart them, the monsters learn. The worms grab you on the ground, so the characters move up high. The monsters decide to destroy the foundations of the buildings. The characters decide to keep moving, so they plan an escape in an immovable vehicle, a three-ton bulldozer the worms can’t lift. So, of course, the monsters dig a trap for our heroes to fall into. And so on and so on and so on. The script, courtesy of S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, has a lot of fun writing its way out of corners. In that way, and I know this is an odd connection, it reminds me of the writing of Vince Gilligan, in things like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, where half the fun is thinking, “How the hell are they going to get out of this one?” 

Tremors is directed by Ron Underwood, who by no means is a hack. He’s done quality work before and after, but Tremors is a weird movie to really see people give it their all. Kevin Bacon, who was famously disappointed with his career at that point, in that he had to find work in a monster movie, is fantastic. The chemistry he has with the equally-great Fred Ward is palpable. You’d swear this was their third or fourth movie together and they were a well-established duo. Reba McEntire makes her film debut and she’s amazing. Michael Gross, as Burt, pulls off the impossible task of being a likable goddamned gun-freak. The entire town is populated with great characters perfectly cast with awesome character actors. 

I’m not a CGI hater, by any means. Hell, I love T2 as much as the next guy. I still get shivers when I see the T-Rex scene in Jurassic Park, but seeing Tremors will make you miss practical effects. They don’t make ‘em the way they used to. The creatures look fantastic, and I love the way they’re only revealed in parts early on As first, you believe the monster to be a snake-like creature; then maybe a flock of snake-like creatures that travel together; but as we later learn, the snake is just a small part of a larger thing. It’s so wonderfully Lovecraftian, the idea that laying your eyes on the creature all at once would be too much for the human mind and would cause irreversible madness. 

Tremors is a PG-13 rated horror movie, and in some parts where someone uses one of those substitution words for “fuck” like “hump” you can see their mouths don’t move right. It’s sort of like watching a TV-version of a rated-R movie that’s, for whatever reason, fine with other swears like “shit” and lets one of the F-bombs slip. Universal must have been trying to maximize their revenue since it was so close to being PG-13, anyway. And in a weird way, I think it works better this way. Tremors is better suited to being a horror movie families with kids old enough can all watch together, because while it can be incredibly scary in parts, it’s mostly a very fun outing. It’s a great movie through and through, and one of my very favorite monster movies. When it’s funny, it’s laugh-out-loud funny. When it’s scary, such as the scene where the doctor’s wife is buried alive in a car, it’s almost unbearably scary. It’s a genuine roller coaster ride of a movie. 

The Arrow Video release is a must for fans. It’s amazing. It takes the film and makes an event out of it again. I don’t believe Tremors has looked so good since its original theatrical run. The restoration of the video quality retains the warmth and the grain of film, and sharpens the clarity. The colors are rich and vibrant, but skins warm and soft. The sound mix, especially if you have a decent surround sound system or a good sound bar, is worth cranking. 

If you haven’t seen Tremors in a while, give it a shot. At the time it came out, it received decent reviews. I remember one review from the time saying, “It’s not going to make anyone’s best-of list this year, but it’s a good time.” Over thirty years later, Tremors is a classic through and through. It might not have made any best-of lists with that year’s other films like Goodfellas, but they both belong together, happily, on my DVD shelf.