There’s a fine between making a B-movie and making a bad movie, and I think that the distinction lies in how aware the film is of its own goofiness. Tremors is a fantastic example of how to do this, as it never really devolves into cheap humour and lines written with audience eye-rolling in mind. It’s not the best film in the world, but who cares when we get to enjoy giant mutant worms that explode into orange pulp when they die? This is the way to make a cult classic and, barring a few lacklustre and unnecessary sequels, remains essential viewing for the monster-movie or sci-fi lover.
We begin with our heroic leading men, Valentine McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward), two handymen living in the tiny town of Perfection, Nevada. The local characters are a diverse bunch, including a mother and daughter, an annoying teenager who doesn’t have parents (despite looking about sixteen years old), a couple with a certain fondness for the Second Amendment, and Grandpa Mori from 3 Ninjas. Finding an old man’s corpse halfway up a pylon, apparently having died from dehydration, and ponder why someone would allow himself to just die when he could easily climb down a ladder to safety. After a second body and a few dozen sheep are found slaughtered, Val and Earl attempt to contact, and then to reach, the nearby town of Bixby, but a rock-slide blocks their way. A little trouble getting the truck started proves to be the result of a hideous snake-monster attached to the rear axle, leading to much musing from the townspeople, and a get-rich-quick scheme from shop owner Walter Chang (Victor Wong) involving incredibly over-priced photographs with the creature. Later that night, the local doctor and his wife are killed when their pick-up truck is dragged entirely under the ground, only to be discovered the next morning by Val and Earl, who have left town on horseback to fetch help. They are suddenly attacked by a much larger worm creature, who chases them into a disused aqueduct and dies after impacting the concrete wall and leaking orange goo everywhere. So, with the appearance of multiple subterranean monstrosities this film could use a seismologist, who is provided in the form of Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter), a college student working in the area. And according to her readings, there are three surviving monsters still lurking beneath the soil. Another monster traps them on some rocks, but some impromptu pole-vaulting allows our heroes to escape back to town. They reason that the creatures cannot see, but rather feel the vibrations that are caused by footsteps or any other motion.
Back in town, Walter is quickly killed off by one of the creatures, dubbed Graboids (a spectacular piece of imagination for something that pops out of the ground and grabs you!), and the rest of the townsfolk take to their roofs for safety. The local gun-nuts manage to kill off one of the Graboids with an enormous shotgun, but this still leaves two monsters, who are learning their human preys behaviour fast. With trucks useless against creatures, they hatch a plan to use a bulldozer and a large trailer to get everyone up to the mountains and safe rocky ground. Val makes a run for it, stopping for a tense moment as he ceases his running and stays perfectly still to avoid the Graboid’s attention. He makes it to the bulldozer, successfully hooks up the truck and rescues everyone left alive in town, including the gun-toting couple the Gummers, Burt and Heather, with their massive supply of guns and makeshift bombs. The Graboids are fast learners, and their repeated failures to up-end the bulldozer leads them to formulate a new plan; they destabilise the ground ahead of the bulldozer, causing it to collapse into a pit. The group flee to a small cluster of rocks for safety, but have no hope of reaching the mountains with two angry and hungry Graboids about. Earl quickly hatches the plan to use the bombs as fishing lures, attaching them to rope and dragging them across the dirt to attract the Graboids’ appetites, blowing them up from the inside. This works for one, but the second is the resident genius, and spits the bomb back at the townsfolk, destroying all but one of the remaining explosive. It’s Val who comes up with the solution this time, luring the Graboid to the edge of a cliff, and using the last bomb to panic it into speeding straight out of the cliff, landing in a rancid pile of orange guts at the base. Naturally, Val pairs off with Rhonda, and the entire town lives happily ever after. Until Burt Gummer returns to Perfection 11 years later to take part in a lacklustre sequel.
The Graboids themselves make for great monsters, utterly inhuman and nearly unrecognisable as something which might originate on Earth. Even the characters note that these monsters seem alien. The film seems to be following the rule of Jaws by waiting to show the creature in its entirety, as well as playing on the primal fear of something terrifying and unseen hunting you. Sadly the Graboids later leave an incredibly obvious dust trail, but the earlier they remain unseen and undetectable. A major inspiration for these creatures has to be the Sandworms/Shai-Hulud from Frank Herbert’s Dune, taking both the subterranean method of transport, the general physical appearance (though sadly not the size), and their method of detection is identical, though the Graboids seemingly cannot be fooled by non-rhythmic footsteps. Even the tongues of Graboids are deadly, being sentient snake monsters who can operate autonomously and have a deadly bite. But the main attractions are the main entities, grotesque slug/worm/land-shark creatures capable of attacks that range from terrifying and ludicrous. Attack humans from beneath the ground is excellent horror movie fodder, but dragging an entire car beneath the surface with it remaining intact is both hilarious and endearingly cheesy. But probably the most terrifying thing about these monsters is their capacity to learn. The townspeople’s strategies tend to work only once before the Graboids wise up and change their tactics accordingly. Our heroes really have to out-think these things, and their eventual victory is all the more satisfying for it. These original creations are well deserving of their place in the annals of movie monsters.
This is a near-perfect example of a horror-comedy, relying on very subtle satire and taking itself very seriously. The entire cast is very good, filling their roles perfectly and showing how an ensemble cast can work well together. Admittedly there aren’t as many archetypes as you might find in a horror spoof, beyond the usual gun-toting crazy and the annoying teenager. But even still, they are fairly restrained, and Burt Gummer seems only a little trigger happy, as opposed to the hooting and dancing redneck of less subtle writers. The film is very aware that its premise is a bit silly, what with these creatures coming out of nowhere and never being explained, but that’s part of the fun – the monsters aren’t there to convey a message or a complex story, they’re just there to get the plot moving while the characters react to the increasing dangers. By choosing to keep the writing subtle and the acting fairly serious, scenes like Val, Earl and Rhonda pole-vaulting between rocks with convenient wooden rods seem all the more hilarious as the comedic resolution to a serious problem. For anyone who enjoys horror, monster or B-movies, this is unmissable cinema, blending its elements perfectly to create a film that, while it’s not an innovation, is certainly a must-see.