The Geek Address

Tremors features one of the most hideous creatures ever captured on celluloid, a behemoth so utterly terrifying you’ll soil your underpants just looking at the cover. But that’s enough about Kevin Bacon…I think you’ll agree that the monsters in Tremors are pretty damn terrifying too.

Graboids are enormous, subterranean worms that live beneath the scorched sand of America’s deserts, occasionally coming to the surface to feed, ensnaring their victims with serpentine tongues and dragging them to a hideous death. One hapless victim attempts to take refuge in her car only to have the entire vehicle dragged beneath the sand. Graboids are big, strong and ugly as all hell. During the movie, our heroes - slack-jawed, salt-of-the-earth laborers Valentine McKee and Earl Bassett - manage to inadvertently kill one of the wily suckers. Kudos to Alec Gillis for the stomach churning slime and orange blood. And you thought graboids were only ugly on the outside…

Creature features aren’t all that effective if you don’t give a damn about the folks being eaten alive. Fortunately, the film boasts an endearing and eclectic bunch of characters. Kevin Bacon is brilliant as rough diamond Valentine McKee whose ends up falling for beautiful geologist Rhonda LeBeck. Nothing like a brush with giant, bloodthirsty worms to incite passion, hey. Burt and Heather Gummer ‚Äì a couple of survivalist whose cache of weapons would make most third world dictatorships feel inadequate - also make the film worthwhile. One of the most memorable scenes is when a graboid bursts into their basement. After dispatching the creature, Burt quips, “Guess you broke into the wrong God damn rec room, didn’t ya!”

There are more than a few memorable scenes in the film, however, the film’s finest moment occurs when the characters blow up one of the creatures. Their jubilation is short  lived as they’re showered in orange blood and chunks of flesh. Also of note is the climax. This was one of those scenes that I remember vividly from my childhood (almost on par with Doctor Emmett Brown trying to reconnect the power cable before the lightning struck and Marty hit eighty-eight miles per hour). Tremors is one of those rare feel good movies where you know that a whole bunch of people are going to die horribly but you’ll be out of your seat cheering when the last ugly, sonofabitch monster is reduced to a gooey pile of mush. I can think of a dozen films that would be improved by the presence of graboids. Gigli, for instance. Just imagine one of these nasty critters emerging from the soil to consume Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez at a critical moment in the film. Then again, not even the presence of giant flesh eating worms could improve that film.

Although the film spawned a number of sequels, none of them lived up to the sheer brilliance of the original movie. Tremors is, without question, penultimate schlock. 

Best line: “I think I have a plan. Why don’t we throw a bomb the way we want to go and then when it goes off, we run like goddamn bastards! “