Tremors (Ron Underwood, 1990)
Subterranean sand-sharks spoil Kevin Bacon's plans
Ah, early 90s popcorn cinema!
When fun flicks were a tight 90-minutes, the story was self-sufficient, and the stakes were self-contained.
We’re introduced to the world, a problem occurs, people battle the problem, inevitable happy ending.
In Tremors, the world is an isolated Nevada settlement. The problem is subterranean monsters that burrow up and attack the residents. The tight-knit community comes together to figure out how to overcome the deadly creatures. And (spoiler) they eventually (mostly) escape.
It sounds almost pedestrian in an age of CGI superheroes constantly battling extinction-level threats, or dense multi-season TV shows that require an encyclopedic memory to understand what’s going on… And my god, it was so refreshing!
Blockbuster movies shouldn’t require homework to fully appreciate them. Nor should they tie themselves up in knots making things any more complicated than necessarily.
Tremors passes that test with flying colors.
Through a sequence of occurrences requiring minimal exposition, a mystery neatly unfolds: We learn that there has been unusual seismic activity detected in the area, a man is found perched up an electric tower clutching a shotgun but dead of dehydration... and eventually a farmer and his livestock are discovered mutilated.
Before long, our heroes have encountered the killer sand-sharks for themselves and all the pieces fall into place: the dead man died up in the tower because he was trapped by the lethal monster waiting patiently below; the tremors suggest there are four of these creatures in total; and the incidents that have occurred so far point to the creatures getting closer to the cluster of homes in this desert valley.
It doesn’t matter what these creatures are or where they came from (and although theories are bandied about, there’s ultimately no consensus nor is one necessary). What’s important is understanding the nature of the danger — not the danger’s backstory.
And with that, Tremors serves up a fun spin on the “monster in the house” archetype — except the house is a secluded spit of desert cut off from the rest of the world by cliffs and mountains, with the only road out blocked by a landslide.
Tremors clearly owes a debt to a number of influences — from 50’s B-movies (Them!, in particular, comes to mind) to Jaws — and it leans into the rough-and-tumble style screwball comedy prevalent among its contemporary films, which injects plenty of levity and lightness, without undercutting the sense of peril at the story’s core.
All in all, it’s a perfect popcorn horror movie that hits all the right notes, is perfectly good entertainment, and given its PG-13 rating it can be enjoyed with the whole family! What’s not to love?