Tremors. (15.)
Directed by Ron Underwood. 1990.
Starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire and Victor Wong. Out on Limited Edition 4K UHD Blu-ray from Arrow Video. 96 mins.
Apparently, when it came out in cinemas thirty years ago Tremors was a bit of a flop and it only became a cult hit on video. Well, you can't blame me for that, I did my part and saw it at my local movie house. In fact, I'd say it was one of my favourite cinema memories. Tremors is just a dumb monster movie but it's a dumb monster movie made with wit, invention and love. There's nothing better than coming out of a cinema having seen a silly movie that's been done well. It restores your faith in the whole process and makes up for all the crap you see. Plus, I think there is something fundamentally decent about a film whose stars are called Kevin and Fred.
Tremors is set in the very small town of Perfection, in a valley in the Nevada desert, whose population of 14 people find themselves menaced by a group of giant, carnivorous earthworms. The creature effects are impressive given the low budget and the action set pieces are done with imagination. This is a scary film shot almost entirely in daylight but what really makes it is the characterisations. The script does wonders in swiftly drawing up a world of believable characters who are a little cartoony, but real. Itinerant handymen Bacon and Ward are our chief protagonist but not our heroes. In Tremors, the key to survival is the community working together. Nobody here is a superhero or a cop or a supersmart genius, but decent working people. Probably they are the kind of people who would be the fodder in many other horror movies.
That said, though they may not be the heroes, Bacon and Ward are definitely the stars and the easy rapport of their double act is a crucial part of the film's appeal. Nowadays Tremors is apparently a Kevin Bacon Movie, but back then Ward was probably the bigger name having appeared in The Right Stuff and with Miami Blues and Henry and June due out, while Bacon was just that kid from Footloose.
Tremors is a very decent movie in most every way you can think of. That said, for me, the magic has gone. Six sequels, a TV series and a TV movie suggest that loads of people still love it but seen today it's a victim of its success. What made the film something special thirty years ago has become much more commonplace. It raised the bar for everyone and forced filmmakers into putting in a bit more of an effort, which is a very fine legacy.
Extras.
Too many to list really. This is a two-disc edition and it is Thorough. You even get a feature where you can compare the Theatrical version with the TV version where the swearing is dubbed out. Everybody except Ward is back to give interviews. Poignantly everybody reminisces about what a great time they had making the film and you realise that for most of them the first Tremors was as good as it got. Bacon became successful enough to have Bernie Madoff steal the majority of his fortune and Underwood got to make City Slickers and had a decade as a biggish Hollywood director until he got hit by the car crash of Eddie Murphy's Pluto Nash.
Writer/ producers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock got into the industry writing the hit Short Circuit, but their future credits would be largely restricted to milking the ever-expanding Tremors industry. They met their own Pluto Nash in the shape of Will Smith flop Wild, Wild West. What we take from this is the hard, hard lesson that success in the movie industry is determined largely by dumb luck and many talented people just fall by the waysides.
The other thing to take from the behind the scenes footage is that the film really didn't make the most of the spectacular scenery of its shooting location. Tremors has decent cinematography but the behind the scenes documentary footage suggests that the location was much more visually striking than what we see on the screen.
Directed by Ron Underwood. 1990.
Starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire and Victor Wong. Out on Limited Edition 4K UHD Blu-ray from Arrow Video. 96 mins.
Apparently, when it came out in cinemas thirty years ago Tremors was a bit of a flop and it only became a cult hit on video. Well, you can't blame me for that, I did my part and saw it at my local movie house. In fact, I'd say it was one of my favourite cinema memories. Tremors is just a dumb monster movie but it's a dumb monster movie made with wit, invention and love. There's nothing better than coming out of a cinema having seen a silly movie that's been done well. It restores your faith in the whole process and makes up for all the crap you see. Plus, I think there is something fundamentally decent about a film whose stars are called Kevin and Fred.
Tremors is set in the very small town of Perfection, in a valley in the Nevada desert, whose population of 14 people find themselves menaced by a group of giant, carnivorous earthworms. The creature effects are impressive given the low budget and the action set pieces are done with imagination. This is a scary film shot almost entirely in daylight but what really makes it is the characterisations. The script does wonders in swiftly drawing up a world of believable characters who are a little cartoony, but real. Itinerant handymen Bacon and Ward are our chief protagonist but not our heroes. In Tremors, the key to survival is the community working together. Nobody here is a superhero or a cop or a supersmart genius, but decent working people. Probably they are the kind of people who would be the fodder in many other horror movies.
That said, though they may not be the heroes, Bacon and Ward are definitely the stars and the easy rapport of their double act is a crucial part of the film's appeal. Nowadays Tremors is apparently a Kevin Bacon Movie, but back then Ward was probably the bigger name having appeared in The Right Stuff and with Miami Blues and Henry and June due out, while Bacon was just that kid from Footloose.
Tremors is a very decent movie in most every way you can think of. That said, for me, the magic has gone. Six sequels, a TV series and a TV movie suggest that loads of people still love it but seen today it's a victim of its success. What made the film something special thirty years ago has become much more commonplace. It raised the bar for everyone and forced filmmakers into putting in a bit more of an effort, which is a very fine legacy.
Extras.
Too many to list really. This is a two-disc edition and it is Thorough. You even get a feature where you can compare the Theatrical version with the TV version where the swearing is dubbed out. Everybody except Ward is back to give interviews. Poignantly everybody reminisces about what a great time they had making the film and you realise that for most of them the first Tremors was as good as it got. Bacon became successful enough to have Bernie Madoff steal the majority of his fortune and Underwood got to make City Slickers and had a decade as a biggish Hollywood director until he got hit by the car crash of Eddie Murphy's Pluto Nash.
Writer/ producers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock got into the industry writing the hit Short Circuit, but their future credits would be largely restricted to milking the ever-expanding Tremors industry. They met their own Pluto Nash in the shape of Will Smith flop Wild, Wild West. What we take from this is the hard, hard lesson that success in the movie industry is determined largely by dumb luck and many talented people just fall by the waysides.
The other thing to take from the behind the scenes footage is that the film really didn't make the most of the spectacular scenery of its shooting location. Tremors has decent cinematography but the behind the scenes documentary footage suggests that the location was much more visually striking than what we see on the screen.
