Awfully Good: Tremors

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Happy 30th (!!) anniversary to one of the all-time great B-movies…

Tremors (1990)

Director: Ron Underwood
Stars: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross

Something big is about to wake up underneath the sleepy town of Perfection, Nevada.

TREMORS was the first B-movie I ever saw as a kid and I credit it with kickstarting my love of awfully good cinema. Without me wearing out my VHS copy of this 1990 cult classic, this column might not exist and for that, TREMORS, we salute you.

Kevin Bacon attempts to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with himself.

Kevin Bacon has said in interviews that after he shot TREMORS he assumed it meant his career was over, even recalling a time he had a panic attack on the streets of New York City, crying, "I can’t believe I’m doing a movie about underground worms!"

Over time, Bacon has embraced this movie for what it is, even coming full circle and shooting a pilot for a sequel series that the SyFy Network idiotically passed on. When it comes down to it, TREMORS is just a great example of doing this kind of low-budget monster movie right. It's a film that makes the absolute most of what it has outside of its small scope—a memorable cast with great chemistry, a solid script that doesn't rest on its laurels, and a fun and simple concept executed well by everyone involved.

I've heard of someone burying their head in the sand, but this is ri-goddamn-diculous.

Behind the scenes, the film has quite the Awfully Good pedigree. Director Ron Underwood would go on to helm THE ADEVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH, while writer S. S. Wilson is the man behind such venerable classics as SHORT CIRCUIT 2, GHOST DAD and WILD WILD WEST. I don't know what magical chemistry was created when these two got together, but TREMORS feels like lightning in a bottle compared to the rest of their filmography. Sure, at heart it's your standard creature feature think JAWS meets DUNE), but it has some great, varied action beats and manages to squeeze out quite a bit of suspense from its minimal locations. Underwood also keeps the pace moving quick and takes a page out of Sam Raimi's early filmmaking playbook to inject some style and energy when it comes to how the monsters are portrayed.

The monsters themselves feature some excellent creature design from Amalgamated Dynamics, who did effects work on everything from ALIEN3 to STARSHIP TROOPERS. They could've just gone with giant worms and called it a day, but they dared to go the extra mile with killer mandibles, oozing slime and a horrifying trio of smaller tentacles that constantly grab and attack their victims, which provides some of the film's most unforgettable visual moments. And it's all pulled off with some impressive-for-the-budget practical effects that perfectly fit the film.

Hell, even the name they give the creatures—GRABOIDS—is pitch perfect.

Great, now all I want is a TREMORS sequel with Kurt Russell called BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE PERFECTION.

The Graboids are what makes this movie, but TREMORS just wouldn't be the same without this exact cast. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward have an amazing rapport as Val and Earl. Their chemistry and constant bickering give the film a lot of heart that you don’t typically see in these kinds of features. It’s a real shame their characters never crossed paths again in any of the sequels, because I could easily watch more adventures with these reluctant handyman-turned-heroes.

You also get small appearances from JURASSIC PARK's Ariana Richards and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and 3 NINJAS icon Victor Wong. But most memorable are Michael Gross and Reba McEntire as two doomsday survivalists who take the invasion as an opportunity to put their horde of weapons to good use. That's right; you get to watch the dad from Family Ties fire an 8-guage elephant shotgun at a giant phallic worm, as well as country music superstar McEntire being a badass and double fisting hand cannons like she's in a John Woo movie. I can't think of weirder casting choices for these roles, but it 100% works.

Sadly, HARD BOILED 2: NASHVILLE THUNDER was never made.

At the end of the day, I dare you to watch this movie and not enjoy it. It's cinematic comfort food for and proof that a B-movie can be both fun and "good" if you put a little effort in to it. The film has gone on to spawn four sequels, a prequel and they just finished shooting another installment, titled—I kid you not—TREMORS: ISLAND FURY. Some sequels are better than other and the evolution of the creatures from Graboids to Shriekers and eventually to Ass Blasters (that name is canon!) has necessitated some truly horrendous special effects throughout the years, but there's always something to love about a new TREMORS movie. Even if Jamie Kennedy co-starred in the last couple.

And God bless Michael Gross for owning his role as Burt Gummer and appearing in (and championing!) every single TREMORS film no matter how ridiculous the franchise has gotten.

A behind the scenes photo of Kevin Bacon demanding that he be allowed to show his Graboid in this movie.

One last note: every time I've watched TREMORS on TV, I always assumed the obvious censoring of curse words was due to network censors, but apparently to avoid an R rating the filmmakers themselves dubbed over the bad language in the original theatrical cut. So every time someone calls the Graboids a "motherhumper" or someone's lips don’t match when they say "You sucker," this was intentional by the filmmakers. It just makes me love this movie even more.