Movie Review: Tremors

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Some laughs and a few jumps

Cons: Cheese, several hard to like characters

The Bottom Line:

Underground monsters

Mix of horror, comedy

For mixed bag movie

Something Underground is Stalking You

I’ve always had an interest in horror movies, so Tremors has been on my radar for a long time.  However, it wasn’t high enough to make me actually sit down to watch it until a friend wanted to rewatch it.  While he said it was as good as he remembered, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much.

The story takes place in the very, very small town of Perfection, Nevada.  It’s isolated with only one way in or out.  Two of the residents have had enough and are finally going to leave town.  However, as Val and Earl (Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward) try to leave, they keep getting stopped by strange things they see.  Eventually, they realize that large, underground worms are in the area eating anything they can find.  Will anyone in the community survive?

This movie is at once a monster movie and a comedy.  It tries to find the line between comedy and light scares.  It is rated PG-13, after all, so this isn’t a graphic horror movie.  There are a couple of jump scares, but most of the time, you know the monsters are coming before they show up.

Honestly, it’s hard to take the movie seriously as a horror movie thanks to some of the special effects.  The monsters themselves are fine.  They look a little dated, but the film was made in 1989, so that’s to be expected.  However, the blood effects just look so fake.  And some of the underground shots are pretty strange as well.

I guess cheesy is the best way to describe the film.  As I’ve been saying, the effects for certain are cheesy.  Some of the dialogue is as well.  The characters fall into cliches, which makes it easy to laugh and hard to take them, and their fates, seriously.  I also found some of them hard to like, thanks to how they treated each other.

I’m not blaming the cast for this.  They are all fine.  In addition to the two I already mentioned, we get Michael Gross (who has continued with the franchise) as well as Reba McIntyre and Ariana Richards, best known for Jurassic Park.  My issue is with their characters, not the performances themselves.

Now, this isn’t to say I hated the film.  I did jump a time or two, like I was supposed to.  There were enough twists to keep things interesting along the way.  The internal logic of the movie is sound and holds up.

And there are some genuine laughs along the way.  I especially appreciated the scenes with Michael Gross and Reba McIntyre, who played husband and wife.  Their characters and their reactions to things were some of the best moments in the film.  And the scene in their basement is a classic.

Overall, however, Tremors was just a little too cheesy for my tastes.  I think viewing this with nostalgia glasses will help you enjoy it more.