“Do You Want Me to Strangle Him?”
It had been a while since I’d seen a Tremors movie. And even longer since I recorded the fourth one from TV. Obviously, I’m not a diehard fan of the franchise, but I was curious enough about the movie to finally sit down and watch Tremors 4: The Legend Begins.
This movie takes us back to 1889, 100 years before the events of the first film. The town of Rejection, Nevada survives because of the nearby silver mine. However, when something starts attacking and killing the miners, people start to move away.
And so, the mine’s owner, Hiram Gummer (Michael Gross) shows up to find out why no one is working his mine any more. It isn’t long before he sees the problem himself. Will his plan to hire a gun slinger help defeat the creatures?
I’ll admit, I wasn’t that excited about the idea of a prequel. Maybe that’s one reason why I put the movie off for so long. And yes, I did find parts of it slow as the characters had to relearn everything we already knew. A bigger question for me is why we would want to go back in time. Other than to keep the setting of Perfection since the location is as tied into the franchise as the creatures themselves.
Speaking of whom, we see a younger version of the life cycle that’s new here, but most of the time, we are dealing with the classic creature. Which made me very happy. All the life cycles were getting a bit ridiculous. The characters also don’t call them graboids. I kind of like the name they are given – dirt dragons.
Those familiar with the franchise will immediately pick up on Hiram being the ancestor of Burt Gummer, played in the rest of the movies in the franchise by … Michael Gross. I really enjoyed the humor from his character. He was annoying at time, and he was supposed to be. But his character arc was great. Predictable, but great.
Not so great were the effects. I mean, the effects have always been in keeping with the status as a B movie. But here they seem to be even worse than normal. They were a definite flaw as far as I was concerned.
But the third act? Not only did it feature some smart characters, but it was very satisfying. Honestly, the movie got better as it went along, and by the second half I was quite enjoying it.
That included great performances by the cast. Everyone took their parts seriously and made us care for their characters.
And they even fixed a potential plot hole I saw for the series, which I appreciated.
I don’t recommend Tremors 4 if you aren’t a fan of the franchise. But if you have enjoyed the first three movies, you’ll find something here to make it worth your while.
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