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Valentine McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassette (Fred Ward) are two cowpoke type fellows residing in a dusty, dried up little town called, Perfection Valley. They’re handy men so everyday is a new job for them. In my opinion if it was truly Perfection Valley all of the women would look like Scarlett Johansson and sport hats with beer can holders.
Anyhow, during a trip back into town they come across the local nut job sitting up on some power lines. Assuming he’s drunk, Valentine climbs up to help the old bastard down. To their surprise he’s not drunk but dead from dehydration. Nobody can figure out why he would have sat up there for days without coming down.
Strange things begin happening though and the guys happen upon a flock of slaughtered sheep and the owner’s decapitated head nestled in a hole in the ground. Attempting to escape they’re truck gets caught up. Upon freeing themselves, they flee back to town in order to warn the townsfolk that there’s a killer on the loose when they discover a snake-like creature clamped onto their axle. Seeing an opportunity to make money, Walter Chang purchases the beastie from the guys. You movie geeks may recognize old Chang as none other than Egg Chen from John Carpenter’s Big trouble In Little China.
Valentine and Earl decide it’s time to try and make a break out of the valley in order to get help but the worms block their attempt. Luckily, they come across a large cement drainage ditch and one of the pursuing worms slams into the wall, capping its own dome and smoking itself. Stupid worm. Visiting seismologist Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter) stumbles onto the guys and the worm, shoots us some bile inducing overbite shots and shares her seismic readings that indicate there are three huge worms heading toward Perfection Valley. Sure as shit the worms do show up after all and everybody soon realizes the “snake” they found was actually part of a giant worm’s tongue! These giant worms are not only capable of eating whole cars but they hunt by sensing vibrations and learning from their mistakes!
Most of the survivors are forced to the rooftops to escape the ever groping Graboid tongue tentacles. Just when you think all hope is lost, Burt (Michael Gross) and Heather (Country Music singer Reba McEntire) Gummer turn out to be survivalist gun nuts. I’m not talking N.R.A. here either. They have enough hardware to take over a small third world country, become dictators, make deals with the US Government and then start a rebel force dedicated to stopping Bush from stealing their natural resources! I’m talking .50 caliber elephant guns, hand guns, fully auto machine guns and even grenades! Despite all of those weapons nothing can remove the filthy hippy stink from Michael Gross’s portrayal of peace-loving jerkoff, Steven Keaton in Family Ties. Nevertheless, the worms continue picking off townies while learning to avoid the tricks being employed by the survivors. Earl and Valentine come up with a brilliant plan to hitch a large trailer to a bobcat figuring it would be too heavy for the worms to topple.
Course, we know the movie would be over if that were the case. Valentine succeeds in hitching the trailer and driving about allowing everybody to leap into the back. Their destination? The solid granite of the mountains where they believe the worms can’t reach them. There’s a setback to this plan though…the worms have learned to set traps.
Tremors is a truly riveting little horror film. Trust me, I’m no fan of a man named after breakfast meat but I’ll be damned if Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward weren’t meant for each other! Apparently, Kevin Bacon thought more of his career than to come back for the sequel though.
Honestly, as exciting as this film is, there’s not much of a story here. It’s fairly run, hide, run, shoot, run, get eaten through the whole 99 minutes. Despite the films simplicity, it deserves a couple little wreathes at the bottom of the DVD case just because everybody is doing it nowadays.
I do have one gripe with this film though and that firmly resides with Pam Dixon’s casting of Finn Carter as female lead, Rhonda LeBeck. Folks, I kid you not when I say Finn Carter is far from hottie status. She’s not even handsome. She literally looks like the female equivalent of Burger Kings self-help guru, Doctor Angus. Grab the film anyway! The Tremors Attack Pack is going for $20 and it collects all 4 films on 2 flip-discs. You can’t go wrong, just don’t bank on rubbing anything off while you watch this one.
