Shake, Rattle, and Roll

One of my all-time favorite movies is Tremors, the 1990 homage to all those giant mutated animal movies of the 1950s such as Them! or The Giant Gila Monster. I still remember watching this movie for the first time, sitting on the floor with my brother and our neighborhood friend Jimmy. We hung out at Jimmy's quite a bit because Jimmy was funny (sometimes unintentionally so), and well, to be honest, because his sister was super-cute. Anyway, I remember being a little nervous about watching it because I was afraid that it would be really scary. I had a hard time sitting through scary movies (I still do), so I was unsure whether or not I would be able to handle it. I know it seems silly now, but if you've never seen Tremors, you might have felt the same way. Luckily for me, while the movie does have a few gotcha moments, it is not really very frightening (with the exception of one scene involving a couple, which I still have to skip when I watch the film).

The movie sets the tone immediately, with the introduction of Val and Earl, the central characters of the film. Played by Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, they inject just the right amount of humor into the proceedings, giving it a tongue-in-cheek approach without selling the characters or the story short. There is something about the opening few minutes of the movie that I find very captivating and soothing. Perhaps it is the breathtaking scenery or the funny introduction of these two characters, but whatever it is, it strikes a chord with me.



After the success, however modest, of Tremors, several direct-to-video sequels were made, with somewhat mixed results. I personally don't care much for the 2nd film, subtitled Aftershocks, and I missed the original characters in the 4th one, subtitled The Legend Begins, which was set 100 years before the first film. I did, however, really enjoy the 3rd one, Back to Perfection, despite the absence of both Val and Earl. By this time Burt Gummer (played marvelously by Michael Gross), the survivalist gun nut from the first two films, had become the central character, a trait that would continue with the short lived television series. As you would imagine, the production values suffered for the sequels and the tv show compared to the first film which was released theatrically. But while the acting and the dialog could sometimes be groan inducing, there was definitely something about the characters and the story that kept me engaged.

The production company originally planned to make a 5th Tremors movie, but with the cancellation of the tv show, Universal decided that there simply wasn't enough of a market for such a film. They also currently have no plans to release the tv show on dvd, which ran for only 13 episodes.

Whatever Universal ultimately decides to do with this property, they can never take away the joy that I feel when I watch this movie, or the memory of sitting in Jimmy's living room, a little frightened but ultimately very happy that I had worked up the courage to watch it in the first place.

Transmission out.