Ron Underwood directs Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and Finn Carter in this low budget but big hearted monster movie where something deadly is stirring beneath the desert.

This was a gateway horror movie for little Bobby Carroll. While I wasn’t a fan of ghouls and scares at 11, this had enough adventure and comedy for me to embrace it as a beloved VHS favourite. And it has aged fantastically. The neat practical trick FX hold up, the location shoot make it almost a timeless watch . It could be set in the 1950s, it could be now. Lovely ensemble work, with Fred Ward walking away with the movie. Bacon and Carter have nice chemistry and smooth looks but you really only care about the boys’ “business partnership”. That’s slightly unfair actually… as the efficient, gag heavy script manages to make every member of Perfection, Nevada’s rapidly diminishing population sparkle. Tremors is just good old fashioned fun that understands the need for escalating the threat level regularly. The running theme is Bacon’s feckless grafter needs to start planning ahead and when faced with the “motherhumpers”, who approach their next meal with a problem solving zeal, he has to rise to the challenge and outsmart some very capable “graboids”. Charm, pace and thrills – this is as about as entertaining as a Saturday night in can get. The rental cover parodied Jaws and that sells the movie perfectly.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Slither (2006)

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/