Tremors

I love the Tremors films. And yet truly the only one you need to see is the first. All of the sequels try to recapture the magic and just cannot. The short-lived TV series had its charms, but accept no Tremors movie substitution but the first.

The thing I love about the Tremors films the most is that they do not follow standard horror film conventions. They differ from them in some pretty big ways. And it goes for all the films, so it's like they have their own set of rules.

First rule: Unlike every other horror franchise, every Tremor movie is goal-oriented. The horror is not of an unknown origin that the heroes have no escape from, or have any real idea why it's after them. The scientists find out how many monsters are roaming underground, the heroes kill them one by one, and when the final one is dead, the movie is over. Most importantly, the heroes and survivors are granted victories and Crowning Moments Of Awesome. To be honest, Burt and Heather Gummer taking out the Graboid in their bunker in this film is shockingly heavy on gunplay (wouldn't pass muster in today's climate), amazingly loud and violent (and gory), and filled with a wonderful level of pure joy upon Burt gloating the bastard attacked the wrong "rec room". Most horror films are designed to upset the audience. The good Tremors films are actual crowdpleasers, scares included.

Rule the second: Not only can anybody die, anybody can survive. The biggest shocker survival of the first movie is the annoying, cowardly kid Melvin. He's stupid and a hindrance, and like all of the Tremors characters his survival is down to luck rather than character virtues. Similarly, even clever characters can die (although that mostly happens in later films). Cunning and stupidity do not necessarily determine whether you survive a Tremors film. It's mostly luck, and maybe your proximity to Burt Gummer. As a rule, the main leads of the films aren't killed off, but just to prove that nobody is safe, in the most recent film they most certainly brushed back against that sacredest of franchise taboos. Proving once and for all, nobody is truly safe.

Rule the third: Characters of color are not automatic dead persons walking. Plenty of minorities die in the films (see Walter here) but plenty of them survive too. Tremors has this lovable habit of introducing a daughter or related character to one of the killed minorities in an earlier film and making them a badass who survives a sequel or the TV show. People really loved the original characters in the first film and the franchise loves playing up the legacy aspect of them in the sequels.

Rule 4: Safe spaces exist. Hiding on top of rocks and mountains is considered a legit "time out" from the Graboids for the heroes to regroup. Most horror films do not extend their casts that courtesy. Like EVER.

There is no arguing against the joy of the film as Kevin Bacon as Valentine is VERY cautious about how to kill the last Graboid. He angrily mutters under his breath that the creature isn't smarter than they are. Which is the entire premise of the film, especially because Valentine isn't a particularly bright character. It isn't until Val tricks the last creature in driving itself off a cliff that you see he's right. Until he does that, it's up for debate. The actual selling point of the movie is stupid people outwitting smart monsters. That is Tremors to a T.

At the end it is very notable and admirable Earl scoffs off Val's hope for being in People Magazine for this find. The real honor to aspire to is National Geographic. Did I mention the characters were stupid? That right there says they are smarter than I just gave them credit for.

I think the real reason the sequels were diminishing returns is because neither the Shriekers nor the Assblasters had the iconic impact of the Graboids. In fact, they simply made the Graboid life cycle confusing. The second and third films were totally overthinking things there.

So that was Tremors. I heartily recommend it and acknowledge once you've seen it you've pretty much seen all of the canon worth seeing. But dang it, us fans keep coming back for the DVD sequels and TV show anyways. That's how much we love the first film. The latter stuff NEVER lives up to it but we watch the new movies as they come out because hope springs eternal. And these things are not actually smarter than me. 4 1/2 stars.