Movie of the Week: Tremors

   

 

    Movie of the Week (10/20/13-10/26/13): Since it is October I guess I should keep the horror movies coming and this one is special to me. I first saw this movie when I was very young, I don't remember the exact age, but I remembered I loved it! I wanted to watch it again right when I got finished. And I first saw it on a recorded VHS, now moving on to Blu-ray and I still love it! This film eventually turned into a Cult classic because there are quite a few people that enjoy it, however people who like this movie are probably the only ones to like its direct to video sequels and yes, I'm one of them. This is Tremors.
    When you first hear the name Tremors you probably think of earthquakes, well you would be wrong! This film features giant pre-historic worms with snake like creatures as their tongues that all of a sudden show up in the small town of Perfection, Nevada. Soon these creatures began killing animals around the town including the townspeople sheep and cattle and eventually they start going after the people. Oh, and they come out of the ground, in case you didn't know, hence Tremors.
    Now, this film has a very good cast and I honestly couldn't picture anybody else playing these characters because they did such a great job at what they had. We have Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, and unknown and still is, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Robert Jayne, Ariana Richards, the little girl from Jurassic Park, and Victor Wong. Some of these people you might not know, but don't let that discourage you, I was impressed with all of them and they all deliver great performances. The most known person in this film is, of course, Kevin Bacon, who gives a great combination of a funny, serious, and scared-to-death performance. Fred Ward does the same and since the film does center around these two it was good that they had such good chemistry together, it made the film work.
    One of the best things of the film was the special effects, since the film is focused on giant worms coming out of the ground and killing people, it is important for having a good budget to give the audience good effects. We get that in this film, sometimes in grotesque form, but it does the film justice because it adds so much to the creatures themselves. The effects give the creatures character along with the prosthetics that were used to create the monsters or the people at times. The creatures, who soon becomes known as "Graboids," are really the main characters in the film and that becomes possible with the wonderful special effects.
    Other great things about this film are the editing, sound mixing, cinematography, and directing. There is good editing in a few of the scenes that are key points in the film, along with some interesting camera movement. The sound mixing is great because of how the creatures sound, that mixed in with all the commotion going on and the music, it makes for a good sounding movie. The cinematography and the directing are also pretty decent, not great, but I like how it looks and how it was filmed although the director, Ron Underwood, I felt could have done a little more at times to make it better overall. But, this is still a fun film to watch, although it soon turns into a horror with some corny moments, it is driven by the chemistry between Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward and very good visual effects.
3/4 Stars