TREMORS
A film review by Shane R. Burridge
Copyright 1995 Shane R. Burridge
1990 96 min
Remember that game you played as a kid, when you tried to walk across, or around a room without touching the floor; or made it a mission to get from one place to another without stepping on any part of a "forbidden" zone? That primal consciousness is, I believe, what makes this film so instantly appealing to its fans.
Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are two jacks of all trades who own a pickup truck and little else, drifting from one job to another in the small desert town of Perfection. Meanwhile, a visiting seismologist is investigating mysterious disturbances in the ground. As it transpires, these are not caused by earthquakes but earthworms, and big ones at that. Worse, these worms are predators, which detect their prey by the vibrations of their footsteps. It doesn't take long before Bacon, Ward, and co. figure out what is going on, from which point the story becomes the struggle for survival that we've seen in countless monster movies before--with one major twist. Most movies of this type (THE THING, THE BIRDS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, et al) invariably hole up the protagonists in a restricted location, which they defend against the attacking hordes. TREMORS turns this on its head: the characters are not confined by the walls of some makeshift sanctuary, but by the vast Nevada desert landscape itself, which they can't even set foot on. In fact, any contact with the ground is a bad move, so they end up ON the buildings, not in them. Most of the second half of the film involves this assorted handful of characters arguing about their predicament and hopscotching from one 'safe' zone to the next.
There is no explanation for the creatures (their origins are discussed arbitrarily in one brief dialogue exchange) and they seem smaller-scale country cousins to the sandworms in DUNE (which are also attracted by vibrations), but the film-makers never make their creations laughable, or thankfully, their characters disposable--there's no stock 'bad guy' amongst them for the scriptwriters to sacrifice to the monsters; and it's fun watching the can-do approach they take to their bizarre situation. Film's highlight for the gun crowd will be the scene in which two survivalist fanatics unload nearly their entire arsenal into one of the attacking creatures. The desert setting, drowsy and stultifying on the surface, is used to good effect, and Bacon and Ward give effortless performances that match this to "Perfection." Snappy pacing and canny writing make this more than just a B picture. Film's major problem was trying to sell the idea of giant earthworms as effective movie monsters. Also with: Michael Gross (from TV's FAMILY TIES), and Ariana Richards as a pogo-stick hopping tyke, who'd later graduate from being terrorized by giant worms to giant dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK. Some kids have all the luck.
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