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During the 1950’s “Monster Movies” were all the rage. Studios
were churning out new pictures almost weekly and on the cheap, to cash in on
the current craze. Films tried to outdo each other by coming up with the
scariest and most original monster ever seen on screen. It was a time before CGI,
where monsters were portrayed by men in rubber suits; covered in make-up and
latex, appearing out of dark caves or rising from muddy swamps to chase some
damsel in distress through the forest. Then gradually, monster movies died off
and it was thought, by some, they would never take over the box office again.
And this has remained a fact until this day. However, every now and then a monster flick will grace our screens, and take the box office by storm again. Most recently in the sleeper-hit “Cloverfield” where a gigantic creature from beyond our world wreaked havoc in New York City. Filmed effectively with a shaky hand-held video camera, it put the audience in the position of the camera-holder, while also showing the grand-scale and devastation of the monsters rampage. And next year, the King of Lizards, Godzilla, will once again take over the world… in the movies I mean.
But long before this, back at the dawn of the 1990's, a low-budget monster movie was made, which you’ve probably never heard of. Set in a small desert town in the Nevada desert, it told the story of two handymen, Earl and Val. Along with their neighbours (taking the town’s population up to 11 or so) these two pals offer their services as “Jack of All Trades” and live a simple existence in the Great American Landscape; no boss, no rules and no worries. Until, some shaking and rumbling came from beneath the desert sand to change all of that.
And this has remained a fact until this day. However, every now and then a monster flick will grace our screens, and take the box office by storm again. Most recently in the sleeper-hit “Cloverfield” where a gigantic creature from beyond our world wreaked havoc in New York City. Filmed effectively with a shaky hand-held video camera, it put the audience in the position of the camera-holder, while also showing the grand-scale and devastation of the monsters rampage. And next year, the King of Lizards, Godzilla, will once again take over the world… in the movies I mean.
But long before this, back at the dawn of the 1990's, a low-budget monster movie was made, which you’ve probably never heard of. Set in a small desert town in the Nevada desert, it told the story of two handymen, Earl and Val. Along with their neighbours (taking the town’s population up to 11 or so) these two pals offer their services as “Jack of All Trades” and live a simple existence in the Great American Landscape; no boss, no rules and no worries. Until, some shaking and rumbling came from beneath the desert sand to change all of that.
On the outskirts of this quiet town, people
start to slowly and mysteriously disappear. First a farmer and his sheep, then
a married couple and their car and finally a couple of construction workers
patching up the road. Only blood remained at each of the scenes, with no signs
of the victims in sight. Earl and Val are actually on their way out of town
when they discover all of this strangeness and encounter the culprits who are
responsible – in the flesh. They seem to come up from beneath them and chase
our heroes through the desert. Making a narrow escape, they arrive back in town
to warn the rest of the residents of the impending doom.
As they are all gathered in the town’s general store, the monsters emerge from underground to make the rest of the population their breakfast. These things are unlike any animal or creature they’ve seen before; large, black, able to shoot tentacles out of their mouth and burrow their way through the sand at fast speeds. One of the residents aptly calls them “Graboids” and as the survivors start to learn what they’re up against, they dodge being eaten alive any way they can, relying on the resources around them to outwit the monsters.
As they are all gathered in the town’s general store, the monsters emerge from underground to make the rest of the population their breakfast. These things are unlike any animal or creature they’ve seen before; large, black, able to shoot tentacles out of their mouth and burrow their way through the sand at fast speeds. One of the residents aptly calls them “Graboids” and as the survivors start to learn what they’re up against, they dodge being eaten alive any way they can, relying on the resources around them to outwit the monsters.
The big surprise about “Tremors” is actually how
good it is. Despite the plot, which sounds simple and quite ridiculous, it’s a
very entertaining little film. The cast were picked to perfection, led by Kevin
Bacon and Fred Ward. Joining them is Michael Gross; the dad from “Family Ties”
who plays a gun-happy enthusiast, along with his wife, who aides the towns
fight for their lives with his massive collection of weapons and explosives.
There’s also a young female Seismologist, who was originally drawn to the town
of Perfection to
investigate the course of all the earth tremors that had been recorded in the
area. Then there are a few other assorted characters that either get eaten or
scream and run away from the monsters.
The premise of the monsters coming from
underground is a clever one. When you stop and think about it, we humans are
limited to the ground we walk on by that thing called Gravity, you follow? So
when our right to walk along the surface of the earth safely gets taken a way,
we climb a tree, get on top of our car or high-tail it to the roof. The
characters in Termors do this to avoid getting gobbled up, but these
underground beasts are cleverer than they look, and find ways to bring down
buildings and force their prey back onto the ground. The various ways in which
the characters stay off the ground and play to the monsters sense of movement
and vibration is clever and crafty. At one point, they make a lot of noise and
stamp their feet on the ground to draw the attention of the monsters, allowing
their friends to run away. Or my favourite was when they turned on a small
mower, let it drive off on its own and watch, as the monster instinctively
follows it, allowing one of them to make a run for it.
Tremors was not a hit in it’s time, but went onto to garner a massive cult following over the years. It gave way to three sequels, which all went straight to DVD, but are worth a watch. Over the following films, the monsters changed and evolved, but the characters we met and fell in love with from the original film remain the same, and this is probably the biggest attraction of the “Tremors” series.
Tremors was not a hit in it’s time, but went onto to garner a massive cult following over the years. It gave way to three sequels, which all went straight to DVD, but are worth a watch. Over the following films, the monsters changed and evolved, but the characters we met and fell in love with from the original film remain the same, and this is probably the biggest attraction of the “Tremors” series.
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