Tremors (1990)

Directed by Ron Underwood; produced by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson

In the desert community of Perfection, Earl and Valentine (Fred Ward, Kevin Bacon) are two friends with an amiable but ephemeral existence as handymen. Tired of hauling garbage and pounding fence-posts for a bare living, they determine to re-locate to the near by town of Bixby where, apparently, prospects for two enterprising businessmen are much better. That’s when they make the startling discovery that they and their fellow villagers are under attack by huge, carnivorous monsters that can drill through soil as a fish swims through water. As Earl observes, they decided to leave Perfection one day too late.

Tremors has almost everything going for it, and it would be difficult to pick one element that contributes more to its success than another. For one, the writing is superior. A bane of watching a monster movie is the stupid character, the man or woman who is included either to provide an easy victim or to propel the story by doing something nobody would really do, but which is needed by lazy writers to get from one point to another in the tale. While some of Tremors’ characters are annoying, and others not particularly bright, none is artificially dumb. In fact, most contribute to the fight against the creatures, and all appear to be thinking.

The principal characters, Earl and Val, are rough, sometimes crude, men, but decent, and –albeit reluctantly - willing to put themselves in danger to help others. The importance of likeable characters is sometimes overlooked by writers; if the viewer doesn’t care about the main personalities in a plot, care about the plot – and the movie itself – diminishes.

The script here is also funny, providing plenty of humour, especially in the characters of a couple of survivalists (Michael Gross, Reba McEntire), and in the interaction of Val and Earl. Significantly, the humour never descends to self-satire, and is perfectly reasonable within the context of the story. A smug, knowing deprecation on the part of the film would have been deadly.

The acting is very good, especially among the leads. The cast is small, as befits a film that is almost, and ironically, claustrophobic, despite being set in the wide open Nevada desert. This was director Underwood’s first feature film, though you wouldn’t think so; he handles every shot well. Something to be appreciated was the placement of almost all the action in daylight, so the fight against the creatures – and the creatures themselves – may be seen.

In many ways, Tremors may be paired with The Thing from Another World (1951), another smart, funny, fun and well-written monster movie, also set in an isolated community. There may be a few others that were produced between the two, but it is a sad commentary that such enjoyable films appear to come along only once every forty years or so. On the other hand, that means we may be soon due for another.