#31DOH Day 2: Tremors (1990)

Today we welcome Cameron McCrorie to the WGN Family (well, he already was, being one of our biggest fans, but today he joins the WGN Writing Family – you know what I mean. I’ll stop talking now and hand over to Cameron). Ed.


I can’t believe we said no to free beer!” – Valentine McKee

I love this film, I’m not going to lie. So, when World Geekly News said they were doing their 31 Days Of Horror I jumped at the chance to review what most people consider as a bonafide cult classic.

The film centres around Valentine McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Basset (Fred Ward) two handymen from the town of Perfection, Nevada, who, upon finding the body of a dead resident up a pylon, decide to saddle up and head out of town for pastures new. On the way, they discover the decapitated head of a local farmer and decide that a serial killer is on the loose while also finding (in what is a great scene) the buried Station Wagon of the town doctor.

Valentine McKee: “Must be a million of them!”

Earl Bassett: “Nope, just one!”

Cue the introduction of the film’s monster, 30 foot long worms affectionally called “Graboids” by the townspeople, and of a love interest for Val in the guise of seismologist Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter). More townspeople are picked off and with the help of survivalists Burt and Heather Gummer (Michael Gross and Reba McEntire), they try to make a beeline for the mountains where the worms are unable to catch them but are caught out by the last highly intelligent worm that has laid a trap for them. Ending in a great chase between man and worm as Val tricks the worm into launching itself off a cliff wall to its doom.

“Run for it? Running’s not a plan! Running’s what you do once a plan fails!” – Earl Basset

Despite being almost 30 years old the film still holds pretty well against today’s B-Movie horror films, passing the 6 laugh test, having gratuitous killings and, in the worms themselves, some pretty good effects for the time.

Tremors also spawned 4 sequels and 1 prequel of varying quality and at the time of writing Tremors 7: Island Fury has been greenlit for production. Are they as good as the first film: well no, but as a set of films they are not all bad are still pretty entertaining fare.

“Melvin! One of these days someone’s gonna kick your ass!” – Earl Basset


Remember to follow the hashtag #31DOH on Twitter and Facebook every day in October to see what other terrifying treats we’ve been watching!

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