Warning, this will be a lengthy blog entry please take as many breaks as possible while reading please thank you.
Tremors (1990)
Tremors is a great classic movie. You have a few notable stars like Kevin Bacon. Not to mention, the late Fred Ward whose also in The Crow: Salvation. A small town suddenly becomes in danger by these mysterious giant worm creatures. A victim of theirs named Walter came up with their famous name Graboid.
Which was directly inspiration for Snakeoids in the video game, Zombies Ate My Neighbors. These creatures has three creature like tongues to get their prey. It was revealed they operate by sound making them tricky to avoid in some situations. There's some great kills on both sides as well. My favorite Graboid kill is Burt with his wife Heather used a lot of guns to kill an Graboid.
There's some rememberable characters as well. You actually felt bad for people who don't see much of in the movie. These creatures even pulled a vehicle mostly into the ground, it was sick stuff. Of course, paranoia comes into play since no one really knew how to deal with them. Tremors is hands down the best movie in the franchise.
This movie shouldn't have work this amazingly well. I felt it truly knocks it out the park in every category. I wouldn't even change anything it's that damn good. Obviously, it quickly became a timeless classic. You knew a franchise was inevitable. I should mention, the guy who plays Walter also in 3 Ninjas movies yeah this was the better end of the stick.
Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)
I originally recalled first seeing this on vacation a long time ago. Tremors 2 introduces the next stage of the life cycle for Graboids. This form is called Shriekers, which ended up being in some ways worse than Graboids. For starters, they no longer use sound to locate their targets. No now they use heat sensing which is kinda interesting here.
Not to mention, Shriekers can multiplying notably increasing their numbers. They are small but strikingly fast creatures. There's a lot of killing in this movie. Some previous characters Burt & Earl returns. I do love the concept of attaching explosives to RC vehicles to blow creatures up. This was a good follow up in a lot of ways.
Tremors 2 does up things just right despite taking a few years to make after the original movie. We get to learn more about their species. Sadly, these creatures don't stop hunting humans. I do liked how most of the Shriekers got destroyed. There's some surprises that makes watching this a fun time for people. If you thought Graboids was scary, don't worry you still haven't seen anything yet.
I felt some people were learning how to survive these creatures was a nice touch. Not only that, I do like how they learned about Shriekers as well. Sometimes things happened for the worst but the right people can take it. Burt is a clear example of someone who isn't going to back down from an challenge. Tremors 2 is a movie you should watch with your family if they're into those kind of movies.
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)
Tremors 3 went even further with the concept. Burt returns, you knew he has to be here. I felt this was a good follow up in it's own right as well. I should mention both Tremors 2 & 3 were direct to video movies. Usually that gets a bad reputation not here. Tremors 3 pushed the envelope just the right way. Just when things couldn't get any worse, they do.
It turns out Shriekers evolve into what later gets called. I swear this isn't a joke by any means Ass Blasters. Like Shriekers, they hunt by heat sensing. However they are capable of flying. This is essentially these creatures at the end of their life cycle. You know Burt always finds a way. He even survived being eaten alive by an Graboid.
Which is a testament how tough this man truly is. You know Burt always comes prepared for anything. It was these events that made Mr. Gummer the go to hunter for their species. Honestly, it's amazing how effective these creatures kills people. I would say in some areas it's better than Tremors 2. They had some surprises like Melvin who was a kid during the events of the original returns.
I never liked that guy, he got lucky though. I will say Tremors 3 is a fun time for it's own reasons. I would even say this is where I started loving what Burt does. You can tell no one hates em as much as he does. You feel so happy when he takes some of them out. I even loved the kill with a rifle that went through several things including a car's engine.
El Blanco is an abino Graboid, the most interesting looking Graboid in the movie. It turns out Melvin was secondary antagonist due to his involvement with his business. Gummer later closed that business down in a very late scene. Honestly, I'm very satisfied with these movie already. Sometimes I wanna see more on both sides especially when they are locked in combat.
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
This was the monkey wrench because this movie actually a prequel. This also was a direct to video movie. Michael Gross plays Burt's great-grandfather Hiram Gummer this time around. Which means Burt was secretly in line of those hunting Graboids within his family. Keep in mind, this takes place in 1889.
Yeah we went way back from the original Tremors movie. Just like people in the original Tremors, a group of people eventually figures a way to take these creatures down. Not even the best gunslinger was a match for one Graboid. A lot of people were quickly turn off by the massive time change. Some simply thought it was stupid going that far back in time.
Honestly, I kinda respected they wanted to show us this. I later did end up liking Hiram, still preferred his great-grandson Burt though. There's some good kills in this as well. Including Hiram was able to kill an Graboid with an punt gun yeah. We also find out Burt's original house used to belonged to his great-grandfather.
Basically this man had major plans for the town. He nearly ran off but chosen to stay in order to protect the people. I felt this one might come off as the more boring Tremors movie. But at the same time, when you stick around long enough things do get interesting. It just take a little longer than you originally thought.
Tremors 4 I say was a good attempt at making a prequel. Sure it may not feel like the usual Tremors films. In it's defense, they took the risk making the movie. Not to mention, they wanted to directly tie things to the original movie from the past. Therefore, I kinda liked they went about making the movie. I just wish it didn't take so long to start getting good, it doesn't suck though truthfully.
Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015)
This is also direct to video, serving as Universal Pictures' re-launch of the franchise. There's a few twists that I will be mentioning during the review. This time we leave the United States altogether. Burt ends up hunting Graboids in Africa. Which was a new experience for the hunter. Travis had to convince him to go on this hunt.
It turns out the species mutated becoming bigger. Even some traits shown on other stages of the evolution. Which caused some confusion in and of itself. Yes there are even their variation of Ass-Blasters too. I liked the scene where Burt is inside a cage. The man who arranged this hunt turned out to be a poacher.
He only was interested in their eggs. Don't worry he gets what's coming to him. A nice time to mention Travis later revealed to Burt being his son. Yeah who is played by Jamie Kennedy. Damn he bounced back from such bad roles as Son of the Mask and Malibu's Most Wasted. I felt his character brought stuff to the movie that was kinda needed.
I also liked how they went about Africa's origins of these creatures. There's some intense moments not including the creatures themselves. Burt does end up pulling things together. I loved they called the big one Queen Bitch I love it lol. In all honestly, I don't think it was that bad some critics said it was. I felt it was a good place to start in terms of bringing back a beloved franchise.
Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)
Let me ask you a question. How can you go scarier than Graboids in Africa? It is quite simple let's bring em to Antarctica yeah. I also gotta mention this, the title alone hands down my favorite Tremors movie title ever. More interesting twists this time around, you actually should watch this one more than the previous one.
It turns out these creatures also has a virus. Which does nearly took the legend's life. It's difficult to believe these creatures can easily move through the ice. They also taken a page from some Jurassic Park movies. An organization in this case, DARPA made bio-weapons out of the Graboids. One of them had to get dangerous close to an alive Graboid to extract what they needed in order to save Burt.
I also need to bring up a new character Valerie whose the daughter of Valentine & Rhonda. Yes her parents were in the original Tremors movie, I love seeing connections like this. This movie felt a little like The Thing but more of a mix between Jurassic Park and Tremors respectively. Considering The Thing happened in the same continent that's not far from the truth.
I should bring up a similar point with Alien vs. Predator movie also happened in the same continent too.
Just imagine running into The Thing aliens, Xenomorphs, Predators and Graboids at the same time. No one would survive lol. On a more serious note, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell was an entertaining movie. I watched this on Netflix, same as the previous Tremors movie.
To me, I was more into this one. Not because of a racist reason either. Hell no, I actually prefer the location a lot more. Graboids were even more interesting this time around. We also got to see Burt at his worst yet but it isn't to make his character bad or at least seem weak. He put up more of a fight than Myers did in Halloween Ends.
You actually felt sorry for the very person protecting people from these creatures. You already know everyone else would lose hope facing them without him around. He also had a show with his son Travis as well. Speaking of Travis, he gets more crazy with some of the later stuff they do. I felt overall, this was a good adaptation to the concept.
Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)
This is the most recent entry, yes I'll get it right out the way. Although, it's not entirely clear Burt may or may not got killed off. This time they go out to an island close by a private owned island. Which I'll explain more on that island a little later. This group figured out something isn't quite right. A handful of members went to go find out on his last known location.
It took some time, Burt joins on the ride back to his group. He almost felt when another member turned out to be Travis' mom. Yeah awkward let's move on, the private island is owned by an hunter named Bill. Bill is played by Richard Brake whose in several movies. Such as Batman Begins, Doom, The Munsters, and Hannibal Rising.
To clarify, the most recent Munsters movie. Bill made arrangements to alter while breeding Graboids. In his very words making them even superior killing machines. Sadly, the man doesn't know a thing how to properly hunt one. His pride ends up losing to insanity also death. Thankfully no Ass-Blasters this time around.
Shriekers were at their absolute worst here. But it gets even crazier the biggest Graboid can travel between islands. She found a way to travel under the ocean. I felt this had more interesting characters I didn't expect I like so much. These had to be the toughest bunch of their species Burt ever faced. Sadly his son got locked up for something stupid.
I felt this one had a lot of good things going for it. I can't say the ending was one of those things. What I can say however is I still enjoyed the movie. I can't say none of them actually sucks. Tremors series is a surprisingly constant horror movie franchise. Universal owns a lot of horror movie franchises including Chucky, you knew it was coming!!!
I would say this is still a fun time. I do liked how they went about the actual story. The creatures kept getting more interested. Even if they ripped off the Jurassic Park concept again. What's next Shriekers not only can fly but their heat sensing also burns people upon contact? Now that would be even worse if that were an Ass-Blaster with enhanced flight thrown into the mix.
Now you see what you got you're giving me crazy ideas please don't do that lol. I do like this movie for what it is. I strongly felt Tremors: Shrieker Island is a good movie. There's no throw away characters either. Unless you count characters we see briefly to only end up getting killed. Honestly, I could recommend all seven Tremors movies it just depends on your taste in things.
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