 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1990 film Tremors. Yes, the original tremors, which let me point out that the Graboids don't look like this That's always been a weird thing to me that on the cover art It has these gigantic teeth and you don't see those gigantic teeth. Where's the beak? Where's the beak? It's always been weird to me. But anyway watch tremors when I'm posting this review It's available for streaming on Netflix. That's where I found it Not only that but they have all the tremors movies on Netflix And I will say that I had my wife watch this film with me and she actually enjoyed it, which isn't a big surprise It's a PG-13 horror film. It's a creature feature and there's a lot of comedy to it So it's you know easily accessible to a lot of people not just the horror community So since she's down with it She's down to watch number two and we'll see how far we go Now rest assured that if we watch all of them or if we just watch a few of them I will be doing reviews for them and putting them up here and we'll see how that goes But let's talk about Tremors the original This was directed by a Ron Underwood who directed such movies as City Slickers Mighty Joe Young the adventures of Pluto Nash and a lot a lot a lot a lot of tv episodes of shows So just so you know where he is It was the script was partially written a little bit of input from Underwood on the script But mainly written by s s wilson and Brent maddock Who wrote together the scripts for short circuit short circuit to batteries not included Uh the tremors tv show. Yes, there was a tremors tv show. I believe in 2003 And uh all of the tremor sequels now This is a rare instance where the writers for the original film had been involved with then five sequels And a tv show that's crazy. They were the writers for this So that gives me hope for checking out more to be honest And um i'd seen the original tremors before but i've actually never gone past that so i'm excited to actually Move past and experience more tremors Action if you will The budget for this film was 11 million dollars and ended up making 16 million in the box office So not like a gigantic return on it, but hey it made five million dollars That's not bad for a horror film in my opinion Um maddock and wilson were actually filmmakers in the navy. This is their background the writers They were actually filmmakers in the navy making of all things safety videos for the navy Which i think is a really funny thing. Uh, they created a concept of Land sharks and talked to ron underwood about it who at the time had been a national geographics Filmmaker he literally worked for national geographic making films So he had a lot of information about creatures So he actually sat down with them and helped them Further develop the the whole land shark concept and instead of using actual sharks on land Creating a creature that kind of felt like it could be realistic and maybe it could actually exist One day under underground so I thought that was a really cool thing It was originally called land sharks and then they changed it and obviously it's become tremors Although the some people refer to the creatures as tremors. They are not tremors. They refer to as graboids. So Just know that The elephant gun that ends up being used in this by bert played by michael gross was actually Borrowed from a collector a gun collector and they actually had to manufacture like make custom Dummy bullets for the gun for the film, which is really interesting And that's not kind of an iconic part because when he grabs this gigantic gun You're just like, oh my gosh. Here we go. And then you also see the gigantic size of those friggin bullets. It's it's unbelievable Um The original score was by an earnest truest, but it was actually mainly Music that sounded kind of goofy apparently. So they decided to get rid of a lot of that music They edited it out and instead brought in a robert fulc who then created a score that was more kind of action Uh action based action an adventure based which I think works well for this film In my opinion the film originally got an r rating from the mpaa because of using the f word a lot So the studio actually wanted to make it a pg-13 to make it more accessible to families and other people weren't You know necessarily looking for an r rated film And so they cut a lot of the f words out and in other areas they actually dubbed over them So you if you really pay attention, you can kind of see it a few of the times where they dubbed over that The concept of the graboids are to be like sharks of the land as sharks are ancient creatures of the ocean That's the whole concept of this when they came up with the whole land sharks thing They didn't actually end up going with actual sharks But they wanted something like sharks in the ocean since sharks are these ancient predators in the ocean They wanted to create the ancient predators on the land So graboids basically are sharks now What where did a lot of their inspiration come from the actual look of it came a lot from the cuttlefish If you've never seen what a cuttlefish looks like look it up on google images It's a very interesting looking critter and when you look at it you can then see a lot of that in the graboids Mainly the body shape is the big thing and the mouth has a lot to do with it as well The joking around and bickering between url and valentine in this film Sets a very interesting fun tone early on not only does it set a fun tone? It lets you know it's going to be comedy based. Also, it does a good job of kind of just establishing url and val's Relationship and how they like to kind of you know poke and prod each other and joke around and they don't take things too seriously The other thing is with a lot of what goes on between them But pretty much everyone in the film the dialogue is really well written And I think that's where a lot of the fun in the film comes from Is just experiencing these people interacting with each other And how the dialogue like it feels natural and it feels fun and it feels like these characters legitimately are saying these things so I dig it there's a good dynamic between val and url in the sense that Uh, it's their polar opposites. They're two different sides of the spectrum You know url is the older more experienced guy val is the younger more less Less likely to think you know url kind of ribs him all the time for you know Not really thinking things through he talks about talking, you know thinking with his pecker at one point So, you know, it's this kind of interesting dynamic of you know, the older guy who's just like, you know Be more grown up be smarter like me and then the younger guy who's just like, ah, we don't really need plans We can just fly by the seat of her pants. So let's do it But then they you know get on each other's cases all the time about the fact that they never have a plan And they're always talking about Formulating some side of some sort of plan they're gonna get out of there They're gonna be successful whatever and that's an ongoing joke throughout the film which works And especially works when in the end finally finally there's a plan that's formulated By val that ends up killing the final grab void And if that's the first time That val has a legitimate plan that works out because there's been all these times where like I got a plan for this I got a plan for that and all these plans just don't work Finally at the end a plan that works, which is great Um They create the feeling of a very remote small simple town This way when the grab voids end up showing up, you know, you're getting you know Getting help is actually not much of an option in this They're all trapped and have to take care of it themselves They do a really good job of kind of making you feel like it's very remote making you feel like it's very small Like it's very cut off But then also when the grab voids start really attacking They tell you things and show you things that indicate to you that It's going to be hard for them to get anywhere and even when they start to try and use the radio They're having problems with that Um And they talk like the characters talk to each other about how you know Well, we could do this we could try and get away this way or this way and they're just like there's just no way Until eventually they come to the realization that they have to fight They have to kill these things. There is no other option They can't run from it Which is a great thing in this film because it upstakes So much it makes it more tense because you're like They can't get away like they have to deal with this. They have to overcome it and how do they do that? That's one of the big questions Um, I love the couches that Val and Earl have this is just a little very small thing But I love the fact that they the couches they have outside that they hang out on and they have the the beers in the old Toilet that they're using as a cooler. That's just a fun Fun little addition to the film. That's funny The gradual clues for the grab boys Graboids existing are very well paced in the beginning of the film The seismic activity the sand moving the old drunk on the electrical towers An indicator of something going on the farmer eventually getting sucked down into the into the soil They they don't show you the graboid earlier on They're just giving you these small indicators that it's there And they do it at such a nice pace that it just keeps deepening the mystery and keeps you guessing like what is going on here It keeps the tension up, which I like Then the gradual realizations about the behavior of the grabboids and how they operate is also well paced and interesting in my opinion You can see it leading to an invention eventual solution But they just don't have enough information at that point. They spent a lot of time Learning about the creatures as they're trying to stay away from them initially and then later as they're trying to fight them Uh, I I just love how it's this learning experience. I also love how early on it all the townsfolk are looking to Uh ronda the scientist and being like well you tell us about this creature You're a scientist and she's like, I don't know. We just we all just discovered this creature I have no idea about it and they're like, yeah, but you're a scientist. So tell us something about it I think that's a kind of funny ongoing joke Uh, and then past that, you know, she's learning about these creatures But the townsfolk are learning about these creatures as well And they're all pitching in to glean things about the creature but to also throughout the stimuli and do the things To uh get the creature to react to then figure out. Okay, this is how it behaves Okay, this is what we can do to get it away from us. This is what we can do to actually try and kill it It's a really cool trial and error that continually goes on through the movie and it's good It it plays out very well in my opinion The grab void piece hanging off of the truck is a great reveal when earl and val Like there's the first actual piece of a grab void you end up seeing where it kind of grabbed around the axle Uh, and then they drag it into town. That's a really cool. Um visual when it When it's your first portion of the grab void being seen But the little extra addition of that kind of slimy saliva substance on it Is that little extra grossness that makes you like, oh this thing's nasty when we see this This thing's going to be kind of nasty Which it, you know, it is when you eventually see it People getting pulled underground is actually pretty intense the way they shoot it Not only just the getting sucked down, but you know the the violent kind of jerking and movements that the people have And the noises that they include with that it seems um violent and and very, um Frantic, but at the same time It's not gory and the wonderful thing is it doesn't have to be in this instance and you can get that PG 13 Because all the carnage is happening underground and people believe that, you know It's not a situation where you know, if someone gets chomped in half and they're just like, where's all the blood? Well, it happened underground. There's an easy explanation for that. So people don't necessarily need the r-rating in this instance so yeah, um The scenery in this is gorgeous. That's one thing that you become very very Cognizant of very early on it's a beautiful thing Which is awesome in drawing this kind of Stark contrast between the beauty around everyone and what nature looks like there Versus what is happening the actual events of these people having to fight off this Well a bunch of these terrible creatures that are trying to eat them Ancient creatures the reveal of the full on grab void is really good in my opinion It looks ugly and it looks terrifying in person And the sheer size the scale that they make of it is a wonderful thing I also love the part where they had it pull that entire car that station wagon down into the ground It's a really good showing early on of the strength and ability of these things And it also gives you an indication of probably what the size is going to be when you eventually see one And yeah, it makes sense when you do Uh When you go into the whole biology of the creature it actually seems legitimate Like when they're actually talking about oh, it's like this. It looks like this. It does this and you know, we can You know the fact that it can't see and you know It does things uh based off vibration to figure out where things are Like it all seems legitimate. Like it's believable the way they play it out There aren't any of these things that come up with the biology of it and I was like That doesn't seem to fit felt like a fit Um, I love the scene where Earl steps in the prairie dog hole and freaks out Uh, because I think that was a really good kind of jump scare moment where it probably got a lot of people thinking Oh my gosh, did you just get grabbed by a graboid? Uh, but no, he didn't so I thought that was a nice little moment Because it's hard to do jump scare as well It's such a bad ass moment when val punches the grabber When they get in the truck bed like one of the little grab the the little like mouth things the grabber portions comes out And he just like punches it And it's just uh, I didn't see it coming and it was just kind of a funny slash bad ass moment Um, I love it how all the townsfolk expect ronda to have all the answers Oh, we already talked about that as being the scientist Uh, the graboid fast moving pov shots actually work really well. They're very very effective It gives you an idea of how fast these things are moving as a person's running away So those are well done. They add to the film quite a bit Once the grabboids make it inside the general store Uh, this is kind of where there's no place to hide and it actually, um, they're not going to be able to live anywhere Because that's the thing at first when they're in the general store They feel kind of safe and then, you know, they have provisions and supplies and ways to defend themselves in there And then once they get in through the bottom, it's like crap we are Not going to be able to stay here and sustain ourselves. We have to go somewhere. So then they go to the roof And even at that point, you know, the the grabboids figure out how they can try and bring the buildings down and they just keep getting smarter and smarter and Limiting the options for these characters and that's one of the great things about how this film progresses is the options continually Become limited. So the amount of information they're needing to collect on the creature To figure out how to get around it and then how to kill it is crucial And they don't have a lot of time and so like their ability to get something done Like keeps getting smaller and smaller time frame wise Um, once the grabboids make oh, I already read that sorry When burton heather is shooting the grabboid in their basement Wouldn't it retreat? This is kind of a bit of a plot hold for me I feel like when it comes through the wall and they're just shooting it shooting it shooting it and they're grabbing all those guns Which the reveal of all the guns on the wall is is kind of a really funny moment because just like wow That's a lot But they just keep using all these different guns and just going going going that thing I would believe would retreat because there are many things in this film that indicate and that Outright show that it learns and it's actually kind of an intelligent creature So the fact that it would just keep trying to go go go go go at them while it's being injured Um, and then eventually killed it doesn't actually make sense that it would just keep trying to go It would retreat I think with the intelligence level that they indicated this thing Just a little thing that I was like that doesn't really make sense The space this townsfolk have to operate keep shrinking gradually. Okay. I kind of already talked about that With that happening it just you know, not only ups the tension, but it just makes things feel more hopeless. Everything's more high stakes at that point um I like how burton heather can just whip up pipe bombs like super super fast I love the fact that they're able to do that. It's uh, it's a really funny Funny thing, um, but it also doesn't really make sense because they make a lot of pipe bombs in a very small amount of time And you know, I guess people would say like this guy's kind of like a prepper They're just those type of people, but they would have need more time. I would think Um, I also like the ongoing joke that nobody likes melvin everybody hates that guy and What's even better is when? Eventually there's like this moment of trust with melvin where he they're trying to get him out of that Like truck bed thing and he's like i'm not getting out there and then bert hands him the handgun And he's just like okay, awesome And then he realizes when he tries to shoot with it There are no bullets in it because guess what no one trusts melvin Because right before that he had said I wouldn't give you a gun if it was world war three Which is a good joke, which you know, there are a lot of Verbal jokes in this movie and they work for the most part because like I was saying the dialogue is well written Um I do think that as burt points out he and heather would have been better off at their house at the point where they end up on the rocks Uh burt says, you know, we would have been better off at our home. I don't know why we followed you guys I think he's right because they had a lot of a lot of stuff there They seem to be able to really handle things well So I do question like why did they go along with them? They had more stuff They were more they were handling it. So yeah They were right. They were totally right in that they would have been better off not going with them uh, so, yeah The concept of pipe bomb fishing for the grab oids is a fun and interesting one And I think it works really well in this film and it's actually very hilarious when they actually Get one it explodes and then all the viscera comes just like raining down on them It's a gross and funny moment and uh, I enjoy that quite a bit If you notice there's an ongoing issue of all val and url's plans being trash But there's finally the good one when val leads the last grab oid to its death already kind of talked about that, but yeah Um, so some kind of like things to wrap up this The dialogue is very well written. Like I've said, I cannot stress that enough. The dialogue is great There's so many movies out there where the dialogue is trash. It's not done well at all or it's me Really good dialogue in this. I love it. Um, it's a well done PG 13 film Which to be honest for a horror film to be good and be PG 13 That's tough. It doesn't happen that often and this is one of those ones like I was talking about where you don't Necessarily need to show all the gore or all the viscera or anything or when you do it's the grab oids and it's orange. So You know, you're not going to get hit hard by the mpaa for that. So They were smart about the way they made this So i'm good with it being PG 13 or whatever um You could get away with not showing a bunch of gore since the carnage happens on the ground or I talked about that And then I guess I just wanted to close this kind of with a question Now it might be a little bit of a stretch to some people But I would be interested in hearing what people have to say about it in the comments Do you get to this movie without the success of the movie jaws? Now this is a little bit in my mind because um, the same day I watched tremors I watched the original piranha and that obviously was a rip off of jaws But then as I'm watching tremors and I'm like land shark the grab oids are basically modeled after sharks Is this somehow Tied to the success of jaws And if you didn't have jaws and jaws was or jaws just wasn't a success like that Would we have ended up getting the tremors and I feel like yeah, maybe but maybe not. I don't know So I think that's kind of worth debating in a sense So put some comments down there and not only about that but just you know about tremors in general I'd love to talk about that Um, especially if you have dissenting opinions I always like to hear dissenting opinions because it brings up things I may not have thought about which I'm always down to here But um, so a star rating on this out of five stars With half stars in play. I'm gonna give this a solid four stars. I think this is a four star film. It's quite good It's not perfect. It's not the best thing ever, but it's good and I'm excited to move on to tremors to Aftershocks, I think it's aftershocks or aftershock one of those anyway aftershocks Um, yeah, I'm excited to move on to it and maybe I'll go all the way May I'll do all the tremors reviews and would you want that put some comments? But anyway, do me a quick favor hit that subscribe Literally takes you a second is so painless But it means a lot for my channel and it's a great way to keep me going to just say hey I support what you're doing if you've already subscribed though Go ahead and hit that thumbs up to let me know that you're still watching I would appreciate that And the other thing is if you are going to subscribe and you want to know when I'm putting up videos Or when I'm doing my live streams make sure you hit the notification bell And you will get notified when I'm especially when I'm doing the live stream. So Uh, but yeah, anyway, thanks for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal