Tremors, Tremors 2: Aftershocks, Tremors 3: Back To Perfection, and Tremors 4: The Legend Begins

Tremors

   I love all four of the Tremors movies and rate them a some of my favorite movies. I just finished re-watching all four of them and decided that some fan boy gushing on my blog was the perfect thing to cap the event.

   The first movie "Tremors" was released the year I was born, 1990, and while it did poorly in theaters once it went on to VHS it became a hit managing to triple the box office gross.  The movie starts slow and you don't even know exactly what the Graboids look like exactly for most of the beginning.

   The second movie "Tremors 2: Aftershocks" was released direct to film in 1996. The setting unlike the other films takes place somewhere in a Mexican oil field. The set up is that Graboids have apeared there and shut down the fields so the owners of the field need someone to kill them and are willing to pay 50k for each dead one and 100k if the manage to catch one alive. They go to one of the main characters from the first film who was cheated out of his share of the revenue from all the Graboid stuff that was made and a fan of his who advised them to go to him manages to convince him to do it. This is the film that Shriekers first appear in and they cause quite a bit of havoc until its figured out how they hunt.

   The third movie "Tremors 3: Back To Perfection" was released direct to film in 2001. The movie starts somewhere in Mexico for a short scene but quickly returns to the main setting of Perfection. The time is 11 years after the first movie and when the Graboids returns it surprises most of the populace. A number of the people decide to take care of the Graboids but someone calls in the Fed who decide that Graboids are an endangered species. Basically no killing them till they can catch one and if they can't they decide that they will force everyone out of Perfection. This angers the person who called them in because she thought they would help, not force them out of their homes. Things happen and Shriekers emerge but because of a situation they get left alone and the Ass-blaster makes its first appearance. This is also the movie where the albino Graboid "El Blanco" makes its first appearance.

   The fourth movie "Tremors 4: The Legend Begins" was released straight to film in 2004 and was a prequel to the first movie. The setting is 1884 in Perfection back when it was called Rejection and had a thriving town because of a silver mine. Of course whats a Tremors movie without some people diapering into the ground? A large group of miners get eaten in the mine with only one left to tell the tail. This closes the mine and causes the mine owner to have to come sort it out himself. We get introduced to yet another stage of the Graboids life cycle, Though with no official name seem to be called Dirt Dragons. They are a larval form of the Graboid and are quite fast.

   My favorite character is Burt Gummer. If you have not seen the movies think Gun Nut who is constantly prepared for the worst and has the resources to be prepared. He is in the first three movies and his great-grandfather Hiram Gummer is in the forth.

   El Blanco is an important Graboid and the only given an actual name. Because of Graboids being endangered species it allows the residents of Perfection to keep out a greedy developer who was trying to turn the valley into a bunch of "ranchets" in the third movie.

   If the reviews seems a little sparse on details and names its because even though they are not exactly new movies I tried to keep the spoilers down to a minimum. Also there is a Television series for Tremors that takes up right where the third movie leaves off and I quite enjoy it as well but I didn't just watch it so will be left out of this review.

   To wrap up I rate them as some of my all time favorites. There is a bit of cussing if the Graboid's third form didn't tip you off so not quite children friendly and all the films but the third are rated PG13 (the  third ironically managing a PG rating). The cussing is generally appropriate for the situation so it doesn't lessen the experience of the film. I highly advise these movies to any one who is old enough.