Day 7 - Tremors | 31 Days of Halloween
Day seven of The 31 Days of Halloween with Bark Knight Media is Creature Feature Day, and there is truly no better comfort-pick for this category than Tremors.
This is one of those movies that quietly (or loudly in some cases) defined my taste as a kid. If you grew up loving creature features, practical effects, and small-town chaos, there’s a good chance Tremors did some foundational work on your brain chemistry. It’s the kind of movie that feels effortless in how fun it is, even though everything about it is actually really tightly constructed.
The cast is pretty much perfect. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward have pitch perfect buddy-comedy chemistry, and the supporting cast elevate every single scene. Michael Gross as Burt Gummer is obviously iconic at this point, but even the smaller roles are memorable. And yes, Victor Wong showing up as Walter Chang is one of those “that guy!” moments that instantly makes the movie feel richer and more lived-in. He’s featured in many of my childhood favorites such as Big Trouble in Little China and 3 Ninjas and one of my favorites as an adult with Prince of Darkness.
The practical effects are still top tier, making the graboids feel real in a way that a lot of modern creature features struggle with. There’s a weight and physicality to them that sells the threat even when you’re not seeing the full creature. The movie also understands the power of suggestion. You don’t always need to see the monster when the ground exploding beneath someone is already doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
It’s also easy to overlook the body count. The scene-after-scene of random townspeople getting picked off is handled in such a fun yet still terrifying way. It perfectly balances the two without ever losing the tension. The movie strikes that rare balance where it’s scary without being mean-spirited and funny without turning into parody. The sequels would abandon all scares and fall squarely into the parody catagory.
There are so many little moments in this film that have stuck with me over the years. Nester trying to survive by hiding on top of a tire is still laugh-out-loud funny. The shot of the CAT collapsing into the pit honestly looks a lot more dangerous for Burt’s stunt double than I had remembered. Then there’s the “sunscreen” (Zinc Ioxide) on the noses. I had to look up why this was a thing in this era because I had absolutely no reference point for it. And finally, the endless one-liners. Every time I rewatch Tremors, I catch another small background gag or visual bit that reminds me of just how carefully this movie was constructed.
What really makes Tremors special is how insanely creative it is with such a simple concept: monsters underground. That’s it. That’s the pitch. And yet, the movie wrings every possible scenario out of that idea. The way each attack is staged, the way the survivors problem-solve in real time, the escalating creativity of how people avoid touching the ground. It all feels clever from start to finish. The script constantly asks, “Okay, how would this realistically play out?” and then answers that question in the most entertaining way possible.
Let’s be real: Kevin Bacon’s final hoedown moment is one of the all-time great creature-feature victory beats. It’s maybe the second-best “we finally got the monster” line in movie history behind Jaws. “Can you fly, you sucker?! Can you fly?!” is an all-time classic.
If you somehow haven’t seen Tremors yet, please fix that immediately. It’s funny, it’s tense, it’s endlessly rewatchable, and it’s one of the purest examples of a creature feature done right.
And, during my rewatch for this piece, my wife remarked that, after seeing the film for the first time, she felt like she somehow knew me better. That this feature had more impact on my personality than I had realized.
It’s always interesting to see how people perceive you based on your taste in movies, and how the movies we watch growing up can endlessly impact and define us and our personalities.
Tremors was one of those for me it seems.
Keep following along and join me tomorrow for Day 8’s theme: Possession.
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