Tremors (1990)
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Two handymen and a group of residents must defend their isolated desert town against giant, subterranean worms.
The story
In the isolated desert town of Perfection, Nevada, handymen Valentine "Val" McKee and Earl Bassett decide to leave for the nearby town of Bixy after growing dissatisfied with their work. Before they can depart, they discover a resident dead and soon realize they are not alone. A series of mysterious deaths and a rockslide that blocks the only road out of town force the men to warn the local residents. They soon discover that the threat comes from the ground itself, as they face a mysterious, subterranean creature that has begun to hunt the inhabitants of the desert community.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Handymen Val and Earl find a man dead and realize a predator is stalking the desert. After a rockslide blocks the road, they find the phone lines are dead and a snake-like creature attacks their truck. They ride to the nearby town of Bixy but are intercepted by a massive, burrowing, worm-like creature known as a Graboid. They are joined by Rhonda, a student studying seismic activity, who identifies multiple creatures. The group realizes the Graboids hunt by sensing vibrations. They return to Perfection to warn the residents, but the creatures attack, forcing everyone onto rooftops. While a survivalist couple, Burt and Heather, manage to kill one Graboid in their basement, the others must find a way to survive. The survivors eventually use a track loader to reach the mountains, but are trapped in a sinkhole. They ultimately lure the Graboids into consuming homemade pipe bombs. Val uses the final explosive to drive the last Graboid over a cliff, ending the immediate threat.
- Original title
- Beneath Perfection
- First release year
- 1990
- Runtime (minutes)
- 96
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Ron Underwood
- Cast and characters
- Kevin Bacon · Val; Fred Ward · Earl Bassett; Finn Carter · none; Michael Gross · Burt; Reba McEntire · none
- Genres
- monster movie; comedy horror; science fiction
- Themes
- survival; man vs. nature
- Tone and mood
- humorous; tense; adventure
- Premise and plot tags
- monster movie; desert; survival
- Source material / true-story basis
- Original script
- Franchise connections
- Tremors
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who described it as an affectionate and entertaining update of 1950s monster films. While it underperformed at the box office, it developed a cult following through the video rental market and is highly regarded in retrospective reviews.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 88% · scale: percentage · review count: 56; Metacritic · score: 65 · scale: 100 · review count: 13
- Production trivia
- The film was designed around ordinary protagonists rather than conventional genre heroes.; The music was significantly revised during post-production.; The role of Walter Chang was originally written as a Vietnamese character.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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