This 1990 comedy horror works because the two leads, Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, are so much fun to watch. They play a couple of good ole boys who are handymen in the town of Perfection, Nevada. It’s a crappy little town in a valley and there only seems to be about six residents. When people start turning up dead, it falls on Bacon and Ward to save the day.
Tremors is a throwback to the 1950’s giant monster movie trend. Not the super giant, walking on cities type of monster but the maybe mutated from radiation and is terrorizing the townsfolk kind of monster movie. The monsters in this film happen to be an underground worm-like creature that tunnels under it’s victims and pulls them into the ground.
True story. When the movie first came out way back in my youth, I went to see it with my friends at the once popular and now empty lot Cornet Theatre on Albert Street. It was opening weekend and we went Sunday night. The theatre was moderately full. The film started no problem. The first death, the town drunk was found up on a power line and the scene went past without incident. The second death, a farmer with sheep happened quickly after. Bacon and Ward are driving past the farm and notice something is amiss. They approach the farm and notice pieces of sheep everywhere and the farmer’s hat is sitting on the ground. The music gets ominous. Bacon gets closer, leans in to pick up the hat and bam! The power goes out for half the city. The theatre is completely dark and someone screams and leaves. How they left I have know idea, it was pitch black in the theatre. And then the emergency lighting kicks in blinding everyone. Half an hour later the power kicks and the film resumes, unfortunately the projectionist didn’t bother rewinding a little and we missed what was under the hat. I could guess but it was sometime later before I saw the complete, uninterrupted film.
