'Tremors' is again a film I've grown up being very aware of, yet had no desire whatsoever to give any of my time to. Add to that the ever grown list of dreadful straight to video sequels that have been released over the years, it is not hard to see why this is a franchise that's has been avoided. Kevin Bacon is at the forefront of this film and is an actor I have always been a fan of, even given his rather exaggerated performance here. In all fairness though, I feel that is in part due to the scrambled tone and direction of the film. Bacon shares the lead role status with Fred Ward, an actor I'm not too familiar with. And although I'm not entirely sure of the on screen relationship between Bacon and Ward, there is no denying their chemistry is impeccable and very entertaining to watch. The remaining cast are very much bit players with limited screen and there they to fill out the small population of the town, aptly named 'Perfection'. The over ground POV camera work used throughout this film is really shoddy and illogical. Considering the creature spends most of the time underground, it makes little to no logical sense to feature it. What annoyed me further about this is how great the camera work and cinematography is when we get the brief glimpses of the creature burrowing through underground tunnel systems. The score for this is not tonally suited to this film. It is really country hick sounding and, although categorised as a comedy, it just felt like it was too far towards a kids Disney cartoon from the early 90's. It didn't sit well with me and I found it rather infuriating to listen to. Thankfully, things do take a more serious tone with the score once the character exposition is out if the way, and it feels much more 80's slasher centric and very reminiscent of that from a 'Friday the 13th' film. This style of score certainly suited the tone of the film a lot better than what we were introduced to early on. The gore and practical effects work here is a lot more graphic than I expected it to be, considering this falls under a 12a rating. And, although we never really see anyone get massacred by the creatures (Graboid) on screen, the aftermath scenes feature some pretty bloody and well done effects that I'm not sure I would feel comfortable enough to show to a 12 year old. The puppetry and creature design was really creative and genuinely quite impressive. If I didn't know better I would have sworn 'The Jim Henson Company' had involvement in bringing these creatures to life. I was never bored by this film but for one reason or another it just seemed to suffer with pacing. I felt I was constantly time watching and found myself amazed that there were still 40 minutes to go at one point. It was as though we had reached the penultimate moment in the film only for me to find we still had half way to go. Crazily enough though, I actually enjoyed this film more than I maybe should have. It is littered with problems from start to finish, yet holds a certain charm about it that that I couldn't help but love. I can imagine that if I grew up with this film, it would be on a regular rotation for me.
💀💀💀1/2
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