Every now and then a movie comes along which defies all your expectations. On the face of it, Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, plus a cast of TV actors, filming giant worms in the small town of Perfection, Nevada doesn’t seem like it leaves any room for manoeuvre. And to be honest, there’s no great ambition on the part of the film-makers – no Romero-style political subtext, no revolutionary special effects, nothing. However, the movie succeeds wildly in its only aim, which is to entertain its audience.

As a result, it built up tremendous word of mouth during its initial cinema release, enough to make me drag along several sceptical friends back in 1990, and no-one was disappointed.  It’s a pleasant surprise that Tremors has maintained its reputation, and still looks good today, as can be seen from its frequent appearances on TV.

So what’s the secret? First time director Ron Underwood learns from the classics (and particularly Jaws) by gradually revealing the monster, keeping the audience guessing about the nature of the of the peril, while keeping the goofy characters pitched at exactly the right level of cartoonish earnestness. Bacon and Ward are great fun as our heroes, making the most of the best lines along with romantic interest Finn Carter, and even getting laughs out of sewage spill jokes.

To be honest, I expected a movie that would appeal to film geeks only, along the lines of Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps, and to be fair there are plenty of in-jokes including the appearances of reliable genre veterans such as Victor Wong and Dee Wallace Stone. However all the cast keep admirably straight faces, and Michael Gross and Reba McEntire (in her first movie role) enthusiastically chew the scenery as a survivalist couple relishing the chance to use some of their usually redundant firepower.

The effects are surprisingly good, if not quite as gory as you might expect by today’s standards, and the Nevada scenery is nicely photographed in western style by Alexander Gruszynski. The regular use of strong language may stop Tremors being the ideal family film, but for anyone over 12 it’s a must-see. Many monster movies have attempted the combination of scares and laughs but very few have been so perfectly pitched between the two.

Mild Peril Rating:

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