Tremors (1990) Hungry? Eat Some Bacon! |

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Natsukashi Podcast: Charlotte Stewart (Tremors actress)

There’s nothing like getting sprayed with someone else’s crap to make you rethink what you’re doing in life! That’s all it took for Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) to finally decide to leave Perfection, Nevada; but, it was just “one damn day too late.” Dum Dum Dum.

Tremors is a good old fashioned sci-fi comedy flick with a very good cast. It’s got Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Reba McEntire, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, and Charlotte Stewart. There’s only a handful of special effects but lots of stuff to make you scream, and laugh, and go ewww.

Earl (Fred Ward) and Val, (Kevin Bacon) who doesn't ever think ahead.

Watching it for the umpteenth time, I was actually surprised by how much action it really had. The action is paced all throughout the movie, and then super concentrated at the end. You get explosions and lots of kills, with both humans and monsters getting killed off alike. You even get to see a lot of shots of the Graboids (the monsters of the movie, the ones causing all the… Tremors!) It’s not like Cloverfield, where they keep you guessing what the monster looks like and only give you snippets here and there. No, they made the Graboids so I guess they wanted to show off their handy work. And they are freaky, and gooey and just…gorgeous.

So if anyone listened to the podcast at Natsukashi, you know that I always watched the edited version of Tremors growing up. I had my own recorded copy off of the TV on VHS. I have the edited version memorized. I didn’t try to memorize it, it just happened. I know you think I am soo cool right now but wait, it gets better. I bet I know a good 90% of the lines, just ask my friends, they can attest to that fact all too well. So what!?! I’m a dork about Tremors, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m comfortable enough with myself to admit that…don’t judge me. Anyway, the point is that the edited version is so hilarious. I never noticed until I saw the regular PG-13 version but there was some very poor editing going on. Well, it was back in the 90’s so what do you expect? Here are some examples (edited version first, uncensored version second): “We run like the darn blazes, pardon my French.” “We run like GD Bast****, pardon my French.” “Where is that little snot stain.” “Where is that little sh** stain.” “Fault you.” “FU.” “We killed that big monster.” “We killed that mother humper.” And then there’s the line in Best Graboid Kill (see below). It’s one of my edited favorites. I really wish that I still had that VHS because even if it came on tv today, they would not edit it like they did back then. And there’s so many more! It’s great because in most of the cases you can so obviously tell what they are saying by reading their lips. And then there’s the different tone of voice. But I guess it worked on me as a little kid because I was constantly quoting the edited version, not the real one.

Our heroes ponder a change in careers.

Time until the action starts: ~ 15 min

Bad guys: Graboids: Ernie, Francesca, Stinky, and Reginald P. Wigglebottom

Best Line: “Cold my ass, he’s dead. We killed it! F**** you! HA HA!!!”

And just because I love it when Michael Gross says this:

Best Michael “Family Ties” Gross Line: “Hungry? Eat this!!!” <==That’s one that you really have to hear the delivery on to get just why I love it so much.

Best Human Kill: Poor Walter 🙁 What did he ever do to deserve this? So everyone is inside the store thinking that the Graboids can’t come through the floors. Well, a machine starts making a lot of noise and just as Val, Earl, and Walter unplug the machine, a Graboid bursts up through the floor! Everyone is stunned! Then the “snake things” reach out and hook into Walter’s back and start pulling him in. He is screaming, everyone else is screaming to “grab’em, grab’em!!!” It shows poor Walter being sucked in alive and being thrashed around from side to side. Then the Graboid disappears underground with Walter still screaming. Shiver.

Best Graboid Kill: After they figure out that the Graboids come through the floor, they are trying to warn Bert and Heather, but they just don’t believe them…until it’s too late. A Graboid busts all up in Bert and Heather’s basement. After a few seconds of being shocked, they quickly regain their composure and start hammering that freakin’ Graboid, whom I affectionately refer to as Ernie. It pans out and you see a wall of guns behind Bert and Heather. That’s when you really know the crap just hit the fan. So Bert really starts giving it to Ernie, in the face, in the mouth, in the head. No place is safe from the rifle of Bert Gummer. Heather gets in on the action too. You would never look at Heather and think that she was that kind of woman, but she is a gun wielding freak and it is awesome. I love it. They put so many holes in Ernie that … even 50 Cent was like damn, that’s a lot of bullet holes. In the words of Bert, “Broke into the wrong gosh darn rec room, didn’t ya, you big jerk” (edited version).

Best explosion: At the final showdown, there’s still 2 Graboids left and the gang come up with a brilliant idea to kill them, “Going fishing like”. So…skipping ahead, they end up with a bomb tied to a rope and dragging it across the ground. The graboid, the more stupid one, Stinky, swallows the bomb. When it explodes it blows a huge chuck up from the gound and obliterates Stinky. Some of the guts are sprayed onto the survivors at least a quarter of a mile away, if not more. Then it goes back to the remains of Stinky and it is just a bloody, gory mess. It kinda looks like spaghetti sauce. Mmmmmm.

Action Rating: 3 Graboids decreasin’ Nevada property values, out of 5