{"id":21863,"date":"2020-12-24T16:05:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T00:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=21863"},"modified":"2020-12-24T16:05:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T00:05:42","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-tremors-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=21863","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: TREMORS (1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This 2-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray is currently available from Arrow Video.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back in the early 90s, the popularity of the horror genre was beginning to peter out. Slashers and other scary flicks were still being produced, but weren\u2019t grossing nearly as much as they had in the previous decade. This dip didn\u2019t necessarily have anything to do with the quality of what was being produced. In fact, there were a few great little horror pictures. It just seemed as if an ever-growing percentage of general audiences had begun to lose interest in the genre. One of the unfortunate victims was the 1990 Universal horror\/comedy hybrid, Tremors<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reviewer remembers seeing the flick with family members\nat a theater during its original run. The audience definitely loved what they\nwere witnessing\u2026 it just so happened to be that there weren\u2019t a lot of\nattendees. As a result, the movie underperformed at the box office. Thankfully,\nit did eventually find people on VHS and cable, slowing building a following\nthat grows larger to this day. It may have taken decades for it to find its\naudience, but the movie is now a favorite for many genre fans. When the studio eventually\nreleased the movie on Blu-ray, many were critical of the grainy, problematic transfer.\nThat has all been corrected with Arrow Video\u2019s new 2-disc Limited Edition of Tremors<\/em>.\nThe movie has been given incredible 4K restoration. Frankly, you\u2019ll be blown\naway by the image quality (it looks better here than it did in the cinema) and all\nof the numerous extra features. This is a phenomenal release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For those who have never seen the movie, the plot follows\nVal (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward), a pair of down-on-their-luck handymen living\nin Perfection, Nevada. They\u2019re sick of eking out a living doing odd jobs and\ndecide that it\u2019s finally time to leave the small town for good. However, the\ntwo men are delayed after they discover the body of a local. Soon, others start\ndisappearing and the pair realize that something under the ground is\nresponsible for the deaths\u2026. specifically, worm-like monsters that are dubbed\nGraboids. Teaming with student geologist Rhonda LeBeck (Finn Carter) as well as\nsome very eccentric citizens including a survivalist couple (played by Michael\nGross and Reba McEntire), the town attempts to survive the onslaught and reach\nsafety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting the right tone in a horror\/comedy is difficult, but\nthis movie deftly mixes laughs and thrills in equal measure. Even though a few\ndisturbing things do occur, it\u2019s a fun and frothy movie that harkens back to\nB-movies of the 50s and 60s. The dialogue is very sharp and quirky and the cast\ndo a wonderful job of bring these entertaining characters to life. The two\nleads react in consistently hilarious ways to the horribleness occurring around\nthem and the wide variety of comments from the supporting cast are equally amusing.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie also benefits from the uniqueness of its concept. It\u2019s\na monster movie that takes place mostly in the daylight, with monsters that can\npop out of the soil beneath the leads. The photography is consistently impressive,\nsometimes following the leads with Graboid point-of-view shots with the camera hurtling\ntowards the cast. And when the monsters are shown, they look equally impressive\nand slimy. The practical effects are exceptional and will make some audience\nmembers wonder why this technique is used more frequently today. It all looks fantastic\nand the well-defined characters and original creatures gave the movie an\nunusual and memorable twist on the genre formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it\u2019s remarkable how well everything works. Naturally,\nthat\u2019s largely the reason why the film still has a massive following to this\nday. Knowing that the fan base is sizable, Arrow Video have gone to town with their\nnew Limited Edition. It contains all of the extras that were on the previous\nUniversal release from many years ago, including deleted scenes, a documentary\non the production, star profiles and some behind the scenes. That\u2019s all nice to\nsee, but the added bonuses are even more impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a new documentary on the production with many of the\ncast and crew members (including Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross) reminiscing about\nthe movie, as well as an informative discussion with the co-producer\/agent of writers\/producers\nBrent Maddock & S.S. Wilson and director Ron Underwood. She details the\ndifficulties everyone had in getting the project made and how got the script\ninto the hands of the film\u2019s eventual producer, Gale Anne Hurd (The\nTerminator<\/em>, Aliens<\/em>, Armageddon<\/em>). There are newly recorded\ninterviews with the cinematographer, the associate producer, as well as the\ncomposers. All of these discussions reveal details and insight about the film\nthat this reviewer never knew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are two interesting commentaries (one with\nMaddock, Wilson and Underwood and other with a Tremors <\/em>film historian\nand author of a book on the feature Jonathan Melville). Viewers who watch\nthe bonuses and listen to the tracks will learn that this was one of the last\nstudio flicks to feature nothing but practical effects, including puppets, miniatures\nand matte paintings. They talk about how it forced them to be more creative in\ndepicting the monsters. Several secrets are revealed about the movement of the\nGraboids. To get images of the creature in motion below the ground, the\nproduction team dug trenches, tied a buoy the end of a truck and ran it under\nfilled in dirt to get the impression of the creature moving under the ground. Flying\ndirt and dust during the attack scenes was used to help to help cover up any\nissues with the prosthetic monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the discussions also include issues the studio had with\nthe feature. Universal demanded that extra scenes be shot to explain the origin\nof the monsters. Viewers discover that at one point there was even talk about making\nthem aliens. Then, it became an earthquake that released them (which executives\nbelieved would make the movie more appealing to Japanese audiences). The\nfootage shot didn\u2019t play well was ultimately scrapped. This added material caused\nthe director some frustration, as he felt their very limited budget could have\nbeen used on more important moments in the feature. You\u2019ll also hear about the studio\u2019s\noriginal ideas for casting, which included James Garner in the role that would\neventually be played by Fred Ward. There\u2019s also some material about the\nmarketing and titling of the movie, which continued to change during\nproduction. This unfortunately may have led to some confusion on the part of potential\naudience members that resulting in the movie not initially finding an audience.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The disc also includes two earlier versions of the shooting\nscript, which detail some of the changes and the original ending. It\u2019s all\nfascinating to read and see how elements were added and taken out as the\nproject progressed. And, if that weren\u2019t enough, the Limited Edition set also\nincludes reprints of the movie\u2019s lobby cards as well as other nifty printed material,\nincluding a mini-poster with the original poster art and new image from the\ncover of the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrow Video have really gone above and beyond with this new,\n2-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray of Tremors<\/em>. It\u2019s a really entertaining\npicture that has finally been given the features-packed Blu-ray that it\ndeserves. This is one of the best releases of the year and any fan of the movie\nor with even the slightest interest in the picture should try and pick up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This 2-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray is currently available from Arrow Video. Back in the early 90s, the popularity of the horror genre was beginning to peter out. Slashers and other scary flicks were still being produced, but weren\u2019t grossing nearly as much as they had in the previous decade. This dip didn\u2019t necessarily have anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[123,1832,1836,2923,2928,3067,3073,4660,4989,7582,7896,9319,11613,13787,14197,16755,23241,23562,23571],"class_list":["post-21863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-123","tag-arrow","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-blu-ray","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-comedy","tag-cult-movie","tag-finn-carter","tag-fred-ward","tag-horror","tag-kevin-bacon","tag-michael-gross","tag-monster-movie","tag-reba-mcentire","tag-tremors","tag-universal","tag-universal-pictures"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}