#and as someone who grew up with Family Ties you KNOW Burt Gummer is my boy I love him

[saucy-mesothelioma]

October 9th: Creature Feature | Tremors

Tremors was released in 1990 and was directed by Ron Underwood. Two repairmen, Val McKee (played by Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward), are ready to move on to bigger things than what can be found in their small town of Perfection, Nevada. But when mysterious deaths start occurring and a local seismologist named Rhonda (Finn Carter) begins to get strange readings, their trip gets put on hold. With the help of other locals such as cattle rancher Miguel Sanchez (Tony Genaro) and the libertarian doomsday-survivalist couple Heather (Reba McEntire) and Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), they must not only figure out what is killing of their neighbors but also figure out how to put a stop to it.

Tremors doesn't get as much love as it should, which is an absolute shame. In my opinion, it is probably one of if not the best B horror flicks of all time. The reason I picked Tremors out of all of the Creature Features is not just from the creatures themselves (called graboids), but for the fact that it's a smart movie pretending to be a dumb one. The characters are smart: they come up with plans and if one fails, they quickly brainstorm to think of another. The audience is allowed to speculate alongside the heroes as they learn more about the graboids and how they work, and the fact that the characters make pretty rational decisions gives such a sense of justification. It's funny, well-shot, and the creatures are entirely practical, and that makes Tremors an absolute gem of a movie.

It can be watched for free on Internet Archive.

Content Warnings for the Film (may contain spoilers): slight objectification of women (really only in the first part of the movie), violence, monster gore (it's orange though, just looks like pumpkins because it was), humans being eaten (not really graphic), dead animals (only aftermath shown)

Once more, get ready for some behind the scenes info because the practical effects in this movie are STUNNING.

The graboids were designed by Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis and this film was actually the first one their company Amalgamated Dynamics worked on (you might recognize them from Death Becomes Her, Sam Rami's Spider-Man films, the original Jumanji, IT, Alien 3, and Smile). The design was based off of snapping turtles, slugs, and rhinos, and were completely done with practical effects in the first film (although CGI with some practical effects would be used to varying levels in the later films). For their movement underground, boat buoys in a dirt trench covered by a layer of latex rubber was used, and the graboid guts were made of cotton batting stuffed in pantyhose that was then covered in slime and pumpkin pie filling. Since the graboids were so large, quarter scale models were seamlessly blended with full scale ones in order to get all of the shots they wanted, as well as a mixture of animatronics and puppets (both cable and hand). Tom Woodruff Jr actually puppeteered the full sized graboid named Stumpy from underground, with only an oxygen tank and flashlight down there with him. What a fucking king. Also fun fact, Arianna Richards plays the pogo-stick girl named Mindy, who is best known for her role as Lex Murphy in Jurassic Park.

If you want to see some of the Behind the Scenes footage, here's some great videos talking and showing the process behind it.

Y'all it's so beautiful I can't