Tremors 4K UHD Review
"Tremors" is the ultimate B-movie creature feature.
Set in the small town of Perfection, Nevada (Population: 14), director Ron Underwood's "Tremors" revolves around 2 handymen (Val and Earl) who are down in the dumps and tired of small town life. They want out, but unfortunately, they find themselves stuck where they are when Perfection becomes terrorized by carnivorous underground dwelling worms (AKA Graboids) that respond to vibrations. Can Val, Earl, a seismologist grad student (Rhonda) and the local townspeople (including survivalists Burt and his wife Heather) survive the Graboids?
As someone with an affinity for horror comedy, I can tell you that it's extremely hard to pull off a good horror comedy. 1990's "Tremors" is a prime example of horror comedy done right. On the horror side, you have an original monster with the Graboids that can eat you alive from below ground. On the comedy side, you have a fun script by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock that is filled with memorable eccentric characters and one liners that fans continually quote.
Moreover, the first (and still best in the franchise) "Tremors" is just a fun and timeless monster movie that still holds up to this day. The practical creature FX give viewers a sense of a real threat, there's a real sense of place and location (an isolated location at that) and there's a real sense of community amongst the characters. Basically, all of these elements gel so well together in a tight 96 minutes.
Of course, the cast goes a long way in making this gem work wonders. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward have great chemistry together and play so well off of one another (and others). The same goes for Michael Gross and Reba McIntire who are a survivalist husband and wife team. There's a lot of memorable supporting performances here too from Victor Wong, Ariana Richards, and Finn Carter.
Presentation: 1.85:1 2160p. How does it look? Having seen this film countless times before on numerous formats, I can easily say this is the best the film has ever looked. The level of clarity in the skyline and desert locations is nothing short of astonishing.
Audio Track: 2.0 DTS-HD MA (original theatrical track), 4.0 Surround and 5.1 Surround. How do they sound? Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of the tracks here. They all deliver satisfying audio experiences.
* A double-sided mini-poster and a larger double-sided poster.
* A booklet with credits, an essay by film critic Kim Newman, an original press kit, photos, an essay by Marc Shapiro from "Fangoria," and a piece on the Tremors franchise by author Jonathan Melville.
* Blu-ray copy
* A faux coupon for Walter Chang's Market and lobby cards.
* A free 30 day trial for the Arrow streaming service
* 2 commentary tracks. One by Ron Underwood, Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson and the other by Jonathan Melville.
* 2 theatrical trailers, radio spots, TV spots, VHS promo and Tremors franchise trailers
* Production stills, behind the scenes, laserdisc, screenplay (draft 6 and 8b), storyboards and posters and video artwork image galleries
* Electronic press kit
* 4 deleted scenes
* "Pardon My French!"- A 16 minute compilation of TV overdubs of profanity
* Featurettes on the score, visual effects
* Separate interviews with producer Ellen Collett, cinematographer Alexander Gruszynski, and co-producer Nancy Roberts.
* An archival making of featurette
* A "Creature Featurette" containing on set footage.
* A brand new 31 minute documentary titled "Making Perfection" which covers the original film, the locations, the fans, the franchise and contains a host of interviews with cast members. This is the highlight of the extra features.
* On the Blu-ray there are the following extras- Extended interviews from "Making Perfection" with Ron Underwood, S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Nancy Roberts and Alec Gillis, a gag reel with intro and commentary or with original audio, a 2015 Q&A from the ArcLight Hollywood with cast and crew and author Jonathan Melville (pre-film and post-films Q&A sessions),
* 3 short films including S.S. Wilson's horror-comedy "Recorded Live," Brent Maddock's educational "Dictionary: The Adventure of Words," and Ron Underwood's educational "Library Report."
December 22, 2020 - Posted by nicklyons1 | 4K UHD Review | Arrow Video, B-Movie, Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Reba McIntire, Tremors, Tremors 4K Review, Tremors Movies