Thunder Downunder?

Tremors poster

Tremors (US-1990; dir. Ron Underwood) remains one of my favourite monster movies. With perfect casting, a beautifully structured and often witty script, great physical SFX, likeable characters and a general air of affable terror, it captures the essence of a particular kind of monster movie — monstrous but not horrendous, thrilling but not threatening … the sort of monster film you emerge from feeling exhilarated but not traumatised. I’m not against being cinematically traumatised on occasion, but sometimes there’s value in well-constructed, humanistic bonhomie, too.

Naturally the film’s success led to a series of sequels (four to date) of diminishing effect, most of which lost the essential spirit of the first. There was a TV series, too.

Now there’s a rumour that we might be in for a fifth film, re-located to Australia. Makes sense to me, as an Australian. There’s a lot of desert and other “outback” openness on this island continent — and there’s nothing a Graboid on the prowl likes better than open, desolate space … with dinner walking around in it.

Tremors pic 1

Dump a few travellers in the middle of the Australian landscape and they’re dinner. Maybe these Graboids have taken to prowling the long stretches of highway between eastern Australia and Perth. Maybe all that space has allowed them to grow very very big. The possibilities are endless.

Did I mention that the rumoured name of the new film is Tremors: The Thunder from Downunder?

If you’re one of the sad people of the Earth who don’t know what a Graboid is, here is a rather detailed maquette, though it doesn’t illustrate their full giant-wormy length:

Tremors Groaboid maquette

Oh, and yes, they evolved

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8 Responses to Thunder Downunder?

  1. John says:

    I used to work at a concert hall and saw Reba McEntire several times in the late 90’s. She had a prop hidden in the front of the stage – – one of the Tremor worms would pop out during the concert and wave around.

  2. Avery says:

    ^WOW!! Now that sounds fun. I’m pretty excited about this new addition to the series. I’m a big fan of the entire series. It’s one of the only horror series to where I’ve liked every part. Each one a little less than the previous one, but still I think they’ve done a great job of making each new entry stand out on it’s own. I definitely look forward to this one and what better place to film it in then Australia?! It just makes total sense.

  3. Backbrain says:

    I’m not a big fan of country and western, but I thought Reba was excellent in the role and the end theme she sang captured the mood of the film so well. As I suggested in the article, all the casting was just right and that in part is what made it so special. I couldn’t imagine anyone else in any of the roles. That doesn’t happen often.

  4. Todd says:

    I’m not a big C&W fan either, but Reba is definitely the “real deal” and that came through in the first (and best) TREMORS. I like Burt Gummer too, but it’s a shame they couldn’t have continued developing this couple throughout the rest of the series.

    It would be fun & interesting to see an Australian equivalents to Reba and Burt (without being cookie-cutter) in the new TREMORS movie. Any suggestions out there?

  5. Mr Teufel says:

    This sounds like fun. I liked Tremors.

    (They should spell the Aussie version “Tremours”!)

  6. Jonathan says:

    With all the movies of Tremors, the first has to the best. I know the budget was good with first movie. But the computerized graboids , shriekers , and the ass blasters in the other movies didn’t appeal to a lot of the fans. Get rid of the computer and get back to hard work and stop taking clips from past movies . Bring back reality to the story, it would help to make more money and maybe bring back the fans. Us as fans want slow stages to a movie that will keep you guessing til the end. If this movie happens , Don’t make it look fake .

  7. Pingback: Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) | All Films Blog

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