Product: Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)
Rating: 4.0
These Ain't Tequila Worms!
Back when Tremors 2 came out I was a bit surprised. The movie just seemed to come out of nowhere, it had very little promotion(I do still have the poster). It was straight to video, but I was quite excited-so excited in fact that I dragged my butt out of bed to be down at the grocery/video store by 6AM. Unfortunately, one of the schmuck employees must have beat me to it coz I didn't get to see it that day.Anyhow, how does it measure up? Pretty good actually. Original Tremors co-screenwriter, Steve Wilson now steps into the director's chair. Because it's essentially the same writing and producing team, the film has the same kind of feel and humor of the first movie. This time around, the Graboids have turned up in a Mexican oil field and ol' handyman Earl(Fred Ward returning) is hired to kill them. Naturally Kevin Bacon isn't on board this time around and this is explained as his character having gotten the same proposition to kill Graboids but refusing coz he'd gotten married and wants nothing to do with Graboids anymore. So, Earl is given a new sidekick to bounce one liners off of in the form of a cocky Graboid fan named Grady(Christopher Gartin). The chemistry between the two isn't nearly as good as it was with Ward and Bacon, but Gartin is likable enough. Once at the oil field, Earl and Grady successfully bag a bunch of Graboids, but there are a lot more than just four like the first film. So they enlist the help of Burt Gummer(Michael Gross returning), who's bummed out and bored after his wife left him(a way to explain Reba McEntire's absence). Helen Shaver also shows up as a scientist who becomes Earl's love interest. So, this new crew easily dispatch a bunch of Graboids with weaponry supplied by the Mexican army. Soon, they find themselves facing a new threat. The Tremors movies would begin a trend of introducing new creatures to keep things a bit fresh. In this case the Graboids give birth to mini two-legged Graboid things that walk above ground. They're about the size of a large dog and can only see body heat much in the same way as the Predator does. They remind me of the mouse-like chomper robots from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. CGI is introduced to the series here. Fortunately it's only used very sparingly when the mini Graboids run or jump. Otherwise they're decent looking puppet creatures. These creatures take up the second half of the film. The original Graboids make a complete exit about an hour into the film and our gang is left to deal with the land walking creatures.Now, a direct to video sequel made in 1995 that's missing one of it's original stars could have been a big stinker. But through a good story and some funny moments courtesy of the original writing team and good monster FX, this ends up being a very worthy sequel. Sure, it's not as good as the first film, but working with what they have, I'd say they pulled it off wonderfully. And if you watch any of the straight to video Hellraiser or Prophecy films of the last few years, it'll become all the more apparent on just how much of a good job was done on Tremors 2. Well worth it.