USA Today
"...Filmgoers ravenous for classic scares should wiggle over to TREMORS. Not since ALIEN has there been a creature feature that so well honors the genre, plus throws in some squirm-producing twists..." 01/19/1990 p.1DEntertainment Weekly
"...A small, sardonic gem....Ward and Bacon make a marvelous Mutt-and-Jeff team..." -- Rating: B 04/12/1996 pp.74-5 Los Angeles Times
"...A jocular good-time monster movie with surprises up its sleeve..." 01/19/1990 p.F10 Sight and Sound
"...Engaging....The film benefits from laconic, salt-of-the-earth performances from Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon..." 03/01/2001 p.66 Total Film
"...A great cast and a cheek full of tongue help to make this one of the most enjoyable monster movies since they were old enough to be ironic..." 04/01/2001 p.105 Total Film
"TREMORS is a horror film with a heart; a monster movie with magic....It's a B-movie that has transcended its humble goal to entertain us -- instead, it's entranced us." 06/01/2006 p.134 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "A cult B-movie creature feature....TREMORS is a hell of a lot of fun, a suspense-filled treat..." 04/01/2008 p.71 Variety 8 of 10
An affectionate send-up of schlocky 1950s monster pics, but with better special effects, Tremors has a few clever twists but ultimately can't decide what it wants to be - flat-out funny, which it's not, or a scarefest...In this case, the threat comes in the form of four house trailer-sized worm-creatures, with multiple serpent like tongues, that tunnel underground before bursting up to devour human prey...All the conventions of the genre are here: a small town in the middle of nowhere isolated from outside help, with a scientist on hand to study strange seismic phenomena. After that, however, the scripters begin to play with those cliches. The scientist, for example, is a pretty young woman (Finn Carter) who doesn't know where the monsters come from or understand why everyone keeps asking her to explain, while the heroes - handyman types Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward - carry on like Curly and Larry in search of Moe...The pacing and action improve considerably as the film goes on, maintaining a tongue-in-cheek approach while the situation becomes more dire.
DVD Verdict 9 of 10
Tremors is unabashedly goofy nonsense, and I mean that in the very best sense. Val, Earl, and all the rest aren't characters so much as walking, talking stereotypes. The characters are a scream because the actors know that playing them as anything else but deadly serious would be fatal to the film; as a result, Bacon, Ward, Gross, and the rest play their characters and deliver their outrageous dialogue with a complete deadpan sincerity that helps to sell the insanity going on around them. Gross in particular goes the extra mile, breaking with his established television persona. I can remember seeing Tremors for the first time years ago and being shocked that this was the same Michael Gross, famous for playing Michael J. Fox's caring, reasonable, liberal, ex-hippie dad on Growing Pains...Tremors is a blast, a nice little horror/comedy that dishes a solid helping of lowbrow laughs along with some surprisingly skillful suspense. It's good Saturday afternoon popcorn fun, nothing more, nothing less. It's also been my mom's favorite movie for years. Given that it has now generated three direct-to-video sequels, there must be a few others out there who love it as well. - Erick Harper
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