January marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Tremors, a monster movie cult classic starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. The film follows residents in the small town of Perfection who are terrorized by giant worm-like creatures underground called Graboids.
I’ve probably watched Tremors at least a dozen times late at night on TNT. Is it a low-budget knock-off of Jaws? Yes, but it’s still a lot of fun thanks to the chemistry between Bacon and Ward. The cool early ‘90s special effects aren’t bad, either.
Even Tremors II: Aftershocks is a decent sequel worth checking out. After the third movie, though, I lost interest. But apparently a lot of people haven’t because the original has spawned six sequels with number seven currently in the works.
The one constant throughout the series has been Michael Gross as the gun-toting Burt Gummer (was Gunner too on the nose?) who hunts Graboids. He’s of course returning for the new sequel and while speaking with JoBlo, the star revealed that Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) has joined the movie playing sidekick to Gross’ Gummer. In addition to Heder, Jackie Cruz of Orange is the New Black fame is also onboard.
Tremors: Island Fury (working title) will revolve around a rich playboy who brings Graboids to a remote island to hunt the creatures for sport. Any further plot details are sparse, but Gross did tell Comicbook.com recently that he was already thinking about Tremors: Island Fury while making the last movie, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell:
“I was having ideas about that while we were still doing Tremors 6,” he said. “Yes, absolutely I have ideas. I’m not at liberty to divulge them to you or I’d have to kill you. But yeah. My little brain is cooking about just what’s the next evolution of him, what does he have to face next, and what does he need, what does he want, and how do the monsters change, too, if they do. Where do we take this next? So it’s very much a part of my thought.”
Gross is clearly still loving the Tremors franchise and while it may have entered Sharknado territory, there’s obviously some juice still left in this 30-year-old series.