Movies I Love, Part XV: Tremors

“This valley is just one long smorgasbord.”

So says Valentine McKee, a character which happens to be a guy. And happens to be played by Kevin Bacon, all six degrees of him.

And that of which he speaks are these thirty foot long underground snakes — “suckoids,” one character calls them — plaguing the town of Perfection, Nebraska and its surroundings. The snakes are voracious, consuming people and animals and anything that gets in the way. Like cars and buildings.

As you can tell, it’s up to Bacon and Fred Ward as Earl Bassett and Reba McEntire as Heather Gummer to save the town.

Dead bodies are discovered. There is tension. There is lust. There are laughs. Lots of laughs.

It’s interesting that some reviewers consider this a straight up horror movie. In the 50′s sense, which means palpable monsters trying to overtake the decent citizenry of a small town. There’s the scientist, the love interest. You know the deal.

I say this is all done with a sly grin and significant panache. Sure, it works as a somewhat scary movie. Until you consider the whole deal and revel in its absurdity. It’s all satire. It’s all good. Brilliant perhaps.

The bon mots just keep on coming: “No tracks, no sign, no spoor… you’d think after eating all those sheep they’d have to take a dump some place.” That would be Michael Gross as Burt Gummer offering a salient observation on the situation.

You get the idea. So you’re at the video store and you’re looking for something easy and enjoyble. You could do a lot worse than “Tremors.”