We’re all shook up on the Film After 11 podcast this week as we tackle director Ron Underwood’s 1990 horror comedy Tremors. The movie wasn’t much of a box office hit during its theatrical run, but quickly grew into a cult classic on home video. My son Thomas has taken an interest in horror movies lately, most of which are R-rated and I’d rather not do on the podcast just yet. This one proved perfect, as it’s only PG-13 and is a ton of fun.
I reviewed Tremors myself in early 2024, which you can read at the link below. I don’t especially have anything new or insightful to say, except that Kevin Bacon’s love interest here (played by an actress named Finn Carter) reminds me an awfully lot of Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead. Maybe that’s just me.
| Title: | Tremors |
| Year of Release: | 1990 |
| Director: | Ron Underwood |
| Watched On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray Paramount+ Fubo TV Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
As I said, I already reviewed this movie, along with its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release from Arrow Video, back in 2024. My feelings on the disc haven’t changed any, so I’ll just copy/paste most of the text from that here, with very minor editing for context and an update to the audio section:
The remastered transfer is credited as a “New 4K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Ron Underwood and director of photography Alexander Grusynski.” Without question, it’s a huge improvement over the older, very dated Blu-ray from Universal. Once you get past the opening credits footage, which is a bit blurry due to the optical composites, the majority of the movie is decently sharp, sometimes quite impressively so, without any noticeable edge enhancement or other artificial sharpening artifacts.
On the other hand, grain texture is often very coarse and distracting, especially in shots against the sky (the movie has plenty of those) and dark scenes. The HDR grading of the 1.85:1 image is quite bright, which seems appropriate enough for a story that takes place mostly in daytime in a hot desert environment, but has very flat contrast. To be fair, Tremors was a fairly low-budget production and that may just be a factor of the film stocks used.
Arrow provides the movie’s soundtrack in three flavors: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, 4.0, or remixed 5.1 surround. I flipped around a bit between them and honestly didn’t hear a lot of audible difference. The music has nice fidelity and breadth across the front soundstage. Gunshots are loud and deliver a satisfying crack, though the monster attacks and other sound effects are often limited by the film’s budget and age.
Previously, I had focused on the 2.0 track, which is prioritized in the disc menus.This time I went with the 4.0 option. Realistically, both are valid ways of representing the theatrical Dolby Stereo mix. In addition to what I said above, the 4.0 has some pretty effective directional panning both left and right and to the surround channel. (Dolby Stereo had three channels across the front and a mono surround.) To be fair, the 2.0 track may do that as well, but it’s been two years since I watched it that way and I don’t recall specifically. In any case, I enjoyed the 4.0 this time.
Even without the second disc, supplements on the main disc are plentiful enough. Items new to Arrow include two audio commentaries, a half-hour making-of documentary, three interviews totaling about 45 minutes, featurettes on the visual effects (21 min.) and music (14 min.), and about 16 minutes of before-and-after clips from the TV overdubs for censored profanity.
After that are the archival features: a 44-minute making-of doc from Laurent Bouzereau, 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes creature effects footage, 5 minutes of deleted scenes, a bunch of brief Electronic Press Kit featurettes and actor profiles, trailers, TV spots, radio spots, and image galleries.
- Tremors
- Sandworms
- Kevin Bacon
- Fred Ward
Note: All screenshots on this page were grabbed off a web browser, and came out looking much softer than the physical media edition. They are used for illustration purposes only.
The Video File Blog 
Great pick. I saw this one with the family when it was released theatrically. Just a well made highly entertaining movie. You can always watch the Poltergeist remake since you already saw the original, it’s available in 3D. Have you done any 3D viewing with them? I believe the Grudge and The Ring remakes are pg-13 and those are quite frightening. Maybe a little too much. Critters, Killer Klowns from Outerspace, and Ghoulies II are some childhood favorites that he may enjoy.
LikeLike