Episode 44-Tremors (1990)

Holy SMOKES Listeners, we've really done it this time. And by "done it," I mean we went and watched a movie from 1990 that isn't very good. Saysha has a lot of affection for it for some reason. Tune in to see if Melanie had any strong emotions or reactions about yet another sand-themed movie. We also ramble about climate change, Las Vegas, prepper culture,  the mating habits of giant worms and Pepsi Vs. Coke products. We sound really high in this episode, but we promise we are NOT!

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Welcome to VHS Sisters, a nostalgic movie podcast with two actual real-life sisters. I'm Melanie and I'm Seisha. Get into some comfy clothes, grab your favorite beverage, and come hang out with us as I forced my little sister to watch all the movies she missed growing up. I cannot believe, first of all, I just want to say this. I cannot believe that when the time came for us to watch this movie, that it wasn't free. This is this is this is a very upsetting thing for me. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because this movie, the movie we're talking about today, folks, we're just gonna hop right in. It's a hot open, just like this movie is has a hot open. Um, we're talking about the fine film from 1990. The movie is called Tremors. And this is this movie. When I when Melanie told me she hadn't seen this movie, I was of course I'm always shocked, but this one was like always on, and I'm talking this was like Beastmaster level. Because this movie famously was a bit of a flop, and then it absolutely boomed on the VHS market, really, yeah, absolutely. So, hi, welcome to VHS Sisters. I'm Seisha, I am Melanie, and I have not seen this movie at all. I really I feel like maybe you've attempted to show it to me in the past, but it it was lost on me. So, I mean, this is one. Did you ask our folks about it? No, but I when I told them the movie that we were gonna be watching, uh my dad started just like ripping off like the actors who are in it, and he's like, Oh, it's a crazy movie, you know. That's like his his review, the end. It's a crazy movie. It it is a crazy movie. It's definitely this is one of the movies out of all of the films that we've reviewed so far. I don't know, we we've done some like low budget ones. This wasn't like no budget, but there's definitely like I don't know, a bit of a made-for-tv quality about it that I I don't dislike. Yeah. What were your what were your feelings uh uh upon this first watch? You can just give me your general review. I never want to live in a place that's so isolated in the desert like terrain. That's just not appealing to me. I it has its like feel, obviously. It's really like niched down as far as like where they are, who these people are. They all know each other. There's like maybe 10 houses in the town, and that's it. And it's like you have Val and Earl, who are the handymen of the town, so like they just survive if something goes wrong, which it seems like a lot of things go wrong in this movie and in this environment. So yeah, I I thought it was not like a soothing watch, but it was something the way it was supposed to be. Wait, wait, wait. Oh, I'm realizing too, like we're kind of starting spooky season early. So we're keeping with our August theme of sand. Yes, but that sorry, I do appreciate that it is kind of like a daytime horror movie. It is a hundred percent a daytime horror. That's such a great take. It's like everything happens in broad daylight. Um, it is not spooky ooky. So we're we're getting horror. This is like this is a movie that has everything. It's horror, it's sci-fi because we have a little bit of a science element, action. There's a little mystery because they're like, What is this? What's going on with these here trammers? Um, also, little bit of romance they threw in. Yeah, yeah, a little bit of romance. I thought that was kind of funny. Um, but it's like, I guess the premise of the movie, not really that there's much of a pro like the idea is like, okay, here's these people who come into town, these um PhD students or whatever are studying the area. So apparently they've had one every year, and then this year it's Rhonda. Yes. And um, just so happens that, you know, she's getting some weird seismograph activity going on while she's studying um the landscape. And uh yeah, Val and Earl happen upon her because they want to check out who the new student is. Because Val's like, I hope she's blonde and got long legs that go all the way up. I'm like, oh my god, oh my god. Yeah, do you uh is are you familiar with Kevin Bacon and his works? You know, I'm familiar with Kevin Bacon, but I've never really watched like a lot of stuff that he's been in. He's been in Footloose, right? He was in Footloose, he's been I've never seen it. Okay, I mean, I oof that's I might have to add that to the list. You know, it's it's like that's a movie that's on all the time, but I don't know. It is, I would say it's kind of like an essential 80s teen movie musical. Kevin Bacon has famously been in so much that there, you know about the game, right? No, the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Have you ever heard of this? Yes, I've heard of that. That's yeah, that's that's like the because like he has been in so much stuff, including this because he, I think I don't think he disowned this movie, but I I do think you should know right out the gate before we like dive into the plot and you know, clearly you grasp it easily because it's a very simple plot, yeah. Very basic. That's it's mostly much like a DD session, it's mostly planning the whole time. It's like we're gonna do this thing to the monster, and this is how we're gonna do it. And the it doesn't go off right, and then they have to make another. Let's try this, yeah. Exactly. So, but Kevin Bacon, you know, who has been in everything, I think he famously took this role when he was sort of down and out financially. Oh. And it was a bit of, like I said, it's a bit of a B movie. Um, I do think that everybody does a great job in it. I do also think I I always love showing this movie to people who've never seen it. Because first of all, I'm like, how could you have not seen this 100 times when you were 10 years old, like I did? And uh to me, also, I think it's a perfect example of a of a very good beginner screenplay because that's that's exactly what it is. This was somebody's like first movie, and I'm like, this is solid. Like, this is it's a solid, like it's a really good screenplay. It kind of ends where it begins, and we see like a full journey in like a tight 90. And I'm like, that's exactly what you want out of sort of like I love how you called it daytime horror because this is a movie in the early 90s, it would just be like on TBS, like yeah, all the time. And it's like, oh, oh, Tremors is on again. Good coming up after Reba. It's like, oh, look, it's Reba. Re Reba in her first movie, and and another another fun fact, she was on tour during the 90s when this movie was also being filmed. So she would like fly from her concert to go film and then like back again. She she wanted to that this was like her her opportunity to break into Hollywood and be taken seriously as an actress. And I'm like, go on, Reba. You're like, let's go fancy. Come on, fancy. Uh, I love her. I think she's she's like very she's like go ahead, go ahead. I was she's a solid representation of like peak 90s country, and then like going into that uh sitcom that she did, which is like always on, and like, yes, I've watched it. Do I know all the characters' names? No, but like it is a comfort show. Something about like country. I don't know. We we could have a whole sidebar in this, and I feel like this movie touches that part of me. You just said you're like, I can't imagine living in a town this isolated, and I'm over here like looking at Reba and uh Michael Gross who play like the prepper couple, and I'm like, yeah, that could be me. That a hundred that that a hundred percent could be me. When we flash forward to later, I'm like, hell yeah, that's that's the way you do it if you're gonna be out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, yeah. No, we'll we'll we'll get to there. We'll do a we'll do a little rundown. Um, yeah, did you recognize anybody else in the movie? Well, it's funny because the actor who plays Earl is also in Sweet Home, Alabama playing Earl, Melanie's father. Oh my god, I forgot that. And you made me watch that movie. I did, yeah. It's one of my favorite rom coms. It's very early 2000s, coded. So it's good. But uh yeah, I was like, hey, it's Earl, and then he's like, oh, it's you know, talking Val's talking to him, Earl, this and that. I'm like, hey, he's just the same guy. I I wonder, see, I I didn't even connect that. This is like a revelation in the moment. I wonder if they named his character in Sweet Home Alabama after because he's very, very famous for this movie. And there were, and I don't know if you know there are many sequels. I think he was only in one of them, but there are Trimmer Tremors 2, Electric Boogaloo. Um, no, it's like it's called like the just just so everybody knows, people might know already, but you don't know. There are six sequels to this movie. There are there are six sequels, they are all direct to video. Are they good? I can't really speak on it. My husband has watched more of them than I have. This is the kind of film uh a Trevor sequel is the perfect kind of film for my husband, everyone who knows him. Uh, he also likes movies like Sharknado. And uh that's his mediocre white man aspect in him somewhere showing being like, let's watch Sharknado. I think that's a great movie. I just think he loves creature features. He loves he loves critters and cryptids and creepy crawlies, anything with like a misunderstood monster or just a regular, regularly understood monster. He's he's about it. Um that's why he liked Beastmaster so much. Yeah, there's I he's the kind of person like he loves animals, I think, more than people. Yeah. And I relatable. I mean, I think we're all kind of like and like we're the only people we tolerate. Do you know what I'm saying? Like everyone's a very select few. I keep my circle small. That's right. Uh, but yeah, though, no, he loved yeah, he loves creature. I I I was like, hey, Melanie and I are watching Tremors for the Pod, and he was like, Oh hell yeah. It's a it's a very like dude movie, I gotta say. But it's like, what what what affection do you feel towards this like stinky poop worm in the sand? You know? I think the effect, I mean, here's the thing there's a tiny bit of CGI, I think, but everything in the first movie is mostly practical. And it's all done with actual, like real-sized puppets like the big guys, or for instance, I'm gonna jump ahead, but that scene you're thinking like when they crash into like the prep basement later, that's like a handheld puppet that they they cut back and forth between like the actual actors, Michael Gross and Reba McIntyre, and then they quick pan and it's it's a hand puppet. I could kind of tell that some of the uh you know, tremor snake things were hands because it's like the way that you know they're wrapping around stuff. It's just like somebody's taking their arm and just like clenching on to the bottom of the axle of the truck and stuff. It's just like I could feel like the prop department in this probably had a blast, literally and figuratively, because the amount of like scenes where these things are bursting out of the earth and you know, exploding into the air. It's just like it's just like an excuse to blow stuff up. Yeah, they really had a good time with it. And um, yeah, so the people who did all the creature effects for tremors were uh a company called Amalgamated Dynamics, and it was like a big team. They went on to do they went on to do Starship Troopers, I think, like a bunch of other movies. Have you seen that one? No, oh okay. That that that one, yeah, we you can watch off the pot. I feel uh it's it's pretty good. I know when they were doing the design for these, they're called Graboids, by the way. They're not oh okay, didn't know that. They're they're called Graboids. I mean, it's easy to miss. There's a scene in the general store where the Chang guy Oh my god, Walter Chang. Yeah, he's he's like trying to name them with the kid Melvin, Melvin, who has no parents, Melvin. Um they're like, we'll call him snakoids, we'll call them this, but they're officially christened graboids, and then in every other sequel after this, they're referred to formally as graboids. Okay, and they uh every single movie they evolve and they get new features. Well, maybe I should tune in then. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I I know you can get like the DVD box set of all the tremors. Yeah, but that would be like a good, like, you know what, you're you're like sick on the couch with the flu. You're like, let me just put it on. I don't know if that will help me or hurt me if I had the flu. I I I do know the the design team for the graboids, they they were deliberately avoiding making the creatures look like the sandworms from Dune. Shout out. Shout out, Dune. I I know that they drew on studies of rhinoceroses and elephants and a lot of like prehistoric animals because they wanted it to look very old. And I do love how they never explain where they come from. They're just like that. That wasn't a part of like figuring it out. They're just well, I mean, how could they? It's just the people in the town, plus Rhonda, and like they always kept referring back to her, being like, Rhonda, why is it do this? She's like, I don't know. Like, this isn't my job. I'm here to study the earth, not you know the earth, the earth. I'm here to study the terrain and the seismology of it all. And you guys just keep asking me questions about this creature that I just saw today. Yeah, I think that she's supposed to be like the Doc Brown character, which is like, I'm going to explain the science of what is happening, but she is a geologist, they even say several times. And we all know geologists just study rocks, right? So, yeah, she doesn't, you know, she that's her, that's her background, that's her specialty. There's a lot of like mystery about the Graboids, but they yeah, they never, I think that's what the later movies are for. Got it, because they didn't quite get it all in in that tight 90. Nope, they didn't get it in, and they're like, you know what, we're gonna, we're gonna delve into the deep lore of the Graboids. We need six movies and a failed TV show too. They really, they really tried to make it work. Um yeah, you so you weren't feeling the sand and the desert vibe. You weren't feeling perfection Nevada. You weren't you're you weren't feeling Nevada in general. Oh, well, I feel a little stressed out when there's not a lot of like lush nature, you know. My like I need my I prefer, you know, some trees, some grass, a lake, a river, some, you know, I I don't identify with the desert. I've never really been to one. So maybe that's why I'm not like attaching myself to wanting to be like, oh, this seems like a place I would drive through, you know, or whatever. I'm like, no, I'm never going there. And I don't want to now. Wait, you've never been to a desert? I've never been to a desert. Are you kidding? Wait, you've never been to what's the farthest west you've ever been in America? Colorado. But you just where do you go? Denver? Denver, yeah. Well, that's not to see the creepy airport, yeah. And it's like, yeah, you're just gonna get mountains there, which I liked. I love a mountain, you know. But you've never wait, you've never been to Texas? No, that was so loaded how you said that. No, too hot, too hot. I would go to Texas though, I believe. Well, obviously, Austin being the blue dot wouldn't mind visiting, but in Houston, I'm pretty sure there's like a huge Vietnamese population, and they have like these all-you-can-eat Vietnamese buffets and stuff like that. I'm like, that's that sounds like heaven to me. I don't know, but you know, so I was like, okay, I'd be interested to go for that. But I've never, yeah, I've never had a desire really to go to Texas, never been anywhere, Arizona, California, Nevada. Well, we gotta go to Vegas. I know you're so you're hooked. I, listeners, I love Vegas. I got married in Vegas. I wish I had more time in Vegas. I was there for a little bit, and I'm like, I can't wait to go back. And I know there's a lot of people who have negative connotations toward it, you know, as a as a den of sin in the desert. That's a great reason to go, though. I love sin, and uh I'm all about sin. And here's the thing Seychelore, I don't drink, I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't do drugs of any kind, and I don't gamble. Just like a little. I I do play the slots. I'm really intimidated to play table games. Maybe, maybe I feel like you would be like a lucky piece. I feel like you're the kind of person who I could go up to a table with and have good luck with. Yeah, we could go play uh roulette. All you do is just put no like coin or uh chips on your numbers that you want or color. That's pretty easy. Yeah, I get it. I'm gonna play card games though, because I'm not like ready for people who have been doing this most of their life to just like look at me and go, oh, she is not prepared. You know, not that I care what other people think about me, but I feel like as somebody who's not prepared, I think it's kind of rude to walk up to a table where people are trying to play, you know. I think that you could probably start with like video poker. There's so much video poker. Like I'm not a poker girl though. Oh no, what do you like if you but you know how to play euchre, right? Sorry, sister sidebar game conversation. Of course I play, I've I know how to play Euchre, but I don't think they play that in casinos, maybe like in Michigan. Yeah, I don't know if it's like a legal. They said that they were gonna put Uno in uh Vegas somewhere, and I'm like, people would love that. Oh, you know what what they do play though, especially at the California Casino shout out, which I fell in love with when I was there. We didn't stay there, but we spent some time there. It's like a Hawaiian-themed casino, which I love. It's all very like um aloha energy in there. It's very cozy, but they have they have kino everywhere. Oh, yeah. They love playing kino and people like win a lot of money at it. So and we play it here all the time. Anyway, let's go to Nevada. Let's go. Yeah, I'm down. I'm down. I would have gone to Vegas with you for your wedding, but I had to take care of my cat relatives. I don't know what my niece and nephew. Yeah, what is a cat, niece, and nephew that what yeah, what is the name for that? I had to take care of your children. That's true. That that's right. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you for aiding on my plans. Um, yeah, I can't, I yeah, I'm sorry. I I still cannot believe I had to rent this film for four dollars again. I know. Using my my credits here for fucking tremors. I know it was free technically. Uh yeah. Um, yeah. So we have a hot open, like you said, we've got the handymen of Perfection Nevada. It's Val and Earl. They are clearly not happy with their lot in life and they're looking to get out. So, like right from the get, they're like, This job sucks. See, they want to leave too. They they want to get out of there. They're they're ready to go to Bixby, which is like the town. I think they're both fictional towns. All of this was shot not in Nevada, by the way. It was shot in California. Okay. Near Death Valley. So what you're seeing is more of like Death Valley Extreme Desert. Like that's pretty. It's I I think like there are towns in Nevada that are more like high desert, but you're still gonna get like that dramatic mountain view, which I do love. Um, like just sort of like almost like you're on the surface of Mars. Very, very dune-like, dune the movie. Like, I'm sorry, guys. I'm Dune. That's that was our premiere this this year, and I'm totally dune-pilled right now. Like I'm I'm pro-Dune. I'm pro Dune all the time. Yeah, love the sand, love the desert. Melanie seems like she wasn't a big fan of sand or desert, didn't find the town charming. Well, I grew up by a lake, you know. I need a body of water near me to feel content. Got it. So, like the lack of water in tremors, you found anxiety producing. Correct. Got it. Um, yeah, I feel like, you know, you you just make sure you've got water on you. You you've got you've got your Stanley, you've got your little camelback or whatever. You just have to be like camping all the time. Well, like Mr. Chang, all he's got is like a Pepsi cooler, probably full of like Sprite and Pepsi. Well, whatever's all they've got. Shout out Pepsi. No Coke products, probably. Eh, probably not. Who knows? Although I am pro uh I don't I like a I like a crispy boy, okay? I like a Coke Zero or a Diet Coke fountain. No Pepsi. Yeah, I'm not sure if there's like any regional Nevada Nevada sodas that they much like burners, much like we have in Michigan, that Verners. Um yeah, we get a really quick sense of the situation in this movie. Like I said, top-notch screenplay, hot open. We know that something is going on with the the tremors in the ground because our love interest, who I feel is put there, you know, whenever we have like two dudes in a movie, you instantly need to tell the audience that they're definitely not gay. So, what are we gonna do? We're gonna put in a hot, kind of hot geology student. Um, you know, she's cute, you know. She's yeah, I mean, um, I'm they act like she's ugly. Uh, you know, Val at least acts like she's ugly, and all she's got is like sunscreen on her nose and she's wearing comfortable clothing. Right. She's just like doing her job, and they're instantly. I mean, Val, the character of Valentine, he's like he's portrayed as very shallow. Like you said, he he just wants the woman who's tall, who's blonde, who's leggy. I'm like, you know, uh you you really, if you're gonna live in a place like Perfection Nevada, you really have to like lower your expectations a little bit. Yeah, because I would say so. Like in a town of 14, I don't know how big Bixby is supposed to be, but it's maybe like 35. Uh still, you're not. I mean, you know, you've you've done a like a Tinder sweep in a small town, it's not gonna be great. It's not, you're not gonna get the winners, you know. No, that's why you need to enter like a larger dating pool, is what I'm saying. But they didn't have that back then, it was 1990. Uh, they did film this in 1989, so it's another one of those movies that kind of straddles yeah the two decades. We get introduced to everybody in town, population 14. Were there any standouts for you? Like character, like were you like latching on to anybody character-wise, or was it just kind of like were you just like vibing it? Well, I like uh Val's name. I think that's a cool name for a character, Valentine. Right. Yeah, beautiful. Um, and then I think I have a soft spot for Earl because like I said, he was in Sweet Home, Alabama on the same name. Yeah. So I'm just like, he's he's older, but he still hangs with the young guy, right? And so he has more maturity about him, but he also hasn't really been anywhere. So he doesn't have like great perspective. So he's just kind of like nudging him on, like, hey, you should date Rhonda. Like, it's like, you know, this is the only girl in town. Better get on that and you better act respectful. So, like, I like that he was kind of like pushing him to be better and to uh, you know, give somebody a chance that he wouldn't necessarily give a chance. But I really liked Walter Chang. It's like because he, you know, he's running his general store. I know obviously he's like Chinese, right? But it's just so funny to me that when they do eventually get a graboid, he wants to buy it. I'm like, why are you buying that, Mr. Chang? You can't cook it, it's scary. I think he wanted not not to cook it, but I think he wanted to display it as if it were like a trophy fish or something, like a trophy fish, or like you you see places like this a lot in the West, where it's like there's just like nothing for miles and miles, and then you'll see it. There's a very famous place, I think it's in Arizona, I know because I've driven past it a couple times, but it's like only a hundred miles to the spot, and it'll be like 50 miles to the spot, and you go to the mystery spot, yeah. It's like the mystery spot, like there's tons of places like that where it's like come see the the freaks or whatever, or come see like these oddities, like they want to draw it's like a gas station and a food place, but they really they really want to like lure you in. So I I do like that that it's there's that element of sort of like how do we get people to like stop at our way station, you know? Good point, good point. So, yeah, I think I think also the character of Walter Chang, I know because I was doing a lot of research on this. I think the character was supposed to be Vietnamese. Okay, but Victor Wong, who is a super famous Chinese character actor who's been in you've seen Big Trouble in Little China, right? Yeah, he's famously in that. Um, yeah, they would the character was supposed to be Vietnamese, but they made him Chinese because Victor Wong just came in and auditioned for it. Yeah, any anybody else in town were you feeling the vibes? Well, I like Reba. So like you get a glimpse of her in the first part of the movie, and then she kind of disappears and then comes back. So like she's kind of wearing a waitress uniform. So I'm assuming she's a waitress, but was she? I thought so. She's a but like where's the restaurant? That's what I'm saying. So I'm just like, I don't know. Wait, where is she wearing a waitress uniform? Like in the when you first see her, she's got like a yellow kind of shirt that has a little bit of a puff sleeve on it. And I swear it looks like she's got an apron on, but I could have hallucinated that. Um I don't know. Maybe that was just like her trad wife outfit. Maybe to me, a red waitress. That's very funny. Yeah, I was gonna say, like, yeah, what who's serving food? The only person who would serve food in town is probably Walter. Yeah, and she works at his restaurant. That was my thought. Oh, interesting. I didn't get that. I've never thought that. So maybe that's a I don't know, maybe that's true. All you Tremors fans out there who I know are listening to this, uh, sound off. Let us know what is Heather's job, Heather Gummer, who's married to Bert Gummer, which is one of the funniest character names, I think. Bert Bert Gummer, who is a gun-toting survivalist and a right-wing conspiracy theorist. Yeah. I I don't know. Give it up to Michael Gross for like making this character so epic. Who I don't know. Do you recognize that actor who plays Bert, the crazy guy? So you're you're definitely too young to remember this. He was very famous. Uh, he he was most famous for playing the dad on a show called Family Ties, which was in the 80s. I don't know. That was um, and that was the movie that that was the movie where uh Michael J. Fox got famous on, like before the show. Yeah, the the show, yeah. That was like his famous show. So he played Michael J. Fox's dad. Oh, but so he's known for two things. He's known for being Michael Gross is known for being Michael J. Fox's dad and also Burt Gummer because Michael Gross has been in every single Tremors movie. They they they kept it going. I think around like Tremors Four, the original filmmakers or screenwriters kind of step back from it. They're like, okay, this is we're not doing this anymore. Because I think each sequel gets more like dramatically cheaper and cheaper until it's sort of like, you know, we we only have these shows. I think that it's the kind of movie that you would see like on the sci-fi channel. Yeah. So I feel like now that I'm talking more about it, I'm like, should we just do a tremors marathon? Because I'm kind of into it. I'm curious to know about the second one. I think it's not great, but I do know that the Graboids start to walk in it. Ooh. Yeah, they they take on like a different form. They they um evolve, evolve, yeah. They evolve, yeah, just like any good biological horror. Yes. Life finds uh a way, exactly. Um, so yeah, and then they have to deal with these graboids pretty quick. Again, like it it's hot open. We see a couple who's like the doctor in the town, him and his wife get like swallowed up. Yo, they get swallowed up, yeah, gobbled, gobbled by these graboids. Like they're well, even before that, Val and Earl like find people who have died from them already. So, like they find one of their neighbors who was like up on an electrical tower because you know, they they didn't know at the time, but because the worms were in the ground, right? The graboids. And then uh another neighbor who's a farmer was gone. All his sheep were also like slaughtered, but they weren't like all eaten, which I thought was kind of funny. Like there was just like a lot of like thought there was like some corpses going on, but I could be wrong. Yeah, I think that I don't I don't know if they just wanted that juicy, juicy human meat. Maybe that's what I'm wondering. And so they were like, oh, this wool is too much, but like I don't want all that. Yeah, you know, they gotta talk to Dr. Hannibal Lecter about some preparation techniques. They do. Um, and then yeah, so eventually, yeah, the doctor and his wife get swallowed up and they're starting to come out, like you're watching them come through the ground, which is like, you know, it's kind of a it I wasn't like feeling scared at all. I was just kind of like laughing with it in a way. It's like, oh no, here he comes. Like, but we didn't quite really see the full monster until later. So, like the little ones are they like in like how do I explain this? When you see the bigger puppet, there's little ones inside of it, which creeps me out. Don't like that. But other times that we've seen them, they're just the little ones. So, like, do they grow and like that's the mom, and they like leave they leave the host essentially and like become their own little creatures until they get big enough. Well, you say you see the little ones. Are you talking about like the one that like latched onto their truck and stuff? So that's so I believe the biology of the graboid is that they're it's a big guy, and then the little guys in his mouth are just like 10 to sorry, um Melanie's making she doesn't like it. She doesn't like things in mouths like that. Well, it's like it's kind of like aliens or alien or aliens, which you've seen, right? Yeah. So you know how it's like you have the mama alien and then you open up the mouth and then the chest burst or two, you know, comes out. Well, there's like a whole biology to it. Like with this, it's like the little snakes in the big graboid's mouth function as like an extra biter and an extra grabber. So it's like really grabby and really bitey. So you can be like a bitey level off the charts. Yo, yo, the bite, you better watch out because that bitey level, it's off the charts. It's high today, it's super high. And I think that the little snakies in the mouth are like, yeah, they're they're to like draw the prey. Oh, you know what? It's like, don't fish have that? Don't fish have like oh yeah, sometimes they're little bait. Well, sometimes they're what an angler fish, you mean, or like don't aren't there certain fish? I'm asking because you're the resident marine biologist on the staff. Don't certain fish, when they open their mouth, don't they have like little danglies in there that are supposed to lure other fish? I believe so. And also some fish will have like their babies in their mouth too. I think that the little snakes are the graboids' babies, maybe. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. So maybe like when they fuck by kissing, they have the babies in their mouth and then they get bigger when they grow up. Well, I wonder if it's like, you know, an asexual reproduction, like you can do it on your own kind of thing, or is there a mommy worm and a baby or a daddy worm and they make a baby worm? Wait, is that is that how it happens? Yeah, mommy and daddy love each other very much. And now we got another baby worm coming. How do you feel about having a worm sibling, Junior? I don't want her. I don't want it. That's if that's how it really goes down. That's so beautiful. That's like more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Um yeah, we'll have to, we'll have to, we'll have to ask. We'll have to get a we'll have to ask the creators of this. I need to go back really quick because I keep thinking about it. With me thinking about Walter Chang wanting to eat the graboid, is because when they're all looking at it, like all the townspeople are gathered around the truck and seeing they go, Oh, it looks like this. It's like, oh, it looks like an eel. And then that's when he's like, Can I buy it? Obviously, I think what you said is correct, but like, I'm like, I eat eel, you know, maybe it would taste good. So, what you're saying is that when you thought that Walter was trying to acquire the Graboid for eating, you're not being racist. I'm trying, I'm trying to justify not being racist. I don't, I don't think you can ever overcome for being. I don't think you can ever overcome that accusation because you're like the Chinese guy wants to eat the Graboid. It's the night, it's the movie that was made in the 90s. Like that's just what it is, you know. You gotta have like in Tank Girl, you have the doctor come save you, and is this like Taiwanese or Chinese guy? Oh, another, I mean, another Chinese actor who was in uh big trouble with little China. Oh, really? Ryan's gonna kill me. Ryan, who plays Lopan in Big Trouble in Little China? James Hong. So that the yeah, the Doctor and Tank Girl is played by James Hong, who's another super famous Chinese character actor who played Lopan in Big Trouble in Little China. So, you know what? They get they had to get these Chinese actors to play very specific stereotypes. Are there more opportunities for Asian American actors now? Hopefully, yes. Yeah, hopefully, yes. I'm just going off of the vibes from the movie, you know. That's not my own personal judgment. I'm just saying like this is what I'm imagining based on everything I've seen so far. Well, I love I love that you loved him and his whole shop setup. Um, I'm bummed that he gets eaten so fast. Yeah. He he goes down like real Jaws style because once you know the whole town gets like hip to the fact that there are these worms, then it's basically sort of like this cat and mouse tale where the the worms are trying to eat the people and the people are making plans to like kill the worms, and they figure out right away that they go off vibration because they don't have eyes. And what what makes a huge vibration in town? But that that motherfucking soda pop machine thing, whatever, whatever's in there, Coke Zero, Pepsi, whatever. Not back then. Maybe, maybe it was tab. Oh my god, yeah. Maybe it was maybe it was a giant cooler full of tab, but the worms, the graboids, they they feel that vibration and they come a run and bust up through them floorboards, and they eat that old Chinese man. Much like he wanted to eat them, as Melanie posited. Uh, they they end up eating him. I was like, why does like blood come out of his face like immediately? Again, it's just the prop department, the effects department was just having a ball. They were having a ball with it, yeah. The like, did you did you enjoy the oopy and goopiness of no? Okay, okay. I don't want, I don't, I mean, it seems true to character, you know, for the worm, but do I want wait how? How did it seem true to character? Because it's a gross underground they say it smells terrible. They're like the live ones smell worse than the dead ones. To me, that worm's gonna have goop in it, and I don't want to smell it. What do you think? You know, what do you think the worm smells like? Obviously, shit. He smells like poop. He smells like poop, the end, like putrid stink, and probably rotting flesh as it is consuming. I don't know where they came from. I'm sure maybe in the other town 40 miles away, maybe they ate the people there too. I don't know. Yeah, I I think you're correct. It probably just smells like carrion, like old meat left rotting in the sun. Now, if I had a rewrite for this, sure. If we wanted to give Rhonda more of a science angle, like maybe she was studying at like, I don't know, some school out there. I don't know any of the schools. I'm not like Arizona something. It could have been, yeah, Arizona State could have been like there's a lot of good schools in California. Um, so maybe like her driving out, she picked up something from her lab that she was working in, and it tailed her like on the back of like her truck, and then it dove into the ground when she got there, and that's when it started to multiply. And it's like, you know. Oh, so you're gonna you're we're taking more of like an outbreak style situation. Like an origin story, like where did it come from? Maybe again, this is answered in the six or uh yeah, five other movies plus failed sitcom. I'm gonna ask another question of my husband, even though he's not officially a guest on this pod. Hey Ryan, we're potting right now. In any of the Tremors movies, I'm gonna tell you what he says. In any of the Tremors sequels, do they ever explain where do the Graboids come from?

SPEAKER_00 43:18

I've only seen the second one.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Wait, you've only seen the second one?

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Ryan, didn't you see like the Shrieker Island one?

SPEAKER_00 43:28

No.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Oh my god. Okay, I think we need to I think we need to all sit down and if anything, this pod has really uh opened my eyes to the fact that we do need to watch more than you know what, we're we're being fucking casuals here. We're being casuals. We we I I'm the one who proposed this movie. I should have come with a deeper understanding of the lore. But maybe this is something we can discover together. Yeah. I mean, I always like to ask questions. So Just curious to know where did they come from? They just showed up all of a sudden. They haven't dealt with this for years. Um, like if I were to rewrite, where did he come from? Where where'd where'd mommy and daddy graboid come from and get their freak on in the earth? Or you know, asexual parent number one. Right. Yeah. Is it a kind of a seahorse situation? Did it did it touch like toxic waste and mutate? That's what I yeah. Mm-hmm. That's like a common thing. Yeah, because I I do think that this movie, the screenplay in particular, is a bit of a a tip of the hat, a love letter, if you will, to like the creature movies of the 50s, which I don't know if you've ever seen, like, there are a lot of a lot of movies back then in the 50s that were like the giant spider or the huge ants or whatever. They're just like, this is a thing that just happens, and it's usually as a result, like, oh, it's like Godzilla too. That that's what Godzilla was. It's like a result of a radioactive fallout. And then they're like, okay, now we got a huge fucking lizard ripping up Tokyo and his baby, and his baby. Oh, I love baby Godzilla. Little baby does too, because he blows little smoke rings. I love it. Yeah, we are we are Godzilla fans in this family. Um, oh, fun side fact, a little production note. I do know that when they made the Graboid guts, it was a lot of different stuff, but they to make it orange, they put in pumpkin pie filling to make it that color. Isn't that I thought that was a cool fun fact that is cool, and it's like maybe he didn't smell that bad after all. No, like like on set, they're like, ooh, delicious. Smells like thanks Thanksgiving. I love it, it's autumnal up in here. It's so autumnal. Yeah, it like basically the whole movie is just like worm happening, so worm does something crazy and we make a plan, and worm does something crazy and then we make a plan. Like, and even in the midst of being hunted by these worms, Earl still wants to hook Val up with Rhonda because he's a simple man who believes in love. He does, and he's like, I think I yeah, I do also appreciate, like you said, there's that idea of like a slightly older character, not like a mentor figure, but he's like an older friend and he's like, you know what, don't fuck up like I did. Will you go find love while you're still young enough to get it? And I I think I relate to that. Like you see people like in their, you know, their 20s, and they're just like, Oh, I don't know. It's like do it now, have all the sex you can go now before you don't even care to have it anymore. Or just like if that's what you want to do, like don't play games. Like that that's what I would say. Like, if you wanna go after what you want, go after what you want and just say, like, I think a a lot of young people, regardless of their location, if they're in New York City or Los Angeles or the desert, like just say, just say what you mean. Although I do know there is some fun in like playing a game, you know. I wink to the camera. She's she's winking. We know about that, but yeah, it's it's wholesome. I do think that the I don't think, but I know that the romantic subplot was not supposed to be a thing in the original screenplay. It was really just supposed to be like suggested at, but with test audiences, they wanted to see Val and Rhonda kiss at the end. Like when they did, yeah. No, they were shouting at when they, you know, because they do like test screenings and then they they edit the movie again to like fix it to make people like it better. And I I know at the test screening they were like, kiss, kiss, kiss. And so, like, that's what they did. You you gotta ask for what you want. I think it would have been fine if they didn't, but you know, whatever. Well, if there wasn't the romance element to it, this would have been much more of like a horror movie than like a full rounder. Yeah, I feel like even in horror, like a lot of horror movies have a bit of a romantic subplot. But like I said, the the screenplay really does have everything. We have a lot of we have a lot of jokes and a lot of bits. Like they do, there's a couple like they do over and over again. Like uh, they do the rock, paper, scissors thing a couple times. Earl has his thing where he's like, Pardon my French, even though they don't even swear that much. Right. It's a very like PG 13 movie, and I will say they got one F-word, they got they got to say fuck one time. Do you remember where no? So it's after the the big graboid is chasing Earl and Val across the desert desert, and then it runs into the culvert and basically kills itself. Oh yes, and they get really excited, and then Val's like, fuck you, and that's the one F they got, and then later in the movie, when you we're talking about like when the other one busts into the the basement with all the guns, which we'll talk about more in depth in a second, they they refer to the worm as a mother humper, yeah. And it's like you can tell that because of the the ADR, like the dubbing, you can tell that Kevin Bacon said motherfucker, right? But they just dubbed over it because they could they could not have that many swears. So, like we we gotta put this on TBS, exactly. We can't edit it that much, right? Right, you get one bleep, which is crazy because I remember them having movies like Goodfellas on all the time. I'm like, why even still on all the time? Why? You and you have to censor the whole there's it's like it's like 45 minutes, 45 minutes cut off the movie, yeah. They'll be like, what happened? I like I guess they all ended up happily ever after. It's like, oh, he's in prison making sauce. The end. The end with the boys, exactly, it's so simple. Yeah, let's uh yeah, let's let's talk about that gun room scene because that's my favorite part of this movie, and that's kind of why I had such a good reaction to it, because I wasn't with my assumption of uh Heather being a waitress in the beginning. I'm like, oh, okay, they probably just live like a simple life, whatever. But no, her and Bert live in the ultimate prepper home, and they've got in their basement about, I'm gonna say close to 200 guns and loads of ammo. And like I love that when they're faced with having to either evacuate the basement and like, or just the house in general, because um Val's calling over to them on radio, uh, they're like, um, you know, we're gonna try to they they they're kind of set, like they're gonna survive, you know, they'll be fine. So they're still in the basement when you know the big mother humper comes through and bursts through the wall. That basement, like that color of like the blue painted brick takes me back somewhere because I've been in many creepy basements like that. Not with as many guns, still some guns, though. Um, and so they're like, okay, here we go. Just start fighting it off with all the ammo they've got, and they're blasting. So like they're just constantly pulling different things off the wall, getting ammo, bam, bam, bam. Grab the elephant gun, she says, right? And he has it in a like a locked box, which I'm so surprised considering everything else you've got on the wall. You really needed to lock that one up, whatever, makes it look extra special. So he pulls out the elephant gun, loads some huge, maybe like four-inch shells into it, and takes care of uh takes care of uh one of the wormies, one of the mother grabbers. So I was like, I I love this couple, they are prepared for everything, and they are clinically insane. Uh, like you said, he's playing this sort of like conservative guy. I think what he has a hat on that says it's like a school. He famously wears, so that's uh an Atlanta Hawks cap, and that is something that like Michael Gross, the actor, likes. And he was just like, that's like a and it became like a feature of the character of Bert. He's like he always has that Atlanta Hawks um I think the the the person that you know the actor who plays him is like a very interesting guy. Yeah, he loves the Atlanta Hawks, he's also like a train enthusiast. He's like yeah, and like he does. I I know this because I did a deep dive on him at one point. I was like, what is Michael Gross all about? Because like, you know, he's still with us. Like I said, he's he's most well known for this series, you know, this franchise, the Tremors franchise, and also uh family ties. But yeah, he's he's a celebrity spokesman for the B and O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, which I want to go to because I'm also like crazy. Will he be there? No, but like I think like when you go to the museum, he like gives us like you know how you go to a museum and there's like hi, welcome to the museum. I think like he's that guy. Oh sure, he's like the voiceover guy. He's like a huge rail fan. Like he is a railroad historian. He photographs them, he has models, he like owned like a rail car. Like he's crazy, he's a crazy train guy. Like this is like the this is like a generation of men where they're like, autism doesn't exist, and it's just like, well, there's a whole room of trains in your house, sir. Right, that's not normal. That's not normal, sir. He would love Miles in Transit. Shout out Miles in Transit. Yeah, it's one of my favorites too. Um, yeah, I absolutely, yeah, I love his portrayal of Burt. I love Reba's portrayal of Heather. I love that prep basement. That scene just like gets me going. I was like, hell yeah, I want this room. I love, I love how the guns keep escalating. Like it's a great example. We talked about this like fight scenes, like they can't just be stagnant, like they get more and more guns. I love there's a point when Reba, like John Woo style, has like two like revolves. Right, like, well, she has two hands. Not right, it's two revolvers, yeah. Yeah, she has two revolvers in her hands. She's just like beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, like shooting. Um, and I was like, Oh, yeah, the elephant gun. I'm like, that is pretty crazy. Like, that could like blow up somebody, really. That would like, if you shot that at a person, they would like liquefy. Like that's pretty much the depends on the range, too. But yeah. Uh yeah. So I mean, that's uh I was gonna say, like, how do we wrap this up? Because again, it the the the movie is very like again, the like the same thing happens and happens again and happens again. Oh, did you recognize the little girl who was on the pogo stick? Do you do you recognize her? No, that's Ariana Richards, who is best known for being the little girl in Jurassic Park. Oh, yeah, that was like her very, very first role. Yeah, most of these people are kind of like unknown. I'm like, I don't know if like the the girl who played Rhonda did anything after this. There's a lot of like, I would say, like, yeah, less lesser known actors in this. I'm always fascinated with the character of Melvin, who's like the teenager who everybody is annoyed by, who's like trying to prank everybody all the time. I'm like, where are his parents? Like, why is there just like a 15-year-old living in a shack by himself? I thought he was the son of or like Mindy's brother, essentially. No, he's just like doing his own thing. And like I did research on it. They're like, yeah, his parents are like gamblers who like go off to Reno and Vegas all the time. I'm like, I'm like, Melvin has his own backstory. That's the thing. Oh, yeah. I think I love too about this movie is that it like it doesn't, it just doesn't like tell you everything. It's just you're just dealing with the graboid problem, and like that's it. Yeah. So they so speaking of dealing with, they do finally deal with the graboid problem. Who's the person who who ends it for all of them? Val basically decides to run it off the cliff, essentially. Like he knows that it's tracking him, and he decides to book it full speed. Uh well, it was him, Earl, and then Rhonda's running after him, and she's like, I have the thing. I don't know what the thing was, but whatever. So they're running, and then uh gets to the end, and he realizes that hey, there's the cliff. Maybe, you know, hopefully the graboid will go off the cliff. And it does. So his plan works out, and it does the end. So he's like, yay. He's like, give me a smooch, the end. Yeah, they get photographed by Rhonda because she's like documenting this for her thesis or whatever. And uh's like, well, maybe we can be put in People magazine. And he's like, Well, how about National Geographic? You know, and it's like, all right, whatever happened to National Geographic magazine. I don't know. I I used to save issues, I was like in love with it. I loved all the travel photography, and you know, that was the one you could see titties in too. So that was like interesting to me. True. True. I'm like, oh yeah, look at some naked people. I love it. Um, like I said, screenplay-wise, it really works for me because they start off with them talking about a stampede and Earl falling off the back of the truck and falling down on the ground. And then that's right, yeah. So kind of, yeah, full 360 on that. Full full circle to the end. Yeah. The thing that Rhonda has is the lighter because they were trying as you can see, it's a little bit of like I wouldn't say a red herring, but it's like a misdirect at the end because you think that they're gonna like try to blow it up because they have all these pipe bombs that Bert has, and they're like he has all these cannon fuses. They're like, I think that's a very funny line. They're like, Where'd you get all these cannon fuses? And he's like, They're for my cannon. Yeah, it's a lot of you know, a lot of it's a great movie if you like worms. It's a great movie if you like explosives, ammo, if you like the desert, sand. If you like rootin', tootin', and shooting. Rune, tun, and shooting, yeah. It's you know, it's kind of a western, and I'm I'm feeling it. And I might be the only one in my family who is feeling the desert. I don't know. I don't know. I I think I like the idea of being, you know what it is. I've been in New York City for 20 years. So you want to mix it up. So yeah, like that's the thing. People like what you know, where could you move after New York City? And it's like, I don't know, what's a place that's like New York City? I guess Chicago. Like, what's a but like who wants to live in fucking Chicago? You know what I'm saying? It's fine, it's fine. I've only been once, surprisingly, and I can't say much, but it's the second city, as they say. It's you know, it's very New York in the sense that like, yes, you can walk places, but like nothing's like New York. Like, if you're gonna be in a city, you gotta be in New York City. But it's like, yeah, if I get out of here, it's gonna be in the middle of nowhere. We're just gonna go full on, full on prep mode. I'm gonna live in a shotgun shack. Well, you know, budgie needs air conditioning, so well, you know, we can we can still have some comforts, or I can just wait till the cats are dead, too. You gotta give it a few more years. Oh my god, gotta plan ahead, you know. Here's the thing though, the world is getting hotter, so I feel like places with desert climate, places down south, they're gonna start to see like the worst of things pretty sooner rather than later. Will that make it cheaper, though? Of course, yeah. That's a that's a whole socioeconomic issue that we can't even begin to touch upon on this podcast. Definitely not this podcast. Uh yeah. Any any final thoughts on this fine film from 1990 Tremors? Um, yeah, it was it was good. This is I, you know, I I will give my rating, my long-awaited rating. I'm gonna give it a solid C. Whoa, that's pretty low. You think so? That's pretty, you know, I get it. I get it. Again, like I I I propose these movies, they are all well thought out beforehand. This is a nostalgic one for me. It also fits with our theme of sand. And I I have to give it, I'll give it a B minus. And I feel like a lot of that B is colored by nostalgia. And I, you know, there are some parts about it I would definitely tidy up. But I I think it's a perfect and expand upon, right? I I think I I do give it a I do give it the B is also because I feel like it's a very solid effort as like a first movie, first screenplay creature feature. It also like it's just like one of those movies that I feel like if you're a kid who grew up in the 90s, you're just like, oh yeah, tremors is on. This is like a chill day. It's a chill day. It's a very chill day. Do you find it funny that like my chill movies have to do with subterranean creatures who are and in the desert? This is my comfort movie. Yeah, that and Dune are your comfort movies. Pretty much, like that's so funny. I think I've I think I've seen that in like a meme on the internet, and people like people ask what a girl's like comfort movie is, and it's always like something fucked up, like hereditary. Um yeah, I think of like my favorite, like like some of my favorite movies, which I which I don't know if we should do them on the pod because they're really messed up, but they're like Frank Henanlauder horror movies like Basket Case or Reanimator, and they're really like violent and scary, and they've got puppetry in them that's really like not only disturbing but pornographic. Whoa, yeah. I don't know. Should we should we do more scary movies for spooky month? Should we really go there? Well, let us know at VHS Sisterspodcast at gmail.com and or Instagram. Uh what what how do you feel though? Do you want to be do you want to be scared? I don't know. I mean, I'm not opposed. I'm just wondering as far as schedule this year. Oh, we can crank up enough room. We can we can nudge some out, don't worry. We can I can up the scare factor for you. We can get it. Well, if there's one that really, you know, speaks to you and you think is relevant, then put it in. Yeah. Well, uh, we'll we'll have a we'll have a spooky good time. But but I did enjoy tremors. Um, I just don't think that like I find comfort in the movie, like how you do. I love it. Like definitely not watching this if I have the flu. I would be even more sick. I love it. What's the movie you would watch if you had the flu? What do you put on depends on what time of year it is. What what so yeah, well, I just had this conversation with friends the other, not the other day, but recently, because I feel like this is a good way to get to know somebody. What is the thing you put? What is the series, the show, the movie, whatever? What do you put on when you are having a sick day on the couch? What is your show? I feel like an automatic comfort show is gonna be Gilmore Girls. Because it was always on any like I didn't grow up watching it, I only watched it within the last like three or four years, the entire series, and loved it. Um but that podcast was already taken. Thanks, Gilmore Guys. And so there are so many Gilmore Girls podcasts. There's like a we can see another one, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. But it was always on at four o'clock when I came home from school. So it's like to me, like on the CW. I'm like, okay, that's a comfort one. As far as movies go, it just depends on like how I'm feeling. Like if I need some comedy, if I just need to like wallow in self-pity, you know, like mix it up. Yeah, I don't know if I turn to a movie necessarily. That's more of like a show thing. But like if I'm sick, I usually start at season three of Parks and Wreck. I'll start it at the episode flu season. It's it and like everything after that point is just absolute fucking gold. It's perfect. Or I'll start it at like season two of Bob's Burgers and let it run through to like season five, six, seven. I feel like that's pretty solid. Um yeah, or or one more, I feel like I could start the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, which is a which is a mini-series. And you know, I haven't watched it yet. Oh my god. I literally put it on the other day just for I didn't watch it all the way through, but I just I was having like a stressful moment and I'm like, I'm gonna put this on, and it instantly took down my blood pressure. It is so soothing. Honestly, now that you're done watching Tremors, go watch that. Go watch that great transition. Great transition. Um, anyway, thanks for tuning in for another episode of VHS Sisters. We're happy to have you around. Um, that's all for us. Tune in next week. We have one more delightful sand focused feature film that I can't wait to talk about that Melanie hasn't seen yet. All right, guys. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of VHS Sisters. We hope you've had a fun and cozy time. Please consider liking, leaving a review, and following us on your podcast platform of choice. If you'd like to chat with us, please email us at VHS Sisters Podcast at gmail.com. Love you. Bye. That's it.