440: Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)

This week we're heading back underground with Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996). We reflect on its legacy as a direct-to-video sequel, break down the evolution of the graboids into something new, and explore how its shift toward action-comedy changes the experience. This episode contains spoilers, beginning at 25:36.

---

Mentioned in the Episode

Watch the Movie

Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)

Related Episodes

198: Tremors (1990)

Main Episode

Tremors 2: Aftershocks – Production and Development

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

Starship Troopers (1997)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Predator (1987)

---

Support the Show

We've launched our Patreon to have a place for listener support to help keep our show going. We are accepting support in the form of small monthly donations from our audience. The proceeds we gain from Patreon are put towards ongoing website fees, funding for new content, and equipment upgrades. In return, our patrons enjoy bonus content, early access, live streams, and exclusive channels in our Discord server.

Support the Show on Patreon

We're building a community where our listeners and horror fans as a whole can connect and share the ideas, movies, games, experiences, and stories they are most passionate about. Our community is completely free and powered by Discord, which you can access from both a web browser and mobile app. We're looking forward to your arrival!

Join our Discord Server

---

Contact Us

You can connect with us by creepin' on us on our Instagram, @HackorSlash. You can also share your opinions with us by leaving us an audio message on our website, hackorslash.live.

---

Special Thanks

We want to give a special thanks to these patrons for continuing to make this show possible

---

Music Credits

"Hack or Slash" by Daniel Stapleton

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Imagine the Dune popcorn bucket, but for Graboids. More than 200 episodes ago, we covered a 1990 film where a remote desert town was forced to reckon with a group of subterranean predators, and a handful of locals became the only line of defense against something moving beneath their feet. By the time the mid-90s rolled around, horror sequels were being pushed straight to home video, often without the original creators involved, and usually built to keep a name alive rather than grow it. In this case, though, the team behind that 1990 creature feature came back to continue what they started. It focused on expanding the creature's biology, shifting the settings, and building out a structure that would carry the series forward. The end result was a sequel that didn't go to theaters, didn't bring back its full original cast, and didn't try to recreate the same scenario. And yet it's still talked about as one of the few direct-to-video follow-ups that actually holds its ground. But when a sequel carries the baggage of a direct-to-video release, what does it have to do to prove it belongs in the same conversation as its predecessor? We're about to find out, folks, because this week we're talking about Tremors 2 Aftershocks. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash. Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

My name is Chris. I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

That's the little dingleberry in the back of your throat.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Of course you would pick that quote.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Why not? And listen, you're tuning in to Tremors 2 Aftershocks. But if you support the show, you'll also get to check out our B-side at the end of this episode, where we get into straight to video horror, the phenomenon that is direct-to-video horror.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Listen, a lot of the direct-to-video stuff is pretty horrific, even if it wasn't specifically a horror movie. And we'll get there in the B-side, but for now, Sean, had you actually seen this one before?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Okay. I do believe that I've seen this before. I don't remember, or I didn't remember anything about this film going into it, to be quite honest. I remember Tremors very vividly. It was a movie that I feel like I remember loving to watch as a kid. But I feel like I know I saw Tremors 2 at one point, but I couldn't tell you anything that happened. It's been that long since I probably revisited it.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

But you remember liking it.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

I don't remember liking. I remember liking Tremors 1 because listen, Tremors 1, listen, I don't know where you stand with Tremors 1, but for me as a kid, thinking back on it, you know, it becomes a cult classic because of the practical creature effects. A lot of people really kind of liked that vibe. It is kind of like a tight-pacing type of movie. The monster rules you kind of get into, the chemistry between Val and Earl. You kind of like that stuff. You know?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

You know, somebody likes that stuff for sure. We covered this episode back in, I want to say it was approximately episode 198. I believe that's around the ballpark we were in. And that movie did not do it for me, Sean. It really didn't. I see how it was fun for people. I also thought I wasn't particularly fond of Kevin Bacon in that movie. Coming into this, my expectations were actually super low, especially because on top of it not having been a movie that I really cared for, this is now a mid-90s direct-to-video sequel. Now, direct-to-video film, especially in the mid to late 90s and in the early 2000s, there's a lot of good stuff out there. We'll talk about that in the B side at the end of this episode. But I didn't feel like there was a lot going for this. Now, what surprised me is that this wasn't something that the studio even forced out. The original writers actually came back and pitched this themselves. I think that context really matters and actually eased my mind a little bit. This feels like a continuation from people who created it and love it instead of just it being a high a hot commodity product that they're trying to cash in on. And again, we'll unpack that in the spoiler zone, but it was it was enough to make me think, okay, I'm gonna give this a chance.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

That's fair. I think you know, you come off of Tremors, and whether you like it or don't like it, that there is the fact that a lot of people do consider it to be one of the best creature features out there. And so when you come off of that and you're going into Tremors 2, you see that it's a direct-to-video sequel. You may read, you know, who's in the cast. Some characters don't return. You know what I mean? And so the movie's obviously a smaller budget. So I think as a fan or not a fan, you probably think that this could be a cash grab sequel, but then you read something like that, right? And you learn something that you know, they actually, the filmmakers came forward and said, We want to do this, they put their energy into it. It wasn't like a studio saying, We want you to pump out this movie and just make it some kind of filler film. And so, you know, surprisingly, that could make it a little bit better than you might expect.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

It absolutely could. I think what else is interesting is uh like you really play with the idea of the cash grab of it all. Sequels are notoriously known for cash grabs, and even in this, we have our main character, Earl, who returns from the first film, and you would think with him being proposed to be this big hero, especially alongside Val from the previous film, that there's a lot to be cashed in on. And what I thought was really fascinating is instead of picking up with him as the hero who cashed in, he's actually quite the opposite, right? His story was current into commercials, magazines, even an arcade game, but he didn't see a significant amount of that money. He didn't have a lawyer, he didn't protect himself, and now he's left trying to wrangle ostriches. Well, everyone assumes he made a fortune. I think that idea that you can survive something unbelievable and still get exploited by it afterwards adds a layer I wasn't expecting from the movie, and I also wasn't expecting from a movie that's a sequel to a movie that was generally beloved.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Yeah, that is definitely fair. There was definitely some added layers here, but above all of that, too, when you and listen, I wish I actually kind of watched Tremors going into this one, but I feel like I remembered enough of the story, so I was like, you know, I'm not gonna bother. But this one definitely feels like it's still fun, but Tremors 2 kind of leans way more into the action, comedy, creature chaos of it all. The first film, it feels more of like a tight survival thriller with some like campiness in there for sure. But this second one really feels closer to I don't know, this might be a stretch, but like aliens compared to alien, you know, bigger and more chaotic. I think the movie lands somewhere between that creature feature chaos and that sci-fi monster action comedy of it all.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah, I think that's really apt description because this isn't as big as Aliens, of course. Of course, but it is the jump in the two. And in fact, I think there are less people in this movie overall than there was even just in Tremors. But there's so much going on with the Graboids themselves and the Graboids and Friends, that it does add this layer of escalation. And I think that's what helped this one click for me almost immediately in a way that the first one didn't. A, it is that tone, it's exactly what you said, John. It's the fun, it is, especially anytime we have another character, Bert, on screen. This movie, while being the same in spirit and being a continuation of that story, there's something about this that just clicked for me and felt like, oh, I'm actually enjoying this. And instead of feeling like I'm having to suffer through it.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

I'm really curious, as we kind of like talk through this movie, what that difference was between this one and Tremors. You know, is it the minus of some of uh Kevin Bacon? Is it what's the thing here? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

I think it might actually be the subtraction of Kevin Bacon. It might be that. And okay, let me just put it this way. I like creature features, I don't love creature features, but I like them. And I don't like old, hot, dusty areas. And so the first Tremors film for me felt very rusty-dusty, very everybody has the taste of dirt in their mouth, very hot and bothered and sticky and western. And I just don't love that vibe. There's a lot of other stuff that goes into that movie that I disliked, and I'll link for our friends in the show notes, the link to that specific episode. But I do think that maybe it's my appreciation for the characters in this film. I feel like I got more Bert in this film. There was less to distract from Bert's energy. And so I just found this to be a more trim, a more lean way of having fun with graboids. And also there felt like there's a little bit more heart to the story. Like it's not just big old fucking worms in the desert. You know what I mean? It's it's not that, it's that plus the complexities of exploitation, and it doesn't try too hard to do that, but it just felt like there was something a little bit more earnest about it.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Yeah, that's fair. I think I I don't know that the movie really suffers all that much without a Val McKee, but I do think the absence is felt a little bit, and I think Earl does, don't get me wrong, a great job carrying the film. There was just that, I think the dynamic, that buddy energy that was missing that uh from the movie's original charm from you know in in Tremors one, I guess you would say. And so that was just something I was like, well, does the movie suffer? Does it not? I think it's still good. Earl does a good job as a character. Obviously, we get some other characters that show up, which is kind of fun. But I think for me, and I'm sure you can agree with this, but the whole creature evolution that we get, without really getting into too much detail in the spoiler-free section for those of you that you know haven't seen this movie in the last like 40 years or however long this movie's really been out. But yeah, the creature evolution twist in this movie, I think, was kind of a shock, especially if you don't remember anything about this movie going into it, or if you've never seen it and you're just coming out of tremors, you know, Graboids, you know, listen, may not be the only stage of the species, as it were.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

I'm surprised hemorrhoids aren't a name for some of these things because we have graboids, we have shriekers, you know, later on in the series there's ass blasters or something to that effect. This is a wild franchise, and I'm almost a little sad that when we last did Tremors, we had our Discord server at this point. Somebody was going on and on and on about Tremors as a franchise and the Graboids and the evolution of Graboids, and we actually had this conversation come up several times over the last couple years, so I've always known that there was more on the horizon. But what I think this movie does really well is take that on without it feeling like, oh, of course there's more. This feels like a really natural progression. I think that's one of the things that works best with this movie. In addition to that, I mean, Sean, you just mentioned that at moments this lacks a little bit of the buddy energy of it. I actually preferred the buddy energy in this one, specifically when we get to a point where they're actually hunting some graboids. Again, we'll talk about in the spoiler zone. Don't want to ruin everything here for these wholesome moments, but I found that there was a lot to sink my teeth into in terms of the chemistry between the characters. Again, maybe because the cast was just so much more stripped down.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Yeah. Definitely stripped down, and you can feel a little bit of that direct-to-video limitation. I think that you know, smaller scale locations, a few fewer large-scale action scenes, some of the effect shots. I think still impressive for the budget, but definitely the lower budget is felt a little bit here. There's a little bit less suspense in this movie, too. I think it just leans more, like I said earlier, into that action comedy. So, you know, listen, some fans might prefer that. I think this makes for a lot more of like just kind of a not so serious fun time that I think may have amplified this enough to carry this franchise forward as this like extension of just cult classic creature features.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Imagine you make a movie, just this little ragtag team, you got even Kevin Bacon in it, and you make a movie about a big old worm in the sand, a few worms in the sand, and I know they're not actually worms, I get it, but you do this, like how could you ever imagine that this entire fucking franchise would follow? Like, this is the epitome of a cult following. This shit is just absolutely outrageous.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Well, I mean, that's the thing, you know. Kevin Bacon himself said that he I think he was originally offered the opportunity to come back to the franchise even before he was going to and recorded a pilot for like the TV series that was gonna happen that never got picked up. But he regrets not doing it because he realized he, I mean, he just didn't realize at the time that the movie would actually become such a a fan favorite. So he didn't just didn't think it was gonna take off at the time of his career. He said, Listen, I'm not really trying to do sequels, you know?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So yeah, it must be nice to be such a guy, such a Kevin Bacon, that you can just say, Ah, I'm gonna do just one of everything, but fuck a sequel.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Not try to do any sequels around here. Don't want to get typecasted.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I guess you can say at least he wasn't typecast because catch this man how many years later in the movie they slash them.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

But to that point, obviously this movie is big on its practical effects, its visual effects. There's a lot to unpack there. I know we're gonna talk about it in the spoiler zone. But this is absolutely a movie that you have to see if you're a creature feature fan. If you love puppetry, if you love big old nasty monsters, this is the moment for you. And I can give some credit to this because obviously this is recognized as a universally beloved direct-to-video sequel, but the effects in this movie barring a couple small moments, I was actually really impressed with.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Oh, yeah, 100%. There's some good work here, and I think that's you know, if you're a fan of creature features, like you said, you're in the mood for more of an action comedy with a lot less horror involved, I would say. This is probably gonna be a good time for you if you really get into those fun practical effects and these types of movies, it's gonna be a good time. I think if you're in the mood for something that's a little bit more serious, like a really like a creature feature that's a little bit darker, this is probably not gonna scratch that itch. But if you just like fun, campy, lower budget horror movies that have some cool practical effects and it's just a little bit silly, this is probably up your alley. I think the real question, you know, now that I'm thinking about these graboids and stuff, the real question is we never correct me if I'm wrong, we never got a Graboid in the horror games. I wonder what the Graboids would do to that Amityville house, you know, just coming up from under.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

We actually had the Graboids last year in the horror games when it was just branded as Monster Madness.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

And I have to look back, I'll you know, what we'll do is I'll do a little follow-up here. I'll follow Pachel and see when the Graboids fell off in the rankings, but I'm like 99.9% sure they're in there.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah, they probably were last year. I but I'm just thinking, you know, they could do some damage coming up from under the ground.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

They absolutely could, but also the Amityville House continues to be unrelenting. You know what this movie's actually for, Sean? This movie is for your buddy who doesn't like horror movies, but does love a root and tootin' good time. Can get with like a two a tiny bit of gore. The kind of person that you just grab a couple beers with and a pizza, and you're just hanging out in your house because neither of you want to go home and you know confront your daily lives. There's some it's one of those moments, right? Like this is the moment where you have a friend that you're relying on and you just hang out and vibe and watch a movie with. That's this movie.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah, for sure. I'm with you there.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

But I can't wait. CC where you actually fall in terms of the ratings here before we actually score it though. How would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, the gore in this one's definitely moderate. It's toned down compared to the original. You'll see, you know, a little bit of blood splatter, some creature damage, some torn limbs, but nothing super extremely graphic. I so I think, you know, this it's like this creature feature gore rather than this splatter whore. So you're not gonna see a ton of blood and guts, and I think it just earns this one a fairly tame and low gore score.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Well, it's definitely not a howling good time, although you may not see anything on screen. The audio is enough to paint a picture.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Oh, damn, what a moment. Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Tremors 2 Aftershocks from 1996. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Yeah, Tremors 2 Aftershocks, 1996. That's wild. I was probably what, nine, ten years old, something like that when this movie came out. It's the kind of sequel that pretty much knows exactly what it is. It's a slightly goofier, smaller budget creature feature that trades the tight suspense that the original had for a little bit more chaos, some more monsters, and really just a healthy dose of that direct-to-video charm. And we unfortunately don't get any Kevin Bacon action in this one, but in Val's absence, we do get Earl Bassett back into the worm hunting business, and Fred Ward does a really great job carrying the film with that same kind of grumpy energy that made the first one work. And even though I did miss that kind of Val and Earl Magic, the film did compensate by introducing a new concept with the monsters or the Graboids, which was, I think, one of the biggest positives in this film. And the creature evolution twists, the practical effects, they do a lot of the heavy lifting in this movie, which give the creatures this kind of tactile feel that many modern monster movies lack nowadays. That being said, the lower budget, it is pretty noticeable at times. I think the scale feels a little bit smaller, the suspense never quite hits the same highs as the original, and the film does kind of lean more into comedy and creature chaos than actual tension, but it's entertaining. Even if I'm not exactly what I would describe as a Tremors super fan, and they're out there, I know that, I acknowledge that. I've only seen the first one in this movie, and while the original is definitely the better film for me, Tremors 2 is still a solid and silly monster flick. And so this sequel may not hit as hard as the original Graboid attack, but it still earns a soft slash for burrowing up just enough creature feature fun to keep things wriggling along.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

You son of a bitch, you had to work the word wriggling in there. I could only think about the entire time I watched this movie, Sean.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

What?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Imagine the Dune popcorn bucket, but for Graboids. If this movie got released this year in theaters to celebrate its anniversary, uh a direct-to-vide sequel, finally getting a theatrical release, it would definitely have one of those weird fucking popcorn buckets.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Oh, for sure. Oh, and that would be great. A tremors popcorn bucket? Come on, re-release it in theaters and just give us the graboid bucket.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

I'm sure if we go on Etsy, we can find it somewhere. I'm sure someone has already 3D printed this. And listen, I'm glad that you loved the original. I didn't love the original. I think this worked though. It leans into what makes the concept fun instead of trying to just recreate something that really didn't even hit for me the first time, and knowing the concept. Behind this, right? The creators pushed for this, that they scaled things down, that the director even directed it for free just to get it made, adds to that. This feels like something people wanted to make, not something they had to make. And I think that difference, that small dose of difference in the chemistry and the pick yourself up by the bootstraps and just get on with it kind of energy, is what I think subconsciously differentiates some things here. But the creature evolution in this gives this story a sense of progression without overcomplicating things, which I think is a very delicate thing to land. And really, Bert completely elevates the movie every single time he's on screen, he's pulling focus. I think because we get so much more of him, I was sold on this movie because I never really cared for Earl and Val. I know they're our heroes of the first film, but I was like, okay, Fred Ward was better for me as Earl in this movie. But Bert is where it's at. And I'm excited to see what the rest of the franchise has in store. This movie is gross in some moments, but it's still fun, and it feels like a sequel that actually earns its place. And for that reference, this movie just turned 30 years old on April 9th of this year. And I'm pleased to say it actually changed my mind about this franchise. It's a slash.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

And with that, Tremors 2 aftershocks from 1996 has earned a universal slash. But the fun doesn't stop here. We have so much more to unpack. Stick around, and we'll see you in the spoiler zone in just a moment.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Well, let's be honest. If you live in a remote desert town and a giant underground murder worm starts tearing through your community, you got two options. You could either panic, scream, and climb onto the nearest boulder, or you could embrace the it and just start a snack empire. And that's where Desert Worm Jerky comes into play. Made from 100% locally sourced subterranean worm meat, Desert Worm Jerky is slow roasted, mesquite smoked, and slashed into convenient grab-and-go strips that are perfect for long days of graboid hunting, jumping from rock to rock while screaming, or waiting out for a pack of heat-sinking shrinkers in an abandoned oil facility. Each bag is packed with protein and bold desert flavor with exciting flavors like original sandstone smoke, shrinker spice, and Bert Gummer's tactical teriyaki. There's a taste for every survivor. Now you might be wondering, is giant worm meat safe to eat? Great question. The real answer is, who knows? And the real question is, who cares? Because desert worm jerky is proudly inspected to ensure it contains at least 40% fewer mysterious underground parasites than the leading brand. So the next time the ground starts rumbling beneath your feet, don't panic. Just reach for a bag of desert worm jerky because when life gives you giant underground worms, you make jerky. Man, the kills in Tremors 2 are maybe, I guess you could say maybe in some moments less graphic, but still a whole lot of fun. I think some of the kills, you've got these shriekers biting and tearing victims up, you've got some off-screen deaths implied by screams, you've got some bodies being dragged away, and I think the film leans more a little more PG creature chaos than gore, but with 84 total kills in this movie, we're including the monsters in this one, we have a fair amount to break down in this sleigh by sleigh. So really let's get into it. Starting with the the unnamed guy, the oil worker, the random dude that was in the opening scene just trying to fucking survive, hopping from barrel to barrel, trying to get escape this graboid, get to the van, and you know, he just got outsmarted.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

You know, watching that moment, I was immediately thrown back to the original film. And it reminded me that the only way to raise your children now that I know that these movies exist, is to not play the floor is lava, but to instead play the floor is graboids.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

It's true. You know, the thing that's I get the rock, I get the hopping on boulders. What I don't get is when you're fucking jumping from barrel to barrel, that thing's causing a vibration on the ground. They're gonna they're gonna feel or hear it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Yeah, listen, when you're out of shit's creek without a paddle, what are you gonna do? You gotta make some effort, some level of attempt. But also, even if you got to your van, which wasn't particularly far away, you think the graboid suddenly doesn't give a fuck if you're driving? Sir, come on.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, it's a little interesting. But you know, that guy, he didn't make it out alive. Five other dudes in his field of work also got eaten that were mentioned. But then we kind of go, you know, we get that whole premise. We then we get Earl and Grady coming together to go hunting to get what they were getting like what fifty thousand dollars for each kill.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Yep, they sure were, and you know how much that is in 2026 money.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

That's some oil money right there. That's some big money.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Okay. Fifty thousand dollars in nineteen ninety-four, actually, when this movie was actually filmed and was supposed to come out.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

In 2026, that would be roughly 105,000 to 110,000 per graboid today. So let's do a little bit of this math. The graboids that eventually die, there's four of them that are killed before the evolution reveal. At least that we like see, there's a lot more than that that get killed.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

But that's approximately four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yeah. Oh, these guys millionaires, millionaires by now.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Okay, so if you then count the shriekers, and you want to foil that in. Now, granted, there's a contract at play here, so technically the top contract was for graboids, not descendant of graboids. But if you did this, 24 total creatures on the low end estimate. Yeah, in 1994, it'd be 1.2 million. Today it'd be around 2.5 million. The high estimate, if you go around like 34 and 35 creatures, 1.7 million in 1994, 3.5 million today.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

I mean, sign me up. I'll go hunt some fucking shriekers right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

That was gonna be my question. There was trauma, but also they kind of had a really good time. So I feel like I would have absolutely fucking done it. You throw me $50,000, I probably would have done the whole thing for $50,000, not for $50,000 per graboid. So I'm glad they stipulated and added some clarity there. But also, I want to see what these contracts look like because imagine you as the person who needs to hire Earl.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

You're trying to find this guy, and you're like, okay, this guy, I'm gonna pay him $50,000 per graboid. And then some random motherfucker shows up and said, Oh, yeah, no, I'm getting in on this. You're also gonna pay me $50,000 per graboid. Sir, get the fuck out of here. You come with no expertise, no on-the-job training, you haven't lived this shit. You're not entitled to $50,000. And if I was an Earl, I'd be pissed at this guy trying to move in on it.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Yeah, you're getting, you know, if you're even allowed to join, you're basically getting a small percentage of kickback. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Nah, dude, you're getting paid an exposure.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yeah, you're yeah, that's for sure. What also I think is actually kind of hilarious is the fact that we come off of Tremors, the first one, and it's such a wild time. Like these guys are genuinely trying to survive. It's a horrific experience trying to get through these graboids until they finally figure out how to take them out at the end, right? They blow them up, lure them onto the whatever, and blow them up, and we come flash forward into Tremors 2. They get Earl, you know, and he's back in the saddle again, so to speak, and all of a sudden, these guys just have the plan, man. They're just lure them out here, get this remote control car, and just eat the dynamite and blow them up. It's like they barely even broke a sweat.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Okay, this is work smarter, not harder, and finest. This is absolutely it's teamwork makes the dream work as any other planet's dying you can think of. The RC car explosions are easily one of the highlights of this movie. It's such a ridiculous concept. It is so brilliant, it's dumb, but it works, and it adds that layer of fun to something that should feel dangerous. And I think that's just fantastic. Again, you have just how obviously traumatized Earl is, but this movie is so light and so fun and so silly-nilly that they're just driving remote control cars.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Absolutely ridiculous. Oh, yeah, a hundred percent. And then you get to like this pivotal moment in the film that, you know, if you hadn't seen this before, it's kind of a shock, right? Like you get to this pivotal moment where you have this graboid that is, you know, sick or dying, you think, or something's happening, and really these shriekers come out of it. It looks like they just eat their way out somehow in this one, and you've got this whole new evolution of creatures that maybe you haven't, like in this moment, you don't know what they are, you don't know what they look like. You know something happened, but it's a very pivotal moment that leads to an untimely death for a certain individual.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, I at first did not realize that this was going to be an evolution. Again, I've heard of Shriekers, I've heard of the Ass Blasters, and any other like of these Graboid titles, but I didn't necessarily know that we were gonna see it protrude from some some carcass of a graboid. I didn't think we were gonna see the actual evolution of it. I thought we were just gonna discover a new species. When we initially see that Graboid's carcass, I thought, damn, it's thrown back to episode one, Phantom Menace. And it and Qui-Gon is saying there's always a bigger fish. But no, there's a lot of smaller fishes inside of it.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Now that does take yeah, now that does take to what was my favorite kill in the movie, which is before you ever get to see what these shriekers look like, you see the impacts on Pedro. And Pedro's car is, as the kids say, toe up from the flow up and absolutely fucking wrecked, and all you see are his dangling little hands completely severed from the rest of his body.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Ah, it was so good. It was so good. You know, you knew something went down, and then you got that that just that shot's all you needed. They didn't need to go crazy. It was enough just to see those hands that were ripped off so good.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

I want to be very clear here, Sean. That first kill we get of the oil worker, that was akin to anything being thrown into the sarlac pit in Star Wars. This kill, this non-kill that was off-screen, but you just see the remnants of hands, this is the moment that makes it a horror movie. This is the only moment that own that earns that.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

That is true. That is true. This was the most horrific part of the movie because then after this, it goes into a whole thing of now we're killing more graboids, we're killing different shriekers, we're blowing them up with shotguns or elephant guns or whatever we're talking about here, and we're just going back and forth all on, and it's just action, it's fun. You're killing creatures. It reminds me a lot of you know, in these moments, a little hints of like starship troopers or something like that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, and even the next actually, maybe it wasn't the next one, but I believe it was the next human death that we get was Julio. Yeah. When he's getting nommed outside the window, and said, also, maybe don't lean inside the fucking window, window, you weirdo. Just go inside the door. But even that death for the fact that we see it more than we see Pedro's death, for some reason it was in the Jurassic Park category for me, which is I understand it's gross and I understand he's definitely gone, but also it ain't that bad.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

It ain't that bad, it ain't that bad. It is it is a cool shot, if I'm not mistaken, the same company or whatever that worked on Jurassic Park for some of this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yeah, there is a lot of crossover there, but it is such a delicate thing to be able to produce such violence on screen, such gore, such mayhem, and it still feels family friendly. What the hell is up with that?

SPEAKER_02 35:59

I don't know. It's just some good old wholesome fun, right? Just killing a bunch of these weird whatever they are, you know, these graboids that give birth to these shriekers or this evolution of the graboid, it's wild. And yeah, it's it was just kind of fun to watch them kind of go at somehow, like the uh danger of it all doesn't feel as intense in this one. I think they're just they're easily just blowing these things away, and by the end of it, they kind of trap all of those shriekers in the barn or whatever the hell it was, and then blew it up with a truck full of bombs.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Okay, let's be real. Let's consider this for a moment. Let's say you were erasing time itself, you have the opportunity to completely remake Tremors, and it has not existed in the world before. So imagine kind of like that movie where this guy travels back in time and just claims the Beatles' music as his own and just is a star himself. Imagine you're that. Do you put the Graboids first still? Or do you start tremors with shriekers and then evolve to the Graboids?

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Yeah, that's an interesting concept. I don't know how wild this franchise gets, so I don't know the progression of these creatures, and so like If from because of that, I'm only going off of these two things, and like to your point, it almost makes sense to start as shriekers that like evolve into the Graboid, but you know, maybe I don't know. Yeah, it almost makes sense to do it that way, but I don't know. I think the Graboid to me still feels a little well, they hunt in packs, so you've got a whole pack of them that can be like little velociraptor type things, but I don't know. I don't know which one's more dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah, see, I can understand from an evolutionary perspective, evolving to have legs and the infrared. Um this is a fake movie. What am I talking about here? I can see from an evolutionary perspective.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

We're breaking it down, the scientific breakdown of this evolution.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

I have no science backing me up on this, to be clear. But you know who does have this? Perfect organism, who is a longtime dear listener and great enthusiastic participant in our Discord server. I am sure he will weigh in on this, and I can't wait. However, comma, I can understand evolving to having legs and walking the earth, but also from a threat perspective, I don't know, big old worm in the sand definitely scares me way fucking more.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Yeah. It's a little bit more intense when I mean yeah, I guess you could feel it, but to an extent, like you can only go so many places with these things. I guess the thing that kind of makes it a little bit more dangerous with the shriekers too, though, is the heat seeking. So like you have to bring your body temperature down, or it gets a little bit harder, I guess, to get through them, but hey, I got it.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Vision board. Let's take the graboids, let's put them on the land, but let's also make them predator, but let's also make them velociraptors.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Yeah. It was a nice little mix, it was kind of fun for sure. It made also kind of funny. It made for some really funny moments, like when they're trying to like walk through the field where the pack of shriekers were and they're just using doors in front of them. Like that kind of shit was just kind of funny. But this movie is filled with practical effects, which I think makes it one of the coolest things about this movie. And when you're watching a creature feature and the creatures are still mostly practical, it just makes for a really good time, it makes for a good watch. I feel like despite what some people might think with all the technology with CGI and whatnot, sometimes these practical effects make the film age a lot better. And you know, you're getting everything from these little animatronic shriekers, you got these puppetry, you know, mechanics, these creature rigs, these little miniatures for explosions. The CGI is really, really minimal. One, because it's the mid-90s and CGI wasn't really all there yet or anything like that, but it does help the movie like still feel a little bit relevant today.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Yeah, that I I honestly didn't love the CGI. Oh no, it's better. It's such an obvious difference. And I mean, I guess sure it's possible for the 90s, but also it is, I guess, very close to that late 90s Star Wars CGI, except done a little bit better. George Lucas really went crazy for a little while there, but it was such an obvious difference between the incredible practical work versus then the CGI imagery that we get when like they're just standing around in packs. It was a little tough.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Yeah, it is tough when they're starting moving around and stuff, and they're you can see the CGI in those moments, it doesn't look great, just like anything with those effects from like the mid-90s. But the shriekers were really designed to be a you know, despite what you might think with all this, a little bit easier to film because the Graboids were extremely expensive to film in the first movie because they required these massive, massive underground rigs, these huge mechanical puppets, the controlled terrain setups. There was so much that went into filming the Graboids. So the shriekers they actually allowed more above-ground creature action, which you know you love to see the little whole hunting and packs, these little guys, and they invented these things which allowed for a little bit more faster-paced creature action, you get easier above-ground filming. There's smaller animatronics, so you can do a little bit more. I think the creative limitation actually expanded the franchise mythology, which benefits from what I understand, films to come. And when they use like the creatures, they use several different techniques. They use these animatronic heads, these puppet rigs, these like even up to full creature suits that people would be in, and rod puppets for close-ups, the all kinds of fun stuff. I think it took two two fully articulated full-scale shrieker puppets required like 16 operators to function, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

It is absolutely crazy. And I I want to really just point out how much of this movie was them having to figure things out on the fly. Think about that. Think about how many people had to pitch together to operate these puppets. And then let's also consider that this movie before it was gonna be directed video, was originally planned as a much bigger theatrical release and then got scaled down to that four million dollar budget. Right. And you can feel in just like in moments like that, how they adapt to it, right? There was a moment where Reba McIntyre and Kevin Bacon were both gonna come back for this movie and they both pulled out, which resulted in support for the film being withdrawn. Then the actors and crew volunteered to either lower their rates or work for free to keep it alive. I mentioned earlier that the director offered to direct the film for no pay. And it was that kind of belief, that kind of compromise that led the studios to screen light it at a lower budget and direct the video, which honestly, this is scrappy filmmaking. I know how can you look at four million dollars and think scrappy filmmaking when you have movies like Undertone being made for way less? Yeah, but it is scrappy filmmaking. It is honestly really impressive.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Oh, yeah, totally impressive for sure. And you know, it's yeah, it's just kind of fun. You know, you you said you kind of have to make it up as you go along. There's all kinds of funny stuff. Like the actors were, you know, some of these interviews, the actors were saying that when they're inside of these suits because they had limited vision, they're sometimes just cracked.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Speaking of actors in suits, I can just cannot wait for us to get to the 1954 Godzilla.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Oh, it's gonna be great. Oh boy, yeah. That's gonna be a good time for sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Now, speaking of things that felt like they were made up along the way, I just want to highlight one of my favorite moments in this movie, which was and I'm sure it was actually scripted, but Bert's captain logs, like him driving around in his truck, you see a light come on, and then you realize, oh, he's just filming himself. He's vlogging. Bert Gummer is vlogging his graboid hunting. It is hilarious. This man has so much charisma and is just absolutely hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

Yeah, he's vlogging the whole thing, or he's like almost making his own like you know, he loves to watch those war documentaries. He's almost like making these documentaries, like he's on the battlefield taking these things out, you know, like it's gonna be on the history channel in a hundred years.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

My question is why haven't we gotten a Bert YouTube channel?

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Oh my god, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Like, yeah, it's begging for this, it is absolutely begging for the street bit.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Oh, a hundred percent. And you know what? Like Bert Gummer's entrance, I think, in general for the movie, is just one of the one, he's a fan favorite, it's a fan favorite character moment, and when he shows up, the tone shifts instantly, and it's such a great moment. And I think that the audience already knows Bert is insanely overprepared coming out of the original Tremors. His arrival brings, I think, the firepower, but also even more comedy. And so, like, if you're a fan of Tremors, Bert's presence was a huge payoff moment that I believe was actually like not a hundred percent planned at first. Like, he was kind of late coming in. It was almost like a surprise for the film and for us watching it, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

And what a great surprise that was. Genuinely, Sean, if he wasn't in this movie, I would have been ridiculously bored. I don't know that I could have stuck with this movie the same way. He really elevated it uh honestly significantly for me. I think one of my favorite moments is just all these quips that he gets, but specifically when he rolls back up to the party when they've all reconvened, and he says, I feel as though I was denied critical need to know information. And I honestly have having watched that this weekend, I walked into work today, and there was a situation in which I felt like I was denied critical need to know information, and that line just replayed in my head.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's wild. I think some of the also just like great scenes is also when we get the reveal of these shriekers coming out of the graboids, the reveal of those, like it's easily it's actually easily probably one of the more important scenes in this movie. I think you know, you you have this celebration almost that you killed a graboid, but then the corpse splits open, you've got these shriekers crawling out. It's really just this genuine what the fuck just happened moment. Like, wait, I wasn't expecting this type of thing, and it reveals that graboids are just literally that one stage of the creature's life cycle. It changes the entire survival dynamic of the movie and just turns it on its head. Everything they knew up until this point is out the window now, and from a storytelling perspective, this is really a big twist that escalates the sequel way beyond just these worms or just more graboids, just like the first one.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

Yeah, it really is such a dangerous moment, right? And I'm thinking of is it the Hydra in ancient Greek mythology where you cut off one head and then all of a sudden another one grows back?

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

And it's just the more you try to attack the problem, the worse it gets, and that's exactly what this felt like.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

Yeah, a hundred percent. And then along with that evolution, you get this thermal vision discovery, and it kind of raises the tension and changes the survival rules. The characters start realizing that the shriekers are hunting using heat signatures, which leads to that you mentioned predator-style thermal POV shots, and I think it's important because it establishes new monster rules for these things. It you know, hiding on rocks is not gonna work anymore. It forces the characters to rethink everything on how to survive. And I think every, you know, from what I understand, every Tremors movie has a moment where the characters probably have to figure out the creature mechanics and if they're gonna evolve, like you, there's obviously we know I haven't seen them, but you even mentioned there's like other things that happen in the franchise, and so I'm sure they have to figure this out every time. But what's cool about these infrared things is the infrared POV sequences depicting what these like heat-sensing shriekers actually see were achieved in this really clever way by having actors wear red suits and yellow stockings on set, which is kind of fucking hilarious. But they were then like color manipulated in post-production, and so those sequences were additionally shot on these high-eight video and blown up to 35 millimeter film and added this grainy quality to it and this intentional texture choice that gave this POV shot this really distinct look on these literally zero effects budget. It's crazy. Like the what they did with nothing.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

And I want you to know it would still be cheaper to do today with the phone you already have in your pocket.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Damn. Just to put it into perspective, you know?

SPEAKER_00 49:49

No, genuinely, every day I think about the fact that I sold my soul to the government to go to school for film, and yet these cameras have cinematic mode, have depth of field, have rack focus capabilities. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Who would have thought right now? Who would have thought, you know?

SPEAKER_00 50:08

No one. I was a real chump. I was a real chump. But I actually really did like the thermal heat vision, etc. Yeah, again, it reminded me a lot of Predator, but on the other side of that, I actually really enjoyed the whimsy of seeing Earl dressed up and like just taking on with a fire extinguisher, just completely covered up to cool him down. But specifically when his body heat starts to reappear, that actually added a great deal of tension to the film.

SPEAKER_02 50:41

Oh, definitely. Definitely. What really just kind of broke through that tension, though, was at the end of the film where we get this really ridiculous and hilarious scene where you know it's supposed to be this really special moment, but I couldn't help but just laugh on this because Earl and Kate make this fucking connection at the end of the movie where she basically reveals that she was in a playmate uh issue, and he's like, No way, not the October 74 playmate that's sitting on my fucking wall. What in the holy hell, man? Just like, and then she does the pose. She does the pose, and he's like, Oh, yeah, that's you. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

Star cross lovers, I suppose. Listen, Earl and Val really do love science girls. I think they both have a type. But for the world to be so small that that playmate model in particular ends up being a scientist that ends up in an oil field in Mexico, haunted by graboids. Come on. That was you know what? Don't let your dreams be dreams. May we all be Earl and find our playmates.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

Yeah, it's so true. And you know, we gotta love it. And Kate, you know, she really does fill, you know, Rhonda's role, the scientist character. She helps explain the creature biology, the heat vision mechanics. She plays that pivotal role as well as like bringing the story forward. But yeah, Earl, definitely the returning hero. I think he shows up in a big way, you know, not having Val, not having Kevin Bacon. He had to show up and be the character. And I think what worked really well for Earl, and I'm sure you'd probably agree, is a little bit more confident, more experienced, basically this professional graboid hunter now, and I think he just definitely just carries the movie really well.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

Yeah, he really is the Han solo of this whole operation. And I what I like about him is that he's confident, yeah, he's experienced, yeah, but he also isn't really fucking around with this stuff. Like he's very wary of the world around him, he's very wary of the graboids, he understands the jeopardy and he respects the jeopardy, where everyone else may be taking it less seriously than him. So I really, really like that. And I especially like it because again, we have this dynamic to his character where he survived so much and then he was taken advantage of, or he blew the money that he did get. We have him this entire film thinking about the fact that he survived, but he's so focused now on financial survival. And sure, he can keep his life, but like how is he budgeting? How is he investing? How is he gonna be take his next third big second chance? He has another opportunity to do something different with his life. How does he take advantage of that? And the idea that his whole operation was just exploited, terrible.

SPEAKER_02 53:43

I know. And speaking of that exploitation, it just added some really fun little Easter eggs in the film because you got just in his little camper, you know, he had a graboid arcade game that looks like it would be really fun to have, but you know, like instead of getting a check, they were just like, here, have this arcade game that was made after the shit that you did and almost died, but we're not giving you any money.

SPEAKER_00 54:09

Yeah, I mean, listen, this is why you always read your contracts. This is why you consult a legal professional. If you don't have a lawyer, get one. I highly recommend it. However, I could absolutely not fathom a day where I survive something horrific and then it's turned into a fucking arcade game. Like, imagine this. What is a real world scenario that people survive that can then be turned into an arcade game? I don't want the actual answer now. It's a little bit rhetorical. Actually, if you're listening on Spotify, leave us a comment on what you would want an arcade game after. But I feel like it's kind of fucking wild.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

That is wild. That is wild. I'm sure a lot of this stuff would make some great arcade games. Why not? I gotta ask. Here's the question, right? Because you had posed the question like, would you have taken the Graboid Hunt offer? We talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

We did the math. We would be millionaires, multi-millionaires. Like, for sure, we're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 55:07

In this economy, it would get you two gallons of gas, but absolutely, yes, we would do it in a heartbeat. We're tired millennials, we want the fucking money.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

Yeah, yeah. Have you seen anything outside of these two movies? No, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:19

Absolutely not. No, I didn't even want to see the second one.

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Yeah, so we both have watched the first one, the second one. Why does Tremors have such a strangely loyal fan base? And then this franchise has gone on for what, like seven films or something like that. There's like seven or eight films, and I don't know how much changes in each film, but Tremors literally a strangely loyal fan base.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

I think it's first to Kevin Bacon, I think it is how gross the creatures are, but then I think at that point they must be getting funnier and funnier. I would bet because of how much I loved Bert in this, I've heard that he becomes the face of the franchise, in which case I get why people are loyal. I would kind of ride or die for Bert. Okay. He knows what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

If Bert is showing up throughout the franchise, then you know it's probably gonna be a fun time because this guy is just out here doing all kinds of wild shit.

SPEAKER_00 56:15

But I think that is part of the winning recipe here. So we have the evolution of creatures, we have Bert as an incredibly dominant character. Earl got his bag. I hope that Earl gets his payday and goes to do whatever the fuck he wants. Grady, good job being the right play in the right place at the right time and the right kind of fan, I I suppose. Like, I don't know how you again scammed your way into this whole operation. But if we move on in this franchise and only ever get Bert again, somebody's gonna reply to this and they're like, oh no, Earl comes back, I'm sure. If we only ever get Bert and we continue to get ridiculous evolutions of these things, I think it makes a really strong breeding ground of potential for the franchise. I think this is something where I'm actually thinking, huh, am I into this? Am I into tremors?

SPEAKER_02 57:05

Yeah, I'm with you for sure. I think the evolution of the creatures, the overall expansion of the lore, it allows for the franchise to continue building off of the last film and create this world of just creature feature fun. And I can see why people kind of like a little bit of these movies. Hopefully they continue to be this fun. I think with Bert Gummer with his silly survivalist humor and war addiction, I think that's what fans have come to love about his character. If Earl comes back, cool. I think all of this to your point, yeah, it makes you wonder like, am I becoming a Tremors franchise fan? I don't know. We'll have to see the next installment, whether we do it for the podcast or maybe we just do a Tremors Marathon for fun, who knows? So I think like it has made me want to explore more of the franchise now.

SPEAKER_00 57:57

Which is so fucking crazy. Am I gonna be into Tremors? I'm still thinking about this. I might be a Tremors fan, and I might be a Tremors fan specifically because of Bert Gummer, and that's exactly why I'm into the idea of watching this franchise moving forward. I don't really care to go back for the previous film at all, but I do want to look forward to the future with Bert. And while we have a long future to look forward to with Bert. For now, there you have it, folks. Tremors 2 Aftershocks has run a universal slash. Now we certainly had a robust discussion here. But the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

Yeah, if you want to find out what's lurking underneath this episode, consider supporting the show and check out patreon.com slash hackerslash. Some of the perks allow you to enjoy even more of the show, including bonus content with early access, extended episodes with our B sides, movie nominations, and of course, live shows.

SPEAKER_00 58:59

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, stuff like this only happens in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

You drive, I'm gonna keep my eye on the seismajigger thing.