Tremors Week: Tremors II: Aftershocks

Welcome back kiddies to Day 2 of Tremors Week and I hope you are ready for Creature EFX and CGI!!! If not; well tough.  When we last left our heroes of Perfection they had survived the great encounter of the named “Graboids” and each made something of their lives.   So grab some dynamite, prep a RC car and hope he swallows the bait.   This is Tremors II: Aftershocks.

 

Okay boys, let's go eat the ADI!!!

Burt Gummer: I am COMPLETELY out of spoilers.  That’s never happened to me before.

6 years after the Graboid encounter in Perfection, Val and Rhonda got married and are living off the dividends of the creature discovery while Earl (Fred Ward of Catchfire, Cast a Deadly Spell, The Player, Equinox and Invasion: Earth) sunk his money into an Ostrich farm…because he is really got his finger so far from the pulse of what is a good investment.  

A taxi cab rolls up to his ranch and he is approached by a fellow Senor Ortega (Marcelo Tubert of Man Against the Mob: The Chinatown Murders, Partners in Life, Vampire in Brooklyn and Leprechaun 3) who owns Petromaya Oil Field and he must shut the pumps down due to Graboid infestation.  As an expert, he figures Earl would be an asset to removing the creatures, saving his workers and getting the oil field up and running again.   Ortega’s cabbie, Grady Hoover (Christopher Gartin of Buddies, M.A.N.T.I.S., Friends and Family and Hitched) offers to assist Earl for a sum of the money.  $50,000 buckaroos per Graboid.   The Mexican government is offering whatever arms and munitions they need to wipe these creatures out.

Got Kevin Bacon right in the crosshairs...

 Earl reluctantly heads to the oil field with Grady and meets up with the geologist/biologist Kate Reilly (Helen Shaver of Desert Hearts, The Color of Money, Open Season, The Wishing Tree and Poltergeist: The Legacy) and her assistant handy man and tech Julio (Marco Hernandez of Cheers, Ghetto Blaster, Red Surf and Lois & Clark).  They have set up seismographic monitors to point out the graboids, Earl and Grady simply taunt them with a noisy RC car rigged with dynamite and boom!  Instant 50 gees!   After realizing they are outnumbered the boys feel some back up would help and call survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross of Just Tell Me What You Want, Family Ties, Big Business, Tremors, E.R. and Batman Beyond: The Movie) to the scene.  

With Burt’s need for overkill, he is packing big bore rifles and enough high explosives to make a crater the size of the Grand Canyon.   After a few more graboids meet their maker, one runs away from Earl and Grady howling in pain.  It ceases shrilling and the boys go to investigate only to find the worm is torn out. Some sort of metamorphism has occurred.   Have the worms turned?  What will this new life form be like and can they stop it in time?

 

Hmm, wonder if anyone noticed I beefed.

I have just a few highlights about the FX of the film.  Tippet Studio (Hollow Man, Blade II, Men in Black II, Hellboy and Catwoman) is responsible for the CGI portion and back to Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (Alien 3, Death Becomes Her, Michael, Alien: Resurrection, Starship Troopers and Spider-Man) for the animatronics and prosthetic creatures.  The hybrid of both physical and virtual props does flush out more of what the creatures’ movement and attacks can be.
  

Spoonful of sugar this, Mary Poppins!!

The sad part is this was a direct to video/DVD film and could have benefited from some screen time.  The writing was not as sound as the original but that was due primarily to the creatures already been unveiled.  A decent enough sequel to the original but I would prefer more of the survivors of the original joining in.