On April 6, 1996 the first direct-to-video sequel to Tremors was released. All of America groaned. While a good number of people wanted a sequel, the idea of a direct-to-video sequel being any good was very slim. However, Tremors II shocked home viewers around the globe by providing a film that was not only as good as the original film, but dare I say it, an even better film.
Let's start with the trailer. Unlike the bizarre contrast between the two trailers for the first film, the second film's trailer is straight forward. It shows you what you're going to get. It easily teases the audience without revealing too much. Again, the creatures look nothing like they do on the poster, and the poster doesn't look anything like the creature on the first poster...how bizarre is that?
Sequels are really tricky. What works about this film is two-fold: first returning characters are a must, and second it adds to the creature without repeating unashamedly. Fred Ward and Michael Gross return for this sequel and once again Burt Gummer, Michael Gross's character is not overexposed. He is in the film long enough and adds to his quirkiness that so defined his character in the first film. Fred Ward has a much stronger character in this film and is much more enjoyable than he is in the previous film.
The worms have turned. A simple tagline that could have been a total lie. Thankfully it wasn't a lie. What's great about the film is that it never attempts to make the grabboids scary again. The writer's know that the audience knows how to defeat the creatures. They even make killing the grabboids within the first 40 minutes very easy. This was a bold move on their part. There is very little tension if any at all in the first half of the picture. Once they change into their second life form is where the film gets interesting. They throw the rug out from under the audience. The whole time from when the character's realize that the grabboid is hollow to when they first see the new creature is the most tense sequence in the entire series. The audience really has no idea what is happening. This however was a great risk. Nothing truly horrific happens after the first scene until halfway through the film. It makes one wonder if multiple people stopped watching the film because it wasn't scary. But once again, the creatures look fantastic. I was afraid that the heat seeking mechanism was going to be too closely resembling Predator, but it didn't, it held it's own. Although they are smaller, they resemble the big creature enough and have enough menace to keep you tense during that part of the film.
This film is much more serious as well. The tone is darker, the characters are much smarter which makes the creatures all the more terrifying. They establish in this film that the creatures date as old as one-celled organisms. If this were true, how come any species survived from these creatures? Why aren't they all around the world? Although, considering that they first appear in Nevada and are now in Mexico, I guess the film hints that they are all around, but we just don't notice them...? I think that's a bit of a stretch. Due to the more serious tone and smarter writing, feel free to ask questions during this film. It's a lot smarter than it's predecessor.
I'll be honest, I had very low expectations walking into this film. I loved it when I was 14, but that was a long time ago. My tastes are much more refined and I'm much more critical of films. Surprisingly, Tremors wasn't as great as I remembered it being, but Tremors II was.
Tremors II made an estimated $4 million when it was released to video. That seems pretty good for a direct-to-video release if you ask me. Although Tremors II surprised me by how good the film was, I still have really low expectations for III, the TV series, and IV. I'm afraid the series is only going to go downhill from here.
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