I wish Kevin Bacon would’ve made a career out of genre movies. Between Friday the 13th and Tremors, there’s no doubt that he could’ve been an even bigger genre star than he already is. He sets a tone with Tremors at the beginning that is both fun and truthful, and the rest of the cast follows suit, making Tremors a great genre flick.

Tremors is also a great example of why practical effects still trump CGI. The monsters look incredible, and the puppet work that must’ve gone into them is truly awe-inspiring. There will come a point when CGI looks as good as practical effects, I’m sure, but we’re not quite there yet. There have been some movies that come close (Edward Norton’s The Incredible Hulk is one film that springs to mind), but my vote still goes towards practical effects 90% of the time. Each and every monster is built with an incredible attention to detail that makes them so effectively disgusting. This is one that is sure to see a remake this decade, and it’ll be interesting to see if the CGI effects that it’ll undoubtedly use can look as good as the practical effects from this one.

As I mentioned, the acting is really spot on. Every character is funny, but none ever lose that sense of realism that could take the film into parody territory. This feels like a very real situation to me; unlikely, probably impossible, but real to the characters, which is important. It’s a great example of how to do horror/comedy or sci-fi/comedy the right way. Bacon’s work is definitely my favorite, but the rest of the cast is right there with him.

The only negative I find with Tremors is that it starts to drag a bit toward the latter stages of the second act. I feel like ten minutes could’ve been cut from the film, and it would’ve made it just that much better. Otherwise, this is a fun as hell movie that any genre fan that may have missed it this long needs to check out.