As
promised in my franchise review for the earlier Tremors movies I purchased this
one the day it came out and watched it. Sure, it has been more than a week
before posting this review, but I had to watch it again before writing the
review. Spoilers I love this movie!
Burt
Gummer and his son Travis are back to do battle with the Graboids. This time
things are very different when they get a call from a Canadian Arctic research
station. Seems that the scientists there disturbed some Graboids while drilling
core samples and now they are in a heap of trouble. The boys immediately head
out to take a look and along the way their airplane gets “shot down” by an Ass
Blaster. If you’ve got Graboids you’ve got Ass Blasters!
The rest
of the movie is your typical Graboid hunt with the added complication that Burt
has been poisoned by one and is dying. So, they can’t just blow the last one
up. Nope they need to harvest the gland sack of a live one to make the cure and
save Gummer’s life. Just in case you were wondering that is as gross as it
sounds. But as one of the characters mentions, “at least it wasn’t an anal
gland!”. Along the way we also get to meet Valarie, the daughter of Val and
Rhonda from the first Tremors. This is only one of the excellent call backs to
the earlier movies in the series.
The first
thing that came to my mind when watching A Cold Day in Hell is that whomever
wrote the script knows the franchise and loves it. In this day of remakes and
re-imaginings it seems like most filmmakers run away from the established lore
of the franchises they are continuing. I already mentioned the callback to Val
and Rhonda thru the character of their daughter. There is even a snide and
funny line about Kevin Bacon that I appreciated. But that isn’t the only one
that put a smile on my face.
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| Burt Gummer rules! |
There is
another funny bit with a female character getting tied up in something and
being told to take her pants off to get loose. This is clearly referencing
Rhonda from the original Tremors. But here the character refuses. If you were
thinking it was a blow for feminism or something like that don’t. She almost
immediately lets them know that she isn’t wearing underwear! Funny line no? We
even get Burt Gummer yelling, “You broke into the wrong God Damn Hanger…” As a
fan of this franchise and characters I loved that they were referencing the
other movies in this one. It makes me love these movies even more.
All of the
creatures in Tremors 6 are CGI. I miss the old latex monsters from earlier in
the series but will admit that this allows them to move around much faster and
probably are a bit meaner looking. They get a decent body count and we get some
bits and pieces (head, leg, torso) laying round for our characters to find. And
of course, you get some Graboid guts splattered on the cast. Here we get it not
once, but three times. Can’t have a Tremors movie unless someone gets gooey!
I like
monster movies, and this is a great monster movie. Fast paced, funny dialogue,
great characters, and cool monsters. The fact that it also is the sixth entry
into a franchise I love is just icing on the cake. I highly recommend that you
check it out.
© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer
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