Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)

A fun and welcome sequel to one of the greatest monster movies ever made.

Very few monster movies are as great as the original Tremors, but Tremors 2 comes really close. While the original director and co-writer Ron Underwood doesn’t return, his co-writer S.S. Wilson does and he takes over the directing duties with a healthy amount of respect for what he and Underwood set up in the first film. 

Tremors 2 does a great job setting up where the story goes logically after the events of the first film. While Kevin Bacon and Reba McIntyre don’t come back, Fred Ward and Michael Gross do, and they’re enough to give us the familiarity we need to connect back with the original film. After the absences of Bacon and McIntyre are explained away in a satisfactory manner, we’re whisked away into a new adventure.

So where do we find our heroes? Fred Ward is living in a trailer. He’s made some headlines, but bad decisions and being taken advantage of have left him without a dime. When the graboids start causing mayhem at a Mexican oil refinery, the broke Ward is summoned back into action with the promise of $50,000 for each graboid killed and $100,000 for any captured alive so they can be studied. There is a new sexy geologist (Helen Shaver) to this time be a love interest for Ward. Christopher Gartin’s Grady Hoover isn’t as charismatic or likable as Kevin Bacon’s Val in the original, but luckily Michael Gross returns as Burt Gummer to make up for it. It’s when Burt appears that the film shifts into a higher gear and quickly becomes great fun. Some of the trappings may seem familiar to those that have seen the original film but why toy with what works?

One of the better direct to video sequels I remember ever seeing, Tremors 2: Aftershocks is a fun and welcome sequel to one of the greatest monster movies ever made. Sure, it’s a retread, but it’s a retread that works. Check it out.