Tremors recently released the seventh movie in the series, placing it firmly within the ranks of other mega-franchises, but how does it manage to continually be successful over time where so many other horror movie franchise have failed? As much as fans love movie franchises like Friday the 13th and Halloween, most can admit that many of the later entries to these series are lackluster at best and painfully bad at worst. Yet, for whatever reason, Tremors manages to remain consistently enjoyable even though it's somewhat unconventional by horror franchise standards.
Tremors: Shrieker Island, the seventh film in the series, follows main character Burt Gummer as he’s tracked down once again to save the day when a wealthy bio-engineer releases four stem cell enhanced graboids on a private island as part of a trophy hunt that gets wildly out of control.
While the plot conceit is obviously kind of ridiculous at the outset, all of the Tremors movies are known for a similar style of story. Which is quite possibly one of the major reasons why Tremors 7 does a great job at moving forward with, and potentially serving as the end of, a highly successful series.
The Tremors movies follow the attacks and destruction of a subterranean species of sandworm-like creatures called graboids. Starting first with the only full-release feature in the series, the original movie stars Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, the second movie focuses more on Fred Ward, but also brings Michael Gross’s character to the front. Then, Michael Gross became the star of the five subsequent movies in the series.
Perhaps one of the major reasons that Tremors as a series and Tremors 7 specifically has been able to remain successful is that despite the fact that the series often ends up alongside the horror genre, the movies are more action or comedy than they are horror at all. Obviously, there are plenty of comedy movies that have tried to expand into a series and failed, but the unique combination of monsters, characters, and comedy is Tremors’ saving grace.
Additionally, Tremors has done something no other horror franchise has done — they’ve never tried to reinvent themselves. Every major horror franchise - Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser, etc. - has had a remake or a reimagining or an installment that tries to totally change how the franchise works. Tremors, on the other hand, has always had a very clear vision of what it is and what fans like about it, and they’ve never tried to stray from that.
Tremors 7, specifically, does a lot of new things, bringing in a human villain outside of just the graboids, adding in the genetic modification aspect, and giving the film an island setting, but all-in-all, it still sticks very closely to the same formula that’s been successful for Tremors as a series over the past 30 years: graboids attack, get Burt Gummer, figure out how to fight them, Burt Gummer saves the day.
It does all that without sacrificing the same consistent tone that the films have had since the start, which is probably the number one reason the franchise has been able to stay so successful, but also because the franchise as a whole has so much heart. With each iteration of the series, none of the films ever feel like a cash grab, or like the cast and crew wasn’t wholly on board with the story. Every single movie feels like a work of love, and that’s the real reason it’s done so well.
Tremors as a franchise delivers a combination of lighthearted fun, giant monsters, and engaging characters that’s hard to beat, and its ability to remain consistent and strong across seven movies is certainly one for the record books. Tremors: Shrieker Island delivers comedy and a whole lot of heart alongside its giant worms, following in its predecessors’ footsteps to bring the Tremors series to a triumphant close.