Tremors 4: the Legend Begins (2003)

Cast:

Michael "The one true survivor..." Gross is Hiram Gummer
Sara "I admit I was in Jumpin' Jack Flash" Botsford is Christine Lord
Brent Roam is Juan Pedilla
Ming Lo is Pyong Lien Chang
Billy "Cyborg 2 is an epic..." Drago is Black Hand Kelly

What the box says:

Get ready to be shaken to your core by this all-new prequel to the original Tremors!

When workers in the remote minign town of Rejection, Nevada, fall victim to an unseen predator, the mine's owner, Hiram Gummer (Michael Gross), great-grandfather to Tremors' Burt Gummer, hires a mercenary to destroy the carnivorous creatures before they swallow up his profits. What follows is an all-out assault that takes the battleground from deep in the earth to a suspense-filled showdown on the streets of Rejection!

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins with thrill you with incredible action sequences, awesome bonus features an earthshaking special effects created by the award-winning team behind the original box-office hit, Tremors.

Plot:

In Nevada, 1880, Juan, a miner, escapes unlike some of the other miners that disappear. In the nearby town of Rejection, Nevada, people are abandoning the town. A telegraph announces that the mine owner, Hiram Gummer is coming out to handle things personally. When he arrives he learns the mine is closed and 17 miners were killed.

The few remaining townsfolk are pretty wary of Hiram. Hiram and Juan head out and get the few remaining miners to go with them to the mine. They don’t find anything in the mine but head off and make camp for the night. Something causes the horses to run off. A couple of the miners are pulled underground. Juan and Hiram are the only survivors. They realize the creatures hunt by sound. Crossing over rock they’re able to get back to Rejection.

In town, Hiram sends a telegraph to hire a gunfighter to handle the problem. A month later, during a stormy night, Black Hand Kelly arrives. He is told about the monsters. The next day, Kelly, Hiram, and Juan head out and can’t find anything at the mine. They discover some strange egg remains nearby.

Making camp for the night, tentacle tongues attack them. Kelly starts showing how Hiram how to shoot. The worms are slowly dragging the floor beams away and making it easier for them to get to the men. They send a message from the telegraph line to town. A Graboid gets Kelly.

From town, Christine drives a carriage out and is able to rescue Hiram and Juan. Hiram has decided to head off and run. However, Christine, the Changs, Juan, and Tacopa aren’t going to leave. Fu-yen, the Chang’s son, can’t convince Hiram to stay and fight. Hiram is going to leave from the next town.

Juan spots a dust trail from the approaching Dirt Devils.

Hiram is about to buy a train ticket and learns the town has been ignoring Rejection’s pleas for help. They think that giant worms are a joke.

As the Rejection residents have changed their mind and decided to leave when Hiram returns with a wagon load of weapons. He has a 2 inch bore punt rifle for himself. The plan is lure the dirt devils with sound and attack.

The weapons loading montage begins. They start making noises to lure the dirt devil when it appears. Hiram is able to handle it with his super rifle. The next dirt devil is able to eliminate Hiram’s rifle. A saw is able to take care of this Graboid.

The last Graboid is trickier to eliminate. They decide the best chance they’ve got is to use the black powder to blow it up. The Graboid demolishes the Chang’s market. The plan falls apart, and they have to tie a chain to the Graboid and pull it apart with a tractor.

In the aftermath, the townsfolk want Hiram to stay and run the mine. He agrees to help provided they don’t reveal anything about the dirt devils and to help rebuild the town.

Rejection, Nevada is renamed Perfection, Nevada. Christine brings Hiram the greatest gift of all: a Gatling gun. He has planned where he’ll build his house. Hiram goes to target practicing with his Gatling gun.

What I say:

The original Tremors was one of the few early 1990s monster movies that were good. How good? It was able to inspire the first direct to video sequel: Tremors 2: Aftershocks. After that it was pretty much considered to a be dead franchise. Several years came and went before Tremors 3: Back to Perfection was even an idea. Though about the same time, this movie was just about a movie pilot idea to get the Sci-Fi Channel Tremor series up and running. Unfortuantely, it came and went quieter than a graboid in the desert.

However, there still was a little more gas in the tank. So, Sufferin' Shai-Hulud, the worm has more than just turned but returned. Allow me to throw a few lame Dune references to shake a gom jabbar at... The idea of a sequel that is set 100 years before the rest of the movies is almost a novel idea. What makes it harder is trying to a do a prequel and keep it from re-hashing things is always a challenge. A series has typically set up its ground rules and must try not to break them. A prequel that is also direct-to-video normally doesn't fill one with many expectations.

Think it is safe to say most B-movie fans aren't big Western fans. A few may draw out attention like the all-midget Western Terror in Tiny Town. However, for most purposes, typical B-movie fans aren't very impressed with horse operas. A few genre movies have crossed with Westerns and have given us a very few number of moviesJesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, Sundown: the Vampire in Retreat, or the Uwe-Boll-Buster Bloodrayne 2.

Michel Gross this time is Hiram Gummer, a very prim Victorian businessman. He's having to play a Gummer who is a forefather though not quite the gun-toting prepared Burt Gummer at the beginning of the movie. However, Hiram does start to pack the ammo and learn better survival through superior firepower.

When you need a character actor to either be the evil guy or just plain sinister guy, who're you going to call? Billy Drago. He's appeared in more moives than you can keep track of. He may be remembered more for Cyborg2 orincurring the wrath of Chuck Norris in Delta Force 2. Though here, he only appears more as the typical sinister gunfighter.

A series of movies needs some sort of connection to the others. Trying to basically take some of the things and characters from the first movie and take them back a 100 years earlier is quite a challenge. Having a Gummer, Chang's market give us that feeling of Perfection or Rejection, Nevada.

We can't expect or demand complete consistency from any movie about giant man-eating worms. Egg hatches into a shrieker that eats until is is big enough to become a graboid. As a shrieker is seems to see by body heat. Though when in graboid it hunts by sound since it is now underground.

For what this movie is able to do, it is pretty impressive. Taking the movie mythology and able to bend it to fit somewhat into another genre and not be a total tongue in cheek bursting through the cheek beating the viewers over the head with in-jokes. The first two movies are better with Fred Ward and Michael Gross. For the last movie to end on a better note than some franchises like Sometimes They Come Back... for More may not be the best recommendation but is still better than some.

Anyone execting to find much gore in this PG-13 movie will realize they're intestines out of luck. That definitely is the case here. We didn't really get the exploding graboids from Tremors 2: Aftershocks. Some guy screaming as he's pulled underground or in the mouth a worm. The movies aren't intended for the Cabin Fever group. They're more for the monster movie with a bit comedy (horromedy, comerror?).

Quotable Dialogue
"Expect arrival of a great conqueror."
"But, the nothing, it was worse than anything I have ever seen."
"Doc Holliday's dead?"
"No one goes without a hat in China."
"Always be prepared,"
"Dagnabbit, Gummer ain't you got no pride?"
"I voted to drop you off a cliff."
"Speak for yourself, gringo."
"You missed with a cannon."
Morals of the Story
In the Old West, everyone is armed.
Gunfighters love apples.
Giant chickens are commonplace in Nevada.
Old West didn't have any gun control laws.
Buying cannons don't have any waiting period.
Wooden Indians aren't tasty.