Okay, fellow tapeheads, let's talk about a sequel that maybe didn't blaze onto the multiplex screen but definitely found its way into heavy rotation in our VCRs. Remember hitting the "New Releases" wall at Blockbuster or your local mom-and-pop rental joint back in '96 and seeing that familiar desert font? Tremors had a sequel! And while Kevin Bacon had traded Perfection Valley for the vastness of space in Apollo 13 (a well-documented "retro fun fact" – his schedule conflict forced the script change), our man Fred Ward was back as the perpetually unlucky Earl Bassett. Get ready to rewind to Tremors 2: Aftershocks.
### The Worm Turns... Sideways?
This time, the subterranean terror wasn't shaking the dust of Nevada, but rather disrupting operations at a Mexican oil field. Earl, now trying (and failing) to cash in on his Graboid-killing fame with a sad little ostrich farm, gets lured back into the hunt by a hefty paycheck. Partnered not with Val McKee, but with enthusiastic, slightly over-caffeinated cabbie Grady Hoover (Christopher Gartin), Earl finds himself facing a threat both familiar and terrifyingly new. The original film's writers, Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, returned, with Wilson himself stepping into the director's chair for this outing, ensuring a certain continuity of spirit even with the cast change and the significant shift to a direct-to-video release. Universal apparently tested the waters for a theatrical run but ultimately decided the straight-to-tape market was the safer bet – a move that probably felt like a slight back then, but cemented its status as a beloved rental staple.
### More Bang, Fewer Bucks
What Tremors 2 lacked in A-list star power (no disrespect to the ever-reliable Ward), it tried to make up for with sheer monster mayhem. The big reveal wasn't just more Graboids, but their smaller, land-walking offspring: the Shriekers. And here's where the VHS-era magic really shines. These weren't smooth, weightless digital creations. They were practical puppets, brought to life by the legendary creature effects wizards at Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (ADI), the same folks who gave us the original Graboids and would go on to work on everything from Alien³ (1992) to Starship Troopers (1997).
You could feel the physicality of the Shriekers. Remember how they’d stumble, how they looked like tangible things you could actually wrestle with (not recommended)? That tactile quality, that slight herky-jerky movement – that was the charm! They operated based on heat vision (a clever plot device born from their blindness), leading to some great comedic and tense scenarios. Compared to today's often flawless CGI, there’s an undeniable, almost comforting reality to these puppets interacting with the actors and the environment. Reportedly, the larger Shrieker puppets often required multiple operators hidden just out of frame, giving them that frantic, unpredictable energy.
### Explosions and Resourcefulness
The action in Aftershocks leans more heavily into, well, action than the slow-burn suspense of the original. With Earl and Grady armed to the teeth (thanks to that oil company budget, a stark contrast to their broke status in the first film) and later joined by the pragmatic geologist Kate Reilly (Helen Shaver), the film becomes a series of increasingly explosive encounters. And those explosions? They felt real because they often were. This was the era of squibs that looked like actual bullet impacts, of sending debris flying with controlled charges, not painting it in later.
There's a sequence involving a radio-controlled truck packed with explosives that feels wonderfully low-tech and desperate – classic Tremors resourcefulness cranked up a notch. It might look a bit rough around the edges now, the miniature work perhaps more obvious on a modern HD screen than on a fuzzy CRT back in the day, but the intent and the practical execution still impress. Wasn't there something just viscerally satisfying about seeing those creatures blown sky-high with actual fire and dirt? The budget was tighter this time around (around $4 million, a significant drop from the original's estimated $11 million), and you can sometimes feel it, but Wilson and his team stretched every dollar to deliver monster-mashing fun. Filming took place largely in Valencia, California, effectively doubling for the Mexican desert setting.
### Still Got That Perfection Vibe?
While it doesn't quite capture the perfect blend of horror, comedy, and character chemistry that made the first Tremors (1990) an instant classic, Aftershocks is a remarkably enjoyable sequel, especially for the direct-to-video market it landed in. Fred Ward slips back into Earl's dusty boots effortlessly, his world-weary cynicism playing nicely off Gartin's eager-beaver energy. Helen Shaver adds a welcome dose of competence and dry wit. And yes, we even get a late-film appearance from everyone's favorite survivalist, Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), arriving like the cavalry armed with enough firepower to level a small country. His entrance is pure 90s action cheese, and it's glorious.
The film understands what made the original work – ordinary folks pushed to extraordinary lengths by extraordinary creatures – and finds new ways to explore that, even if the path is a bit more straightforward and explosion-heavy. It successfully launched a franchise that, improbably, continues to this day, mostly inhabiting the same direct-to-video space where Aftershocks first made its mark.
VHS Heaven Rating: 7/10
Justification: Tremors 2: Aftershocks earns a solid 7 for delivering genuinely fun creature feature action on a DTV budget. Fred Ward's return is welcome, the practical Shrieker effects are a delight of the era, and it retains enough of the original's charm and wit to satisfy fans. It loses points for missing Kevin Bacon's dynamic with Ward and for feeling slightly less polished and suspenseful than its predecessor, but it stands tall as one of the better 90s direct-to-video sequels.
Final Thought: It might not have the original's bite, but Aftershocks proved the Tremors formula had legs (or... pseudopods?), delivering practical monster mayhem that still feels satisfyingly real in a way CGI often struggles to replicate. A worthy rental night revisited.