“I am completely out of ammo. That’s never happened to me before.”
The story takes place in a Sonora, Mexico oilfield. The owner, Carlos Ortega (Marcelo Tubert), tries to hire Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) to kill a Graboid infestation. At first Earl declines the job; however Ortega’s taxi driver Grady (Bhris Gartin) convinces him to accept it. They both go to Sonora where they are joined by a geologist Kate Reilly (Helen Shaver) and her assistant Julio (Marco Hernandez). Kate and Julio are researching the Graboids.
Earl and Grady begin killing Graboids but soon realize that the number of Graboids is more than they can handle by themselves. Earl enlists Burt Gummer’s (Michael Gross) help. Burt shows up armed to the teeth and ready to go. The next day Earl and Grady crash their truck and find a sick Graboid. They radio the oilfield mechanic Pedro (Jose Ramon Rosario) for help. While waiting for Pedro the Graboid dies. Earl and Grady find empty sacs inside the Graboid carcass. Then they see Pedro and his truck in the distance. Well, at least his arms show up. The rest of him is gone and the truck is torn apart.
All of a sudden there are new Graboid-like creatures running around. The Shriekers have arrived. They try to attack Earl and Grady. They kill Julio and try to ambush Burt. But Burt plows through them and captures one. While investigating the captured Shreiker they discover a few things. It uses infrared sensors so it only sees heat. It can not hear or smell. To communicate it gives off heat signals to the other Shreikers and if you give it something to eat it reproduces. They realize that once it has been fed the Shreiker kinda… well… throws up another one. Unknown to the troupe one Shreiker that was clinging to Burt’s truck gets a hold of Burt’s MRE supply. Now they are up to their ears in Shreikers. With no plan to get out of it.
Released in 1996, "Tremors 2: Aftershocks" was directed by S. S. Wilson. It is a direct to video sequel of the original Tremors movie. Although nothing can beat the original, Tremors 2 has its own place in the monster comedy genre. Granted the Graboids aren’t as menacing as in the first movie but they still managed to whittle down the cast. I believe the second movie was supposed to focus on the new monster, the Shreikers. They may have been smaller and funnier looking but they did multiply quite efficiently, they sounded hideous and they made a nice big splat when shot with an elephant gun.
Movie makers always want the next thing to be bigger and better so now we have twice the monsters. I’m not sure they got the better part down but it does kick off the franchise. After all that’s why they make movies. More product, more customers. Still Tremors 2 was good taken by itself. Just don’t compare it to Tremors 1. Otherwise you may find it a little lacking.
Puppet creatures were created by Amalgamated Dynamics. CGI Creature effects by Tippett Studio. Reprising their roles are Fred Ward and Michael Gross.