Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell

Graboids.  Shriekers.  Assblasters.  If you dig modern monster movies, you’re familiar with the “pre-Cambrian” killing machines from Perfection, Nevada, thanks to the Tremors series.  After three movies, a prequel film, and a short-lived television series, we thought the franchise was done, but Universal ain’t one to forget about its potential cash-cows, so we got a fifth film three years ago, introducing us to Burt Gummer’s illegitimate son, Trevor, played by Jamie Kennedy.  It was a fine enough sequel, even though it didn’t do all that much for me.

Leave it to Universal (especially their 1440 imprint, the source of too many unnecessary and in-name-only straight-to-video sequels to count (I mean, there’s three Honey films now!)) to tap into the franchise once more with A Cold Day in Hell.

This time out, Burt and Trevor are called in to assist with a surprise graboid infestation in Nunavut (the northernmost of Canada’s territories).  Teaming up with some scientists, including the daughter of Val and Rhonda, they take the critters on, all while Burt suffers from a disease caused by graboid-borne microbes (remember when he was swallowed by one a while back?).

If nothing else, it’s nice to have Michael Gross’s Burt Gummer back.  He’s been the one constant throughout the franchise’s history (his character’s flip in the prequel notwithstanding, especially since Gross was still really good in that), and he continues to bring the badassery here.  It’s tempered a bit due to his advancing age and microbial infection, not to mention the script (more on that in a moment), but he’s still more than able to handle a gun a fire off a one-liner.  Jamie Kennedy also rises to the occasion here, having to step in for Burt when the latter goes down a few times, and his character is able to grow a bit from his last outing, rounding him out and reducing his overall obnoxiousness.

The film’s problems, though, seem to be clear results of Universal being rather cheap.  For one thing, it’s easy to tell we’re not in the Canadian arctic:  The South African locations (the same ones as the last outing) are made to look occasionally cold with some day-for-night-style color corrections (quick note to filmmakers: sand doesn’t look that much like snow, even if you tint it white), and the lack of frigidity is explained away as being a consequence of global warming (though such a rapid and extreme heating at that latitude would likely have grave implications for the rest of the world, I’d imagine).  The cinematography is stock and uninteresting, and the direction and camerawork are rote and lazy, replete with haphazard shaking and clumsy zooms.  The computer effects, though decidedly better than those found in Tremors 3, are nonetheless obvious, with often shoddy integration and cast interaction (I got flashbacks to scenes from The Last Airbender).  The script isn’t all that strong, coming across as a procedural in getting Burt to hunt graboids in yet another locale and relying on a lot of exposition and yelling.  Oh, and the poster up there?  Yeah, there’s no such graboid design, just the usual snake-tongued, wormy kind.

Despite the often cheap and rehash-y feel, Tremors 6 isn’t entirely bad, and there’s still some fun to be had with our ol’ pal Burt.  If you’re a fan of the franchise or just dig some cheesy monster action, feel free to give it a go without much concern.