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Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell, which comes out this Tuesday, May 1st, is the sixth film in a series that has spanned nearly 30 years! It all started back in 1990 with the original Tremors, starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, and Michael Gross (not to be confused with Ghostbusters producer Michael C. Gross). Handymen Valentine McKee (Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Ward), along with gun enthusiast Burt Gummer (Gross) and the rest of the inhabitants of the small isolated desert town of Perfection, Nevada, fought off the underground sandworms known as Graboids. When Earl found himself in Mexico outgunned against the Graboids, and the new bipedal Shriekers in Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996), he enlisted the help of his old friend Burt. Burt came back to Perfection to fight the good fight with the remaining residents (including several returning secondary cast members) against the Graboids, the Shriekers, and the new aerial Ass-Blasters in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001). After closing out the trilogy, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) saw the series placed in the Old West of 1889 (100 years before the first film), as the citizens of that small town battled Graboids for the first time. Thanks to the efforts of Burt's ancestor, Hiram Gummer (also played by Gross), the town of Rejection was rechristened Perfection. The franchise rebooted itself, in a manner of speaking, with Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015). Burt and his new sidekick/cameraman/son Travis Welker (Jamie Kennedy) are called in to rid South Africa of those nasty Graboids, Shriekers, and Ass-Blasters. The new movie, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018), continues where Bloodlines left off. If that's not a good recap for you, here's Burt to give you his version.



Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell finds Burt and Travis up to their ears in Graboids and Ass-Blasters when they head to the Canada Arctic to investigate a series of deadly giant worm attacks. Arriving at a remote research facility in the arctic tundra, Burt begins to suspect that Graboids are secretly being weaponized, but before he can prove his theory, he is sidelined by Graboid venom. With just 48 hours to live, the only hope is to create an antidote from fresh venom -- but to do that, someone will have to figure out how to safely capture and milk a live Graboid!


The movie starts off with a gripping opening scene in the snowy tundra where a bunch of researchers find themselves caught off guard by a Graboid lurking under the snow and ice. After a small visit to Perfection for a status update on the town, the movie goes downhill as the research facility where the majority of the action takes place is located in a sunny, dry, mountain-locked valley with no snow or ice in sight (other than a little white power on the distant mountain tops). This disparate location, and the high temperature, is dismissed as "Arctic Summer" by the plot. So, yeah, the movie fails to deliver on its "cold day" title. That's my biggest gripe about the film. It promises something new, but just gives you more of the same. It will come as no surprise, then, when you watch the bonus features and learn that the movie was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa - as far away from the Canadian Arctic as you could get! I was surprised to find that that opening scene wasn't even filmed in the snow; it was filmed in an sandy African desert and made to look like snow though filters and video processing techniques.

Putting aside the location, the movie features everything you've come to love and expect from the Tremors franchise. Burt spouts off his usual one-liners, there are some big and small-scale creature attacks, lots of gooey innards, and so on and so on. It's certainly not a bad film, but it just seems more like "been there, done that" than any of the previous sequels.


A significant part of the plot involves Burt being laid up in bed after being poisoned by a Graboid from the events of the third film. As such, his son Travis takes the lead for the final battle. I guess this is to lay the groundwork for Jamie Kennedy to take over the franchise. No! Dear God, NO! The day Michael Gross does not come back to star as a lead in a Tremors film, is the day Universal should stop making Tremors films.


If Universal wants to end the franchise on a high note, they need to give a seventh movie a big enough budget to get Kevin Bacon back. Bacon's character Valentine McKee, is one of only three survivors from the first film that has never appeared in any of the subsequent movies. (The others are Rhonda LeBeck and Heather Gummer, played by Finn Carter and Reba McEntire, respectively.) Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell features his daughter Valerie, played by Jamie-Lee Money. A seventh movie could feature father and daughter Valentine and Valerie, plus father and son Burt and Travis, and end the whole franchise on one big "family reunion" wrap up.


At a runtime of 1:37:53, Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio with an 1080p transfer. Picture is crisp and clear with no issues that I noticed. On the audio side, there's an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio audio track, which is loud and clear, along with French and Spanish DTS Digital Surround 5.1. The film contains 20 chapters and includes English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. The first print run includes a beautiful embossed slipsleeve.


The small selection of bonus features that can be found on the disc are in HD.

• The Making Of Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell (14:06)
  - Setting The Scene (1:39)
  - Cast of Characters (5:03)
  - The Head of the Beast (1:42)
  - The Frozen Tundra (1:47)
  - Graboid Guts (2:49)
  - The Gift That Keeps On Giving (0:53)
• Anatomy of a Scene (4:01) - A break down of the various elements needed to film the first underwater Graboid attack.
• Inside Chang's Market (2:47) - See how this iconic location in Tremors history was recreated and updated for this installment of the franchise.

Also included in the Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack is a second DVD disc, which contains all of the bonus features listed above. The movie on the DVD is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. On the audio side, there are 5.1 Dolby Digital audio tracks for English, French, and Spanish. The film contains 20 chapters and includes English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles.

A Movies Anywhere (Ultraviolet) digital copy code voucher is also included in the standard two-disc Blu-ray case.


In preparation for Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell, I binge-watched the entire franchise. I would have to rate the Tremors films, from best to worst, as follows:

1. Tremors
2. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
3. Tremors 3: Back To Perfection
4. Tremors 5: Bloodlines
5. Tremors 6: A Cold Day In Hell
6. Tremors 2: Aftershocks

I'm on the fence about flipping the fifth and sixth positions around. As annoying as Travis (Jamie Kennedy) is in Cold Day, and as much as I feel lied to with the location of the movie, I think Aftershocks is worse. Grady Hoover (Chris Gartin), Earl's sidekick, is FAR more annoying than Travis is. The whole time I was watching the movie, I wanted to punch him in the face. I thought the decision to, mid-way though the movie, change the creatures from underground Graboids to land-walking bipedal Shriekers was lame. The final nail in the coffin would be the utterly stupid scene where the Shriekers (via CGI that does not hold up 20 years later) climbed on each others backs, pyramid-style, in order to reach the people atop an oil tank.


BLU-RAY - In the U.S., all six films are not available in one collection on Blu-ray. You will need to buy the Tremors: Attack Pack Blu-ray (for the first four films), plus the Tremors 5: Bloodlines Blu-ray+DVD, and the Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell Blu-ray+DVD.

DVD - Unlike Blu-ray, all six films HAVE been collected in the Tremors: The Complete Collection DVD Set. If you already own the first five films on DVD, then just pick up the Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell DVD. If you don't want Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell, then you can just buy the first five films together in the Tremors Anthology DVD Set.

There was also a short-lived TV series in 2003, which is available in the Tremors: The Complete Series DVD set. Michael Gross returns as Burt Gummer, and a few other familiar faces show up here and there.


Final Verdict: Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell is RECOMMENDED only to diehard Tremors fans (and completionists) only. All others RENT first.


All images were provided by Universal/MPRM. The Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack has been provided by Universal for review on this site. More images can be found on The Corner Penthouse Facebook page.