Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Tremors: Shrieker Island Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 5, 2020

It's hard to believe that Graboids have been lurking and listening and lashing out from below ground at anyone and anything that vibrates for three decades now, beginning with the enjoyable original that started it all, 1990s Tremors. But here it is, 2020, and the franchise is still going strong by way of the direct-to-video marketplace. Tremors: Shrieker Island is the seventh film in the series and the sixth to be released straight to video. It's also one of the most superfluous and, perhaps unsurprising for a film that's the sixth to go straight to video, the least original and least enjoyable of the bunch.

Bill Davidson (Richard Brake), an ultra-wealthy exotic game hunter, has his sights set on the biggest prize of them all: a graboid. He has assembled a crack team of hunters to accompany him to the mysterious Dark Island. Their arrival upsets the local creature population as well as the efforts of a scientist, Dr. Welker (Caroline Langrishe), and her assistant, Jimmy (Jon Heder). When Davidson and his team discover that a graboid has given birth to shriekers, Jimmy coaxes Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) out of retirement in an effort to save lives and fulfill his destiny as the world’s foremost graboid hunter.

This is not a particularly interesting movie. It’s populated by bland characters (even Burt is growing a bit long in the tooth), banks on stale action, and never can shake the feeling that it’s trying to rip off movies like Jurassic Park and Anaconda with a little bit of Aliens and a whole lot of Predator for good measure, shamelessly recreating “Predator vision” and even manufacturing its own take on the sound effect that goes with it. At least Jon Heder’s character references John McTiernan's 1987 classic – twice -- so there’s at least no effort to pawn this off as original content. If there's a saving grace to the lack of creativity it's that the movie plays with its tongue planted firmly in cheek, acknowledging its influences and playing up the relationships, even if they're not always so blatant as the Predator nods.

But as a Tremors film there's nothing here that hasn't been done before. It's new set dressing but ultimately just another Burt adventure, surrounding him with a cast of eccentric support characters (remember way back in the original when he was the eccentric support character?) and putting him behind a few new weapons, including a flame thrower. Michael Gross seems to have lost that edge in this one, playing the part more for the paycheck rather than the fun and energy he's brought to the previous DTV films after being elevated to lead. But the movie can achieve little beyond slogging through the material, haplessly floundering about, not even trying to reinvent the wheel of its own making, just making do with a name and a face. If this is the future direction for the franchise -- low on budget, lower on ideas, and lowering the bar with every new outing -- it may just be time to put it out to pasture.

Tremors: Shrieker Island Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080p picture quality teeters on exceptional. It's often razor sharp and perfectly clear, yielding highly detailed and meticulous facial features – hairs, pores, makeup, all of the caked-on dirt and grime covering Burt's face when he's first located -- while jungle foliage, clothes, and other elements maintain sharpness for the duration. Contrast is boosted quite a bit. Graboid blood and fiery explosions run extremely hot, as do jungle greens and even low light blues and grays. Skin tones are also reflective of the cooked-up colors, too. Blacks push a bit overly deep as well. The image does display some noise in lower light, as is to be expected, and one or two of the most challenging shots show compression artifacts. Overall, though, the image is quite hearty, tack sharp and very colorful in its extreme tonal push.

Tremors: Shrieker Island Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tremors: Shrieker Island's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack excels in every way. The track makes a strong impression to start with robust music and high yield sound effects. There's depth galore to both; the subwoofer puts in an honest day's work with this one, commanding the stage with high intensity music and high yield sound effects, such as creature growls and gunfire, the latter of which play nicely in conjunction with piercing shrieks and screams that are often in accompaniment. Equally impressive is the island ambience which offers a full array of birds, insects, rustling leaves, and other small details that work together in harmony to place the listener squarely in the middle of the location. Surrounds are extensively utilized as well for all content – music, action, atmosphere – and create an organic and spacious sound field with ample room for effects to flow through. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized for the duration.

Tremors: Shrieker Island Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Tremors: Shrieker Island contains three featurettes. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• The Monsters of Tremors (1080p, 3:49): Burt introduces the various creatures and studies their biology and attack patterns. It includes clips from the various films from throughout the franchise.
• Tremors Top 30 Moments (1080p, 8:08): Burt again returns to introduce a highlight reel of both key and memorably fun moments from each film.
• The Legend of Burt Gummer (1080p, 13:04): Michael Gross recalls his place and experiences in the Tremors franchise. The piece includes interviews with various co-stars and filmmakers throughout the years, including Kevin Bacon. It also features interviews with fans.

Tremors: Shrieker Island Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

By its end, the movie does seem to close the door on the franchise, at least on the iteration that's been on the table for the past three decades, and that's absolutely a good thing. Whether it continues forward or not is anyone's guess, but if it does it must be with fresh ideas rather than making a movie just to make a little bit of money off of a familiar name. Scrap, rebrand, rework the franchise, do anything but continue releasing low effort films like this. Universal's Bu-ray does deliver healthy video and audio presentations while tossing in a few supplements at the same time. Skip it.