Tremors: Shrieker Island [DVD]

“Tremors: Shrieker Island” is the seventh entry in the “Tremors” franchise and the third direct-to-video film in the revived series following “Tremors 4: The Legend Begins” (2004). Unlike the earlier works, these films only have brief framing scenes in Perfection, NV and Michael Gross as Burt Gummer is the only recurring original character (his son, Travis Welker [played by Jamie Kennedy], appeared in the previous two films but is not in this entry). This is also the first film to feature Shriekers, the second stage of the Graboid lifecycle, since “Tremors 3: Back to Perfection” (2003) and the third of the seven films to include them after they were introduced in “Tremors 2: Aftershocks” (2020). The previous two films skipped right to the third stage of the Graboid lifecycle, with “Tremors 5: Bloodlines” including a brief mention of Shriekers in its introduction.The film focuses on a rich man illegally importing Graboids to an island to hunt à la Richard Connell’s 1924 short story, “The Most Dangerous Game.” Bill Davidson (Richard Brake), a wealthy biotech industrialist and hobby hunter, genetically-modified the Graboids leading to a new breed of Shrieker that’s multiplying out of control. Assisting him in his organization of the hunt is Anna (Cassie Clare), a master bowhunter with a sense of honor. Dr. Jasmine “Jas” Welker (Caroline Langrishe), the mother of Travis Welker and a scientist on an adjacent island, discovers the Shriekers and sends her assistant Jimmy (Jon Heder) to find Burt Gummer, the world’s leading expert on hunting Graboids, using coordinates from Travis (the mention of the character helps maintain continuity even if he’s not present in this film). The portrayal of Burt living as a recluse on an island recalls Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, particularly as Jimmy says it’s Burt’s destiny to help fight these new Shriekers.Burt departs to help the scientists contain the Graboid and Shrieker threat, which could break free and attack the locals on adjacent islands. One of the scientists, Freddie (Jackie Cruz), uses her knowledge of demolition to help rig up a defense system. Most of the hunters don’t have names and, with the exception of Mr. Bowtie (Sahajak Boonthanakit), fall under the generic “tough guy” tropes. This makes sense as the franchise has typically rooted for the little guy, so the working-class researchers are better developed as characters than the billionaire hunters. Just as the previous two films featured Graboids and AB’s that looked radically different from those in the original four films, this one continues the trend, though at least it explains the new Shrieker design as the result of genetic modification. I’m not really a fan of the new design, but it works for this story. The tropical island setting works particularly well as it offers plenty of foliage for cover, with director Don Michael Paul using techniques similar to the “Jurassic Park” franchise in creating suspense, much like how he referened “Jurassic Park” during the kitchen scene in “Tremors 5.” The use of shots from the heat-vision perspective of the Shriekers coupled with the tropical setting similarly recalls “Predator” while Heder’s character directly references the Schwarzenegger film on several occasions.Like the other films in the series, “Tremors: Shrieker Island” is a campy, fun monster movie that will entertain casual viewers and fans alike. My only complaint is that, where the original sequence of four films and the 2003 Sci-Fi Channel television series developed a sense of continuity by referencing previous plots and including recurring characters so that each work built upon what preceded it, these last three films included only the occasional passing reference except for the sixth film flashing back to events from “Tremors 3.” Michael Gross is always entertaining as Burt Gummer, but he feels increasingly isolated. Jamie Kennedy’s decision not to return as Travis Welker further disrupts the connections within this sequence of the latest three films, though this is somewhat overcome with the introduction of Travis’s mother. Even the fictional town of Perfection played a role as a character in the franchise, but that has similarly declined in this sequence with the sixth film establishing that only two people live in the now-abandoned town and it not even appearing in this entry. Without giving anything away, “Tremors: Shrieker Island” is likely the conclusion to the franchise. Fittingly, it is a better overall film than “Tremors 5” and “Tremors 6,” though it would have been nice to see past characters from throughout the franchise make a cameo in the finale.Bonus features on this blu-ray bonus include a look at the monsters from the films (sadly none from the television series), the top 30 moments, and a production documentary called “The Legend of Burt Gummer” that looks back on Michael Gross’ 30-year journey in this role across seven films.

As a gift for Daughter she is very satisfied

Got this for my son to complete the series and he loved it.

If this is your first foray into the Tremor series, then you're starting with the wrong movie. Do yourself a favor, start at the beginning and work your way up to this one. For those of us who have been here since the beginning, expect something pretty similar to Bloodlines and A Cold Day In Hell, however, you may have mixed feelings about some elements. Shrieker Island is not perfect in any way but it is still enjoyable and has the campy/gorey/funny elements that made the films enjoyable, plus with the added star power that some of the previous entries lacked, it turns out to be an overall welcome addition to the series with one huge caveat that I will not mention here. It's nice to see the shriekers return after their absence in the previous films (they were always my favorite evolutions) as well as advancing their mythology. The film did have more potential that I felt was squandered in certain areas, but the end result was something that, as a long-time fan of the series, I did enjoy, just not as much as I hoped I would. Three and a half stars out of five.

It took me a month to finally watch this movie, after I checked the customer reviews, as I always do, and found the first review was R. Cook's asinine revealing of the movie's end (without a spoiler alert). I have been a dedicated fan of the Tremors franchise from the very beginning, and to have the final movie spoiled by a stupidly revealing post, that has been and is still the FIRST customer review, only shows to me how little Amazon really cares about its customers. I just finished watching "Tremors Shrieker Island, and I thought it was an exceptional addition to the franchise, in contrast to R. Cook's whining and self-centered review. I have been an Amazon customer since the 90's, and I have bought well over 1,000 movies from Amazon, especially because I replaced most of my VCR movie library with DVD's. But if Amazon keeps these movie destroying, juvenile reviews, of jerks like R. Cook, then I have bought my last movie from Amazon, or anything else from Amazon for that matter. Because they have refused to remove R. Cook's unfortunate and stupidly revealing review. Just because you don't like a movie (R. Cook), doesn't give you the right to give away the ending. My, but how I'd like to meet this asinine self-centered movie reviewer in person. Long Live Burt Gummer, and the Tremors franchise. They have been such a gift to so many of us.

Awesome dvd movie

Good entertainment. Scary but a fun scary not like if they were humans.

Product is fine... received in great condition... just wish these mail/deliverers would pay more attention to where they are delivering it!!! Found the product at my neighbors door... not mine!!!

It continues the saga of "tremors:", but it appears that this is the last sequenl since the hero Bert dies at the end.

Parece que es la ultima película de la serie...esperaba un poco más, pero esencial para la colección de Tremors.

satisfait de ma commande

This is nr.7 or 8 in the series and proof you can milk an idea ad nauseam. The first was brilliant andoriginal with decent actors, the rest went from okay to OMG this is the pits. Money well wasted, you'll askwhy did you buy it, as you knew it would be bad. Well i was desperate enough to see something new asCovid made me desperate enough to watch any moving picture. 2020 on the whole was a mediocre to bad as far as movies go.