SyFy’s cancelled, never-before-seen Tremors pilot is actually kinda fun

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  The Perfection Tourism Bureau evidently leaned strongly into its early ’90s spotlight. [credit:
  SyFy
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AUSTIN, Texas—Two types of Tremors fans exist in the world: those who’ve seen Tremors: Bloodlines and those who only acknowledge the franchise’s original film starring Kevin Bacon. In that 1990 horror-comedy, a small Southwestern town called Perfection suffers from an infestation of people-eating sandworms (called Graboids) that local not-so-brainy beefcake Val McKee (Bacon) eventually beats back. Ars’ Culture Writer Jennifer Ouellette casually refers to this movie as “perfection,” not an uncommon sentiment. If B-movie horror with flashes of comedic brilliance and a few edge-of-your-seat scares interests you, viewers likely can’t do much better than Tremors.

So when news of a modern reboot for television first trickled out in 2015, this development triggered both cautious optimism and premature regret. Various sequels already existed in the straight-to-DVD world, as well as a short-lived 2003 cable series. But they resembled the over-the-top camp of Sharknado more than Tremors.

Yet, Bacon agreed to both reprising his role and executive producing. Writer Andrew Miller put together the script. And horror powerhouse Blumhouse Productions—then pre-Get Out but still post-gems like the original The Purge—partnered with Bacon on the whole thing. Even the most diehard fans couldn’t wish for much more 25 years after the original cult classic. After all, Bacon seemingly never opted to revisit old roles before that point.