It's not just immodest women who make the earth move.

Tremors (1989)
Starring: Fred Ward, Kevin Bacon, Finn Carter, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire
Director: Ron Underwood
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Two handymen (Ward and Bacon) and a geologist (Carter) discover that giant worm-like creatures are killing people in the area around tiny Perfection, Nevada... just in time for the creatures to start attacking the town itself.


"Tremors" is a perfect mix of humor and horror, and it should rate as one of the all-time classic monster movies. The isolation of the tiny desert town cut off from the rest of the world as it is beseiged by bizarre, monstrous creatures, and the suspense of never knowing when the burrowing beasts will claim their next victim give this movie an atmosphere that puts in on par with other great monster movies. The absurdist comedy elements (which were surprising and unusual when the film was first released) give it a unique feel all its own. And the hlarious, heavily armed survivalists/militia-members played by Gross and McEntire almost make this movie worth seeing just by themselves.

This is a classic monster movie that is a must-see for horror fans.

'Stir of Echoes' is excellent spook fest

Stir of Echoes (1999)
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe and Illeana Douglas
Director: David Koepp
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Tom (Bacon) is a perfectly average, hard-working family man until he is hypnotized at a party and starts seeing things that aren't there and witnessing things that haven't happened yet. Tom's "third eye" has been opened, and he knows he won't have a moments peace until he uncovers why the spirit of a teenaged girl seems to be haunting his house.


"Stir of Echoes" is a fine little ghost movie. It starts out presenting a perfectly ordinary man and his perfectly ordinary family living a perfectly ordinary working-class Chicago neighborhood... and then it throws in a sudden, shocking supernatural element. There isn't anything particularly original to the story, but all the elements of a ghost story are expertly deployed, and the movie is so well-written that as the attentive audience member starts piecing together the underlying mystery, so do the characters.

A particularly refreshing part of this movie is that even as Tom is coming unglued because of his sudden psychic powers, his wife (Erbe) stays with him and attempts to help him. Too many movies have marriages fall apart immediately in these sorts of movies--here, we have a couple who are in love and who stay together through thick, thin, and supernatural events.

"Stir of Echoes" is one that lovers of ghost movies definitely should take the time to see. It is well acted and expertly paced and a type of ghost movie we won't see many of anymore, because Hollywood movie makers think that computer graphics can take the place of a well-done story.