Arrow Films, out now

Natives of an isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.

It’s easy to forget how a franchise that’s currently standing at seven features (and a 13-part TV series) all began with this simple 1990 feature, and just how good it is. A throwback to 1950s B-Feature monster movies, Ron Underwood’s (Mighty Joe Young) comedy horror flick looks beautiful in Arrow’s new 4K transfer, the rich colours of the desert sparkling with the vibrancy of HDR.

Kevin Bacon is Valentine McKee and Fred Ward is Earl Bassett, handymen in the Nevada town of Perfection. Life is going nowhere, and then corpses start piling up, a seismologist picks up strange readings and giant worms – Graboids – come out of the ground. Much of the fun cones from Bacon and Ward’s constant bickering, some well-mounted action set pieces and the impressive practical worm effects, which typically end with a messy explosion. It’s such a simple, familiar premise – humans under siege in an isolated environment – and there’s a real joie de vivre about the escalating antics.

The 4K transfer brings the colour palette to life, with some particularly impressive detail in the landscapes. This limited edition release includes a 60-page book with new writing by Kim Newman and Jonathan Melville (author of Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors), a poster, lobby cards and more. There’s new audio commentaries by director Ron Underwood and writers/producers Brent Maddock & S.S. Wilson as well as Jonathan Melville.

There’s new documentaries: Making Perfection, The Truth About Tremors, Bad Vibrations, Aftershocks and Other Rumblings, Digging in the Dirt, Music for Graboids, and (my favourite) Pardon My French!, a 16-minute compilation of overdubs from the edited-for-television version. Add to that a bunch of archive features, deleted scenes and trailers and a second Blu-ray disc with more interviews and short films and you get the idea of how exhaustive this edition is.

Verdict: Tremors fans will swallow up this impressive package whole, and like the town where the movie is set, might consider this to be Graboid Perfection. 9/10