Reba McEntire, Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross and Fred Ward in "Tremors," Universal Pictures, 1990

7. "Tremors" (1990)
Directed by Ron Underwood

A contemporary western by virtue of setting -- a small desert town in Nevada with the irresistible name of Rejection -- "Tremors" is a lively monster movie filled with offbeat humor, eccentric characters and a clever twist on a classic genre. Odd-job buddies Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward become unlikely heroes when subterranean prehistoric creatures start churning up the ground of their little town and gobbling up the local population. Think of the graboids as carnivorous earthworms on speed, all teeth and blind momentum. Gun-toting survivalist couple Michael Gross and Reba McEntire are the closest the film comes to cowboys, and even they drive around in pick-up trucks (theirs, of course, include gun racks), but the parched desert landscape and the mountains that ring the box canyon keep that frontier flavor. Director Ron Underwood casts a playful tone on a B-movie situation and plays it all with tongue-in-cheek humor, which pretty much negates any real horror. It is awfully fun, though, and it spawned a whole bunch of direct-to-video sequels, including 2004’s “Tremors 4: The Legend Begins,” a prequel set in the genuine Old West of the 1880s.

Directed by Grant Harvey

I suppose sequels were inevitable to "Ginger Snaps," a superb teen reworking of the werewolf myth in a femme-centric grounding, but the prequel "Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning" takes it back to primal origins in the unforgiving 1800s Canadian wilderness. Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle are once again the devoted sisters, this time taking refuge in a trading fort under siege from something fierce and deadly. "The Indians warned them not to build here" is all the explanation we get for the ominous claw marks that scar the gates.

The actresses have their act down, with Isabelle as the elder, transformed into a confident, sexually aggressive animal girl, and Perkins as the terrified but completely loyal younger sibling. The wolf pack looks shabby on screen, but the snowbound fort is a great setting, visually and tonally. A strain of Native Canadian mythology hints at some primal supernatural force at work, but the film is less concerned with explanation than with its portrait of female empowerment amongst the so-called civilized, with their religious zealotry, superstition and racism. Dropping the narrative into the chauvinism of the Old (north)West allows both genres to tap a fresh vein.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Quentin Tarantino's work-for-hire rewrite of a B-movie script became an instant cult item when Robert Rodriguez took the reins of this gory south-of-the-border horror tale with a spaghetti western flourish. George Clooney headlines the picture as a charming and deadly bank robber with a psycho brother (Tarantino, overacting as usual) who together take a camper full of hostages into a Mexican brothel that turns out to be a nest of bloodsuckers. It's a vampire blood orgy with southwestern flavor, loaded with smart dialogue, outrageous antics, self-consciously hip humor and a bloodbath finale directed by Rodriguez with campy overkill and go-for-broke enthusiasm.

Not quite as lively, but certainly more traditionally western, is the film’s 2000 direct-to-DVD prequel "From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter," a turn-of-the-century flick with Michael Parks as hard-drinking journalist Ambrose Bierce, on his way to join Pancho Villa's revolution in Mexico when he gets sidetracked at the now-familiar saloon/brothel. We all know where this is headed, but Parks brings a boozy authority to Bierce and director P.J. Pesce spices the gore with inspired humor and colorful character bits.

Directed by Antonia Bird

Not just an honest-to-goodness horror film set in the Old West, "Ravenous" is (for what it's worth) the definitive frontier cannibal movie. Guy Pearce is the new arrival to an isolated army outpost in the Sierra Nevada that could be a lost insane asylum. This collection of eccentrics is nothing compared to wild-eyed disaster survivor Robert Carlyle, who stumbles in with horrific stories of cannibalism in the mountains and then starts planning which soldier will serve as his next meal (he's not above tasting them as he sizes up his options). Very, very loosely inspired by the Donner Party incident and then pushed into psycho-killer territory, there's a thick streak of black comedy running through this grungy, gory, grotesquely funny battle for survival. You could say it's a vampire tale without the supernatural dimension -- it turns out human flesh is addictive -- or a particularly gruesome metaphor for manifest destiny. However you label it, "Ravenous" is off-the-charts crazy, an eat-or-be-eaten thriller served very, very rare. If you prefer your American settler cannibal films with more of a Rogers and Hammerstein flair, of course, there's always Trey Parker's all-singing, all-dancing, all-carnivore "Cannibal! The Musical."

Name (Required)

Email Address (Required, not displayed)

URL

Type your comments here...

IFC

I think our Facebook fans pretty much nailed all of our top choices. Great minds think alike! Top pick on FB was by far "From Dusk 'Till Dawn" voted by Brian L, Jen B, Corey L, Eddie Y, Andrea A, Missy P, Brittney Ashley, Dianna V, Justin Z and Lorrie P.

patrick

the town in tremors is Perfection not Rejection