For this year’s Spook-tober festivities, Renovatio Records digs deep (literally) to bring back the subterranean thrills of Tremors, the beloved 1990 creature feature that turned desert sand into deadly ground. Directed by Ron Underwood and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire, Tremors blended horror, humor, and good old-fashioned monster-movie thrills into a perfectly balanced cocktail of entertainment. Its mix of scares, laughs, and small-town charm spawned an entire franchise, but it’s the original film that remains a fan favorite. Its practical effects, masterfully crafted by Amalgamated Dynamics, continue to impress more than three decades later and remind us why audiences still thrill at the sight of a Graboid bursting through the earth.
Set in the dusty, isolated town of Perfection, Nevada, Tremors follows two handymen, Valentine McKee (Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Ward), whose dreams of escaping their dead-end life are interrupted when mysterious underground creatures (soon dubbed “Graboids”) begin devouring anything that moves. With a clever script that constantly walks the line between comedy and tension, and a host of colorful characters, from seismologist Rhonda LeBeck (Carter) to survivalist Burt Gummer (Gross), the film became a cult phenomenon upon home video release, spawning multiple sequels and a TV series.
For the film’s music, director Ron Underwood first turned to Ernest Troost, whose background in folk and Americana was ideal for capturing the quirky spirit of Perfection and its eccentric inhabitants. Troost’s score begins with a lively, rustic flavor; harmonica, guitar, and light percussion evoke both humor and warmth, painting the town’s dusty landscape with a friendly, down-home touch. In the folksy country cue “Val & Earl,” Troost introduces his main theme for the protagonist duo: a relaxed descending piano figure that perfectly mirrors their easygoing camaraderie. This motif soon evolves into a distinctive seven-note melody that recurs throughout the score in various guises, from subtle hints to more dynamic statements underscoring their determination. Its most striking transformation comes in “The Plan,” where Troost crafts an Americana-tinged, heroic rendition meant to accompany the dozer rescue sequence, a cue ultimately replaced by Robert Folk’s more forceful orchestral counterpart in the final film.
Troost’s early cues establish the film’s identity with warmth and personality, effortlessly blending small-town charm with the promise of adventure. But as the film’s horror elements emerge, Troost’s writing evolves. The score gradually introduces eerie textures, percussive pulses, and atmospheric motifs that signal growing danger, with cues such as the first half of “On the Road to Bixby,” “Something’s Wrong,” “UZI4U,” and “Goin’ Fishin’” emphasizing mystery and mounting fear. Amid this tension, Troost also weaves in a delicate love theme for Val and Rhonda: a gentle, unassuming melody that adds warmth and humanity to the unfolding chaos. The theme first appears in “On the Rock (Love Theme)” and later returns in the film’s epilogue during “Finale,” where it reaches its emotional resolution.
However, when it came to the film’s full-scale action moments, Troost’s material, while rhythmically inventive and thematically cohesive in cues like “Barbed Wire” and “Rec Room,” was ultimately deemed too restrained for the intensity the filmmakers desired. The producers sought a more forceful, dynamic approach to drive the larger set pieces and amplify the film’s energy.
Enter Robert Folk, known for his robust symphonic style, who was brought in to write new music for the action and climax sequences, giving Tremors the adrenaline and heroic power the producers sought. His contribution (roughly twenty minutes of music) is a masterclass in rhythmic propulsion and orchestral energy. Tracks such as “Run!”, “Graboids in Town,” and “Val’s Run” deliver relentless momentum, propelled by muscular brass, racing strings, and dynamic percussion that elevate the tension to blockbuster levels.
Yet Folk’s approach wasn’t purely orchestral. To maintain cohesion with Troost’s soundscape, he subtly incorporated country-flavored elements, like harmonica and twangy guitar lines, particularly evident in “Vibrations in the Ground” and moments of “Run!”, where these textures are cleverly repurposed to evoke suspense rather than humor. Folk also introduced a distinctive Graboid motif, built around a repetitive clanging, metallic synth-cymbal effect that punctuates their attacks and reinforces the sense of subterranean menace.
Most notably, Folk created a heroic fanfare motif in an Americana style, featuring bold brass and lush strings, which makes a striking appearance in “Dozer Rescue” (a cue used twice in the film). This fanfare underscores the heroism of the characters while evoking the sweeping Nevada desert landscapes. The heroic motif later shines during the thrilling “Stampede” sequence at the end, driving the action forward to its climatic resolution as the last of the Graboids bursts through the cliff wall and meets its demise, punctuated by a triumphant statement of the theme signaling the creatures’ defeat. This combination of heroic brass, expansive strings, and rhythmic drive gives Folk’s music its unforgettable cinematic punch, perfectly complementing Troost’s earlier cues.
Together, Troost and Folk create a fascinating hybrid: Americana-infused small-town charm colliding with muscular symphonic terror. The result is a score that mirrors Tremors itself — part creature feature, part character comedy, all heart and excitement.
The music of Tremors has had a long journey to an official release. Ernest Troost’s score was first issued in a limited promotional edition in 1999, offering a strong but incomplete selection of his work. Robert Folk’s contributions remained largely unavailable, aside from a privately commissioned suite the composer released himself in his 1993 promotional "Selected Suites" album. It wasn’t until La-La Land Records’ 2020 two-disc edition that fans finally received a comprehensive presentation of the film’s music: CD1 featuring Troost’s full score and CD2 devoted to Folk’s material. While this was a landmark for collectors, the separation of the two composers’ work (though complete) did not fully reflect the experience of the music as heard in the film.
This new Renovatio Records edition approaches the score differently, respecting the chronological order of the film as much as possible to preserve its narrative and emotional flow. Troost’s thematic warmth and character-driven cues naturally give way to Folk’s dynamic action sequences, allowing the score to unfold exactly as it does on screen. To enhance the listening experience, several tracks combine multiple cues, creating fluid, extended movements; a welcome adjustment, given that much of the original score, by both composers, consists of short pieces, many under a minute. This careful assembly ensures that the music is both coherent for home listening and faithful to the film’s dramatic arc.
All in all, thirty-five years after its premiere, Tremors remains a rare cinematic gem: witty, thrilling, and endlessly rewatchable. The same can be said for its score: a unique collaboration between two composers whose differing sensibilities ultimately complemented one another. With this new presentation, Renovatio Records invites fans to rediscover Tremors not just as a cult classic, but as a showcase of musical ingenuity, tonal balance, and raw creature-feature fun.
Hold on tight… the ground’s about to shake again.
Track listing:
Cover Artwork:
|
Track Title |
Cue Title |
|
1. Main Title |
Titles (Troost) |
|
2. Val & Earl |
Val & Earl (Troost) Drive to Rhonda (Troost) |
|
3. On the Road to Bixby |
Rhonda with Graboid (Troost) On the Road (Troost) Into Perfection (Troost) |
|
4. Vibrations in the Ground |
Fred Dies (Folk) |
|
5. Something’s Wrong |
Finding Fred (Troost) Finding Fred (Folk) Road Attack (Troost) Roadblock (Troost) |
|
6. Best Horsemen |
Best Horseman (Troost) Rhonda (Troost) Riding (Troost) |
|
7. Run! |
Horses Stop (Folk) Graboid Revealed (Folk) Chang Dies (Folk) (Edited) |
|
8. On the Rock (Love Theme) |
Rock (Troost) Love Theme (Troost) (Edited) Night (Troost) Val and Rhonda (Alternate) (Troost) Love Theme (Troost) (Edited) |
|
9. Pole Vaulting |
Pole Vaulting (Troost) |
|
10. Barbed Wire |
Someone Will Come (Troost) Mindy (Troost) (Edited) Barde Wire (Troost) (Edited) |
|
11. Graboids in Town |
Barbed Wire Part I (Folk) Barbed Wire Part II (Folk) |
|
12. UZI4U |
UZI4U (Troost) Going After Burt (Troost) |
|
13. Rec Room |
Horses Stop (Troost) (Edited) Rec Room (Troost) (Edited) |
|
14. The Plan |
All Cheer (Troost) (Edited) Truck Alarm (Troost) Tractor (Troost) (Edited) Don’t Move (Troost) (Edited) The Dozer Rescue (Troost) |
|
15. Val’s Run |
Tractor (Folk) (Edited) Val Drives Dozer (Folk) (Edited) Graboids After Val (Folk) |
|
16. Dozer Rescue |
Dozer Crashes (Folk) |
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17. Goin’ Fishin’ |
Run for the Rocks (Troost) (Edited) Goin' Fishin' (Troost) (Edited) Graboid Guts (Troost) (Edited) |
|
18. Stampede |
Away from the Rocks (Folk) (Edited) Val Drives Dozer (Folk) (Edited) Final Confrontation (Folk) |
|
19. Finale |
Feel Like Making Noise (Troost) (Edited) Val and Rhonda (Alternate) (Troost) (Edited) Val and Rhonda (Troost) (Edited) |
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