The Franchise: 1990's Kevin Bacon-starring sci-fi comedy horror flick was a surprise critical and commercial hit, making more than four-times its $11 million budget and being a huge smash on home video. This led to a Bacon-less 1996 straight-to-video sequel (where the series has remained ever since), which was broadly acclaimed despite having its budget slashed to just $4 million. 2001's third film saw Michael Gross' sidekick character Burt Gummer become the new protagonist, and again, the film was mildly praised, largely for Gross' performance. A 2003 TV series even aired for 13 episodes before being cancelled, and then Tremors 4 arrived in 2004 as a prequel (in which Gross played Burt's great-grandfather). Again, incredulously, it received mixed-positive notices. How It Died: Eleven years after the last movie, we're back for Tremors 5: Bloodlines, again starring Gross who co-stars with...Jamie...Kennedy. If that's not the death knell for any series, then the poor reviews and a budget that's not even been announced should do it. If this is the best they could come up with after over a decade, it's tough to imagine anyone greenlighting a sequel anytime soon, and considering that Gross is already 68 years old, he probably won't have many more chances to play the role. As for the prospect of a Gross-less reboot, that's just not even worth thinking about. The creators should just be glad they got 5 movies out of it and let it stay dead.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
