Movies - TV
Tremors Planned For One VFX Scene The Crew Just Couldn't Pull Off
By WILLIAM BIBBIANI
Bodies of water are often the source of major inconveniences and setbacks during film production, such as the problems Steven Spielberg faced with the mechanical shark during “Jaws.” While these problems may not seem like they would affect “Tremors,” the 1990’s horror-comedy classic set in the desert, water actually caused one of its biggest pieces to go completely unfilmed.
Director Ron Underwood ran into trouble on the last night of shooting the film. Underwood explained, “We had planned this way of making the car sink into a pool of water, covered with vermiculite, that is a sand-like looking material. But it became evident through the night that the vermiculite had absorbed the water so much that it was a solid surface. So it wouldn’t allow the car to sink.”
The scene was to be a gruesome death for two characters, with Underwood describing it as “a beautiful image that we just couldn’t do because the whole effect wasn’t working quite right.” The scene ended up different for the final cut of “Tremors,” which became a cult classic that has spawned seven sequels and a short-lived TV series on the SyFy Channel.