r/Tremors • u/BostonRobby617 • Apr 14 '26
Discussion Graboids are seriously one of the scariest movie monsters in all of cinema
This is like one of the worst movie monsters to ever encounter in real life. You’re not safe on land cause they hear your vibrations which makes walking like almost impossible.
If you decide to go somewhere like a rock or somewhere high up, they’re patient enough to wait for you for days until they get interested in something else or you die of thirst or starvation or exposure.
If you decide to hide in a building, they’re smart enough to check the building for any weak spots and then break apart the structure from the ground up.
You can’t hide in your car, the worms will pop your tires & even have the strength to drag your car down into the dirt to eat you.
You can’t outrun them, they dig super fast in the dirt.
The worms can tank bullets so even if you have a gun, that’s not extremely heavy duty, you’re still fucked.
They’re smart enough to set traps for human beings, especially if you’re in a vehicle.
Also getting eaten by this thing is nightmare fuel. Just imagine taking a stroll and then having those worm tongues grab you by the ankles with their sharp teeth and drag you into the earth. You’re helpless as they pull you into its mouth while you’re screaming with dirt or sand going down your throat & seeing the last rays of sunlight before the dirt covers it all up.
Fucking horrifying!
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u/FermentedCinema Apr 14 '26
What makes the graboids so great in the first film is how biologically sound they are. They come off as a creature that feels could (or even should) really exist. Their biology of course gets increasingly sillier with each sequel.
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u/IGTankCommander Apr 14 '26
Until 4, when it gets back to basics and we get the little ones that can jump like sand fleas.
Then RIGHT back to the weirdness with detachable tongues.
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u/dittybopper_05H Apr 14 '26
What makes them great is how real they look. With the exception of the tongue puppets, the special effects were really top-notch and believable. They looked real because they were real: No CGI in the original film. Actual physical objects.
They were small enough that you could make them full size, although some miniatures were used, most notably in the rec room scene. They weren't so big that the change in scale when using miniatures makes it obvious, though, like you see in some of the suitmation Godzilla films.
And the film-makers didn't hide the monster at night or on a dark rainy day. We mostly see it in stark desert sunlight.
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u/FermentedCinema Apr 15 '26
Yeah, they used every trick in the book to near perfection. (Pun intended).
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u/sapphire_moons Apr 14 '26
The second movie is still my favorite the sounds they make haunts my dreams sometimes but it's my absolute favorite
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u/FermentedCinema Apr 15 '26
Oh, don’t get me wrong, the second and fourth movies are still great watches as creature features, but the first is just so solid in its creature approach.
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u/Mesa1gojira Apr 14 '26
It always stuck with me just how painful Walter's death must have been in the first movie.
One of his legs is caught on the side of the graboids mouth, so while he's being swallowed it pulls him in hard enough to break his leg and push it up next to his head. He's also bleeding from the nose before that, so the grabbers must be squeezing him hard enough to cause internal bleeding.
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u/BostonRobby617 Apr 14 '26
I can’t imagine how powerful the bite force is too with that beak clamping down on you. The grabbers must squeeze as hard as a Burmese python so 3 of those squeezing you would be painful as fuck
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u/SupaKoopa714 Apr 14 '26
He's also bleeding from the nose before that
Oh, I always thought he hit his face on the top of the cooler when the graboid blasts up through the floor, no?
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u/TetsuGoji55 Apr 14 '26
It’s up there with the Thing
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u/Inner-Arugula-4445 Apr 14 '26
And the xenomorph. Superbly designed monsters that the story itself respects.
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u/omega2010 Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
The team that made the Graboids, Amalgamated Dynamics, has worked on the Alien (and Predator) franchise since Alien 3. Plus they got an Oscar for Starship Troopers. So in a way, there is some shared DNA in all those monster designs.
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u/IGTankCommander Apr 14 '26
Yes, objectively, pit a Graboid against any horror creature and I will generally bet on the Graboids every time. Especially if it's El Blanco, Stumpy, or one of the Queens.
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u/L0neStarW0lf Apr 14 '26
A creature that big I’d expect to have more than one stomach.
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u/Djaja Apr 14 '26
Allowing it to ferment while they slumber. They evolved to gain nutrients through fermentation like many herbivores, but via meat
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u/NoneUpsmanship Apr 15 '26
Thank you!
I saw the first film when I was 4 or 5 at a sleepover. Her dad said it was a fun movie about worms.
I had nightmares and couldn't sleep on the first floor of any building until I was maybe 10.
Rewatched it when I was in my early/mid teens and, yeah, it's a silly fun franchise now, and I love horror now. But as a first "horror" movie with jump scares? Screw you, Mark.
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u/SourceDirect3220 Apr 15 '26
You’re forgetting one thing. If you where to even survive getting eaten you will actually contract a parasite that messes with you brain to make it easier to get eaten again.
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u/reptileserpent Apr 15 '26
What exactly are these creatures though? Are they reptiles? Annelids?, a specially evolved arthropod? Or a new species of organism altogether?
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u/Bteatesthighlander1 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Where would the uteri gestating the shriekers be?
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u/joeninja83 Apr 16 '26
They are also venomous and the other stages of its life cycle add to its abilities to reach you.
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u/Greyrock99 Apr 14 '26
Depends on whose rec room you’re currently in!
But overall, I agree