Val: “Good morning Mr. Basset, this is your wake up call. Please move your ass.” 
Val: “There’s a stampede, Earl! Get outta the way!” 
Earl: “Val, you dumb shit.”
Don’t forget about that scene.
It becomes important later. We are not told much about their history, but the two have obviously known each other for a long time and have developed a chummy, but at the same time competitive relationship. They behave much like brothers. Much of the humor in this movie comes from the interaction between these two.
They leave the cows and head back to town. On the way they discuss and bemoan their situation. They both have dreams of becoming something bigger than what they are at that time, but they keep finding things standing in their way of achieving their dreams, or so they say. On their way, they remember that the new seismology graduate student from Mesa University had arrived. Earl had heard that it was a girl. They speed off to meet her, Val talking about what he wants the woman to look like. Well, he is disappointed. Rhonda Lebeck is the new student and she has blue eyes and brown curly hair. She’s set to monitor the multiple seismographs that had been set up around the valley for the past three years. She asks them if they had seen anything strange going on because she had been recording some strange readings, or tremors, on her equipment. Val and Earl say no. I will discuss Rhonda more later on.
The two men continue onto town. On the way, we see just how isolated this place is. The nearest town is 38 miles away and there is only one two lane road to the west and a steep jeep trail over the mountains to the east as ways in and out of the valley. Radio signals are also trapped within the valley and there is only a single phone line. If the phone and roads went out, it would be days before anyone would notice. The town residents would be on their own. Once they enter town they meet the rest of what will be the main cast. First is Melvin Plug (Bobby Jacoby) a teenage boy whose reason being in town is never explained. His last name does not match any of the other character’s names. There’s never any clue as to who he is with which while not a major problem still bothers me. Melvin is rather obnoxious to Val, Earl and Bert Gummer. Earl is often the brunt of Melvin’s pranks.
Next we meet Bert and Heather Gummer a husband and wife survivalist team. They are gun nuts who have taken up residence in Perfection to stay away from the government. They are talking with the general store’s owner, Walter Chang (Victor Wong). Walter is always looking for a way to make a buck.
Quickly we cut to a dirt bank somewhere in the valley. It starts shaking and dirt slides down the bank. Then it cuts to Rhonda going about her duties monitoring the seismograph equipment. While she works, she is followed around by a point-of-view monster and the dirt swells up as if there is an animal digging through it. These are our first hints that there is something under the ground and that the tremors that Rhonda had recorded before weren’t caused by the natural shifting of the earth’s crust. I'm assuming that the area has a number of fault lines beneath it, but this is never discussed so the reasons for the seismology study are not entirely clear. I would think it would be more likely to have studies going say in California, an area that is well known for earthquakes than for one to go on in Nevada, but what do I know.
We then return to town and find that Val and Earl are continuing on with their daily tasks and we meet two more members of our cast Nancy Sterngood (Charlotte Stewart) and her preteen daughter Mindy (Ariana Richards). Nancy appears to be some sort of artist. She does mention a kiln, so we do know that creates pottery, her character, along with her daughter’s are never totally fleshed out, but this is not necessary since they are just townspeople. Val and Earl are once again discussing their lot in life. They finally decide to leave town after one “shitty” job too many.
Val-“Now there’s nothing,’ I mean nothin’ between us and Bixby, but nothin.’”
Ah, poor Val. On their way out of town they come across a man sitting on top of an electrical tower. They recognize him as a town resident named Edgar and Val (who loses at a game of rock-paper-scissors, a repeating theme throughout the movie) has to climb up to him since he doesn’t respond to their calls. Val finds that he is dead. They return him to town and the local doctor Jim Wallace (Conrad Bachmann) says he died of dehydration, which would have taken about three days to occur. Val and Earl try leaving town again, perplexed by Edgar’s death. Why had he sat up on the tower for three days? He had a rifle with him. They suggest that maybe an animal had chased him up there, but he had a rifle, so what was the problem?
We cut to an old man who we learn is named Fred working in his garden. His sheep are freaking out and then his scarecrow is knocked out of place. He is dragged down by something. Back to Val and Earl who are once again, trying to leave Perfection. They pass a pair of road workers before passing Fred’s place. They notice that there are a bunch of horribly mutilated dead sheep in Fred’s corral. They eventually find Fred’s head, the rest his body not being seen as it had been pulled underground. It had been eaten, but this is not shown. They once again return to town, they try warning the road workers, but this doesn’t work as one is dragged off after his jackhammer is stuck into something that bleeds underground and killed. The other is killed off screen.
In the following scenes we are introduced to a rancher, Miguel (Tony Genaro), Nestor (Richard Marcus), whom I am assuming is also a rancher and the doctor’s wife, Megan (Bibi Besch). We meet Miguel and Nestor in the general store. Miguel is telling Walter about the mysterious disappearance of some of his cattle. Val and Earl tell them about the death of Fred, but no one really believes their whole story and they find that the phone lines are down. Walter and the others not believing them is not unbelievable, if you were told that a bunch of sheep were killed in that way and a man dragged under the ground would you believe them?
Val and Earl decide to drive to Bixby to bring help. They believe that it is all the work of a person or “psycho killer” as they told the two road workers. They are thwarted in their efforts again when they find the road has been blocked by a landslide. They also find that at least one of the road workers is dead. They turn around and attempt to head back to town, but are hung up by something. They discover what it was once they return to the general store, a snake-like creature is wrapped around their rear axle.
This is our first actual glimpse of the monster and we and the residents now know that we are dealing with something strange, but we don’t know exactly what yet. We as the audience have known that something strange was roaming the valley for most of the movie, but we are finding out what it is at the same time as the characters and I like that. It is being handled much like the shark on the movie Jaws (1975). We don’t see the monster until part way into the movie. We see this monster earlier than we saw the shark in Jaws. The main reason for this was the technical aspects of the movie. The reason why we didn’t see the shark until most of the way into the movie was because it was so difficult to handle, according to Jaws creators, the mechanical shark was just so hard to handle they had to keep their use if it down to a minimum which actually was a major plus for the movie. It let the audience’s minds provide the shark. We as the audience are allowed to wonder what this thing was that was under the ground and it is gradually shown to us. The first time I saw the monster, I really was not expecting it and remember thinking it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen.
After finding the snake creature the movie cuts to night at the doctor’s house. He and his wife are quickly sucked underground and the next day Val and Earl, who are fulfilling their roles as the movie’s “Dirty Harry’s” (they seem to be assigned all the dirty jobs), head out on horseback to Bixby since the road it out. On the way there they discover the doctor and his wife’s disappearance and have a run in with the monster, which is fatal for one of their horses and the monster. And finally, we get to see our creature.
They meet up with Rhonda who figures out that there has to be three more of the creatures. They return to town after out running a second monster and spending the night on a rock formation. From here the movie picks up and doesn’t slow down for the rest of the length of the movie. Two more characters die and the rest of the residents are forced to make a run for the mountains as the monsters are unable to travel through rock. Throughout these scenes, the humans discover that monsters, who see through vibrations in the ground, are not only tough to kill, the Gummers manage to kill one that smashes into their basement, but it takes the use of their entire arsenal of weapons, they are smart and can learn. 
Bert-“Broke into the wrong god damn rec room didn’t you, ya bastard!”
The Gummers also discover that while under the ground they are basically invincible. The humans in tow are forced onto their roofs as the remaining two monsters systematically destroy the foundations. This forces the humans to be able to think and plan ahead. The monsters will know where they are located at all times.
They plan on heading to the mountains on a 30 ton or so bulldozer reasoning that it is too heavy for the monsters to flip over or damage. They had already destroyed all of the vehicles that would have been able to make it up the jeep trail. They load everyone up in a semi trailer and head out. It works until the two remaining monsters, or graboids as they are named by the townspeople, set a trap for them and they flee to a rock formation. They manage to blow a third one up, but this doesn’t work on the final one.
Val, Earl and Rhonda make a final stand with the graboid at the same cliff we saw at the beginning of the movie. The graboid is forced over it and our heroes have saved the day.
Val-“Can you fly, you sucker, can you fly?”
Overall I give this movie a 9/10. While few scenes seemed pushed, such as the sudden switch over to night for the doctor’s death scene, and the road workers being there that day seemed way too convenient, the movie flows very well. It sets up and fleshes out the three main characters, Val, Earl and Rhonda, and sets up the situation very well.
The monster and special effects are absolutely amazing. No boring computer generation. All puppets and practical effects. I know a lot of work goes into well done computer generated effects that are done in today’s day and age, but when you see them, you never wonder how they did it. You know how they did it, on a computer typing code. Nothing special, nothing interesting. With the graboids, they are at the same time, bizarre and somewhat comical looking, but they have traits that you would see on real subterranean animals. They propel themselves forward with spikes, like earthworms, they don’t need eyes because they feel their way around by vibrations, like moles (yes, I know moles have eyes, but that is not their main method finding their way around). I like that the actors get to see the monsters in real time in an actual set and are able to play off of what they are seeing.
The scenery in this movie is also great. You feel the isolation of the characters. You feel the ruin of what you see hints of what was once a more prosperous area. Could the graboids be the cause of the valley’s decline? The presence of seismic studies in the valley is never really explained. They don’t necessarily have to be, but maybe the tremors that have been recorded for the past three years have been caused by the creatures. If so, where have these animals been all this time? Did they originally live deep, deep underground? Since there are three more movies, you know that the writers have also thought of these types of issues.
All of the characters are likable in this movie and the major ones (Val, Earl and Rhonda) are all well fleshed out to the extent they need to be. You aren’t made to dislike any of them to the extent that if they died, you wouldn’t care like many more recent movies in the horror and sci-fi genres i.e. Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies. You don’t give a shit if any of those characters die. All of the characters are regular people who have been thrown into an extraordinary position and react in the way most people would act. They are afraid, but they know they are on their own and have to find a way out of their situation. They come up with plans and when they fail, find new ones. They often become very excited when they have a victory, like anyone would, but continually find out that they have to keep planning. The discussion between Val and Earl from the beginning for the movie about how Val never plans ahead while Earl says that when it is Monday he is already thinking of Wednesday plays right into this. Val and Earl don’t fully learn the planning ahead lesson, but you can tell that they do grow as people throughout the movie.
Rhonda is also a great character. She is not the stereotypical female of many horror movies. She’s smart, level-headed, looks like a normal woman and participates just as much as her male counterparts. She finds herself in the position of leading official on anything scientific, which she is not really qualified for because her expertise is in seismology, not prehistoric life forms or biology or paleontology. The residents can’t be blamed for going to her for answers. They want to know what is going on and have no way to find out themselves and there are things she is able to tell them. Rhonda is just as clueless as they are. While not a contender for a movie award, it’s a great movie that pokes fun and pays homage to 1950’s B movies.
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