Tremors (1990)

I've been doing some research for the story I might write for Halloween this year. As I was saying last article, I am fascinated as to why Richard Harris, Liberace, and possibly Danny LaRue (though he seems to be a more supporting character in all this) were fighting over owning this very spooky Haunted House back in the late 1960s.

How I was looking at it and what was going through my head as to why when Richard Harris read about Liberace putting a bid on The Tower House in the Evening Standard he had a tremendous shock and ran out the door to acquire the house before Liberace could was because... how I perceived it... Richard Harris didn't want a gaudy American guy like him to own a cool spooky old Haunted House in London.

My dialogue for these characters would've been along the lines as something like this sample here:


Richard: Go back foulest villain to where thou cameth from! For this Haunted House shall solely be mine!

Liberace: A house this unique must be owned by me, Rich, the architecture and murals alone represent a historic value that far exceeds anything a Wild Irishman like you could ever comprehend. This Haunted House deserves to be one of my treasures. It is that wonderful! Now, please Danny, show this ruffian the door!

Danny LaRue: Shall do Lee....

Richard: Unhand me, foul villain!



Something like that, you know? But....

I've unearthed some statements in my research on the matter that, unfortunately, go against my initial thoughts as to why Richard Harris wanted to live in a ghost house. For in this interview with M. Parkinson, Harris specifically states why he wanted to live in a Haunted House in great detail as we shall see:

At the 5:10 mark,

Time-sensitive link: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q02FyXHYlFE&t=5m10s)

Richard Harris relates to Michael Parkinson implicitly the exact reason he wanted to live in a Haunted House... and....

...it was to break up with women.

Yeah.... in a way this is a let down. I mean I had all these ideas for dialogue already and thanks to this piece of evidence.... they all need to be scrapped.

He only wanted to live in a stupid ghost house so he could scare ladies away that he didn't want to proceed in a relationship with. It's a pretty childish reason to want to live in a Haunted House, I really must say, and it takes a lot of the mystique away from The Tower House.

I can still work with this, I think. I mean he still wants to live in it and so does Liberace... and Danny LaRue is still a factor. Right?

All of the noble dialogue and demeanor in the sample I gave to Richard needs to be altered significantly. Now a sample dialogue of my possible upcoming short story would be something more along the lines of this:



Richard: Liberace, you twit! You can't live in that Haunted House...

Liberace: Why not?

Richard: Look Lee, I'll level with ya, I met this smashing bird the other week down in Hammersmith and she was a whopper! We were madly madly in love and everything... but...

Liberace: But....what?

Richard: I've recently grown, yaaaawn, a bit bored of her, hmmm, her, hmmm, let us call them, her eccentricities. Yes, I tire of her eccentricities and need to live in this Haunted House to scare her away.

Liberace: Richard Harris! Well, I NEVER! How dare you!? You want to live in this beautiful house adorned wall-to-wall with priceless antiques and hand-painted murals just to scare women you've grown slightly tired of away? You are a true Irish scoundrel, Richard! You are nothing but a TRAMP!

Richard: Now hold on now, Lee...

Liberace: Danny, show this tramp the door!

Danny LaRue: Shall do Lee...

Richard: No! Listen! I NEED this house!



Hmmm.... you know I actually like it better this way with Harris as the bad guy. So, even with the unearthed evidence as to Harris's feelings sending my mental image map of this nonsense off-course... I think it still can be done by just switching Lee and Rich around as who's the good guy and bad guy.

I remember my story last year had this issue as well and was TOTALLY different than my original idea for it. Anyways...



Tremors (1990)

They were showing that film Tremors (1990) on TV a week or so ago... and man.... what a Classic. You can't just throw the word "classic" around all willy-nilly, you know, and also is it correct to call something from 1990 that? It was over 30 years ago this came out! Yet... it feels like only nothing but just yesterday.

Man, as a kid in 1990, I was scared of quicksand and lava and stuff... which are all floor-related pitfalls, right? I was like seven in 1990 and playing Mario 3 and dying in quicksand and stuff... I'd spend whole days not touching the floor by jumping from chair to couch to chair... all kids did this.

I read they are making a show called "The Floor is Lava" on TV soon... that should work. All kids at one point were scared of the floor. Tremors is quicksand or lava times 100 though. Worm Monsters. In the ground. That can come out. ANYTIME. ANYWHERE!

GASP says I! GASP!

I see Gremlins from that era making a huge cultural comeback the last few years but do young folks even know about Tremors? It's a true masterpiece too.

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward (forever rest this man's eternal soul) team up to stop these things and its.... AMAZING! People talk about that six degrees this and that about Kevin Bacon like he's all about quantity and he's only super cool because he's been in so many films... no.... that's not why Kevin Bacon is cool.... Kevin Bacon is 100% about QUALITY, guys. He's a screen Icon and screen LEGEND.

Don't get me started on Michael Gross.

Okay, fine, let's get started on Michael Gross.

Michael Gross was the dad on Family Ties in the 1980s and every kid knew him as this likeable down-to-earth Dad's dad sorta dad sort of guy. He was the dad of Alex P. and Mallory. Everyone knew him. Type casting is a real thing in Hollywood where if you've built this fame around yourself off of one role... you can't try something new... or the audience will, for some reason, not want to see you do something new and they will be all weary of you.

As a kid, I was like, "why is the dad from Family Ties in this? What's he gonna do to help get rid of these worm monsters? Is he gonna sternly-but-fairly rebuke them and teach them a valuable life lesson? Pfffft."

Oh was I mistaken, friends. Oh, was I wrong about Michael Gross. Oh, my lands, was I in for a surprise.

Michael Gross? Guys, Michael Gross was a one-man worm-monster fighting-machine! This man couldn't be stopped! Along with Reba McEntire (his lovely wife) these two were like this hot-ass MacGyver couple who could make bombs and stuff and were a great boon to Kevin Bacon's and Fred Ward's resistance against the worm monsters that had invaded their small desert town.

Re-reading the first short story I ever wrote on here, The Swamp, I'd be remiss not to realize that Tremors (1990) was an influence. I mentioned once that Ace's story in Suikoden III was an influence on the writing style of it but the setting of that story, to me, re-reading it, is somewhat influenced by Tremors now that I think about it. Mine was a swamp town though there's was a dusty mountainy town.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you've never seen Tremors, you definitely should.