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Description
Welcome to the halfway point to my 2020 Halloween poster selection (poster number six)

And for this post, i thought we take a bit of gander into the world of movies...
and whilst i have some posters coming up with pretty dark and scary premises...
i thought it would be nice to have a poster based around a film that is a bit more action with hints of comedy in nature.

What's scary about this concept is more the main creature/monster that purses the character throughout the story.
A large worm-like organism that seem to burrow through the sand and soil like a shark would swim through water...

that's right for this post we'll be looking at
THE GRABOIDS FROM THE TREMORS FRANCHISE

Before we talk about the creature itself, i think it's a good idea to look at the film itself...
so here we go:

BASIC EXPLANATION OF THE FILM

Tremors is a 1990 American horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood.
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd, Brent Maddock, and S. S. Wilson...
And written by Maddock, Wilson, and Underwood.

It was released by Universal Pictures and stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire.
(as well as being one of the earlier films that featured Ariana Richards, aka "Lex" from Jurassic park)

The basic plot revolves around a small town is gripped with fear
over strange giant underground creatures living beneath them, killing them off one by one.
and with no way to contact help from the outside world, the townsfolk must work together to survive this subterranean threat.

But I think that isn't enough of a dive, so let Us have a deeper look into...

THE MAIN STORY OF "TREMORS" (1990):

The story mostly follows the main protagonists such as:
-Valentine "Val" McKee, played by Kevin Bacon
-and Earl Bassett, played by Fred Ward

who start out as two "good-for-nothing" odd-job workers in the little countryside town called "Perfection"

SIDE NOTE: yeah whoever the founder was, clearly might have been a bit pretentious to give it that name, as though "Perfection" is indeed fairly peaceful.
It occupies a small part of a large dried-out Valley, surrounded on nearly all sides by mountains, except for a county road.

Let's just say that if you were looking for a job that pays well, "perfection" is not really the place to live...
It's too small, too underdeveloped and very far from the nearest town or city.
Fairly isolated from the rest of the state.

anyways, that aside, let's get back to the story....

Our main duo spend their days mending fences and railings, helping farmers with meagre crops, and occasionally taking care of cows.
They have the use of a down-trodden truck to get from place to place and are friends with most of the villagers.

It's an easy enough life, but:
1- after a while, grew kinda boring...
2- to make matter worse, they weren't really making much in the way of profit.

One day, whilst out of the road preparing for "garbage day", they duo find a young woman out in the wilderness, so they go to investigate.

She introduces herself as Rhonda LeBeck (played by Finn Carter), a university geology student who has been investigating a strange frequency of tremor signs from her seismographs, but weirdly without any earthquakes present. Val likes her, but prefers daydreaming about some playmate, so with cold feet, he doesn't ask the seismologist out.

As they continue on their way, the duo spend the rest of that day, doing the mundane labor that I've mentioned before.
In this case, it mainly shows them clearing out some of the townsfolk's rubbish. as they do so, they reflect how they don't feel like the years of hard labor for meagre wages just wasn't worth it anymore.

Disenchanted with the odd jobs they perform for the townsfolk, Val and Earl finally decide to collect their meager possessions and move out of town, even turning down a lucrative job from the local potter, Meghan, to build her a new ceramic oven, she even offers them free beer, but they turn it down.

Just then, as they are about to head on their way, they find the town drunkard, Edgar, on the top of a electricity tower.
Stranger still, he's dead, with a rifle in his hands. They start wondering how on earth his corpse managed to get out their and why he was holding.

They take him to the doctor who confirms that Edgar died of dehydration, apparently from staying up on the tower so long he died of thirst.
But this leaves the reason for his death unsolved, why on earth would he just stay up there for perhaps three or so days?

Clearly something very strange is going on here....

Later that night at the doctor's trailer, where he and his wife live while building a house, the doc hears a strange noise and sees a natural phenomenon like a steam vent spewing from the ground. He goes to investigate, thinking they may have discovered a natural gas pocket. Suddenly, the ground beneath him collapses and he's pulled forcibly down into the hole, screaming in pain while his wife tries to pull him out.

She frantically digs in the ground and a snakey head pops up and hisses at her.
She retreats to their car but whatever attacked her husband begins to pull the car under the surface!

After the local rancher is found muliated, followed by several construction workers, the town soon comes to think that there may be a murderer on the loose. They also discover the doc's car when they hear the stereo still on and the headlights sticking up vertically.

When our protagonist due, find the road out of the valley, blocked, they try to head back to town but their vehicle gets stuck.
They eventually shake the truck loose and head back into town. When they get there, they discover a long, snake-like appendage wound around the rear axle.

The shopkeeper Walter Chang (played by Victor Wong), lends them two horses so they can go and tell the county police, because they found that all the phone lines are cut, and there is no mobile phone network coverage on in this area of the valley.

Several people are not worried at all in spite of everything that's going on: Burt and Heather Gummer (played by Michael Gross and Reba McEntire respectively) already had built themselves a nuclear refuge and crammed it with heavy weaponry, so they don't feel they need to have fear of anything. (they are basically those adimtely paranoid doomsday preppers.

Val and Earl ride as fast as they can but their horses are suddenly spooked by some of the snakes.
They try running on foot, but that is when the creature comes after them. As they run, they try to jump across a concrete ditch; the creature chasing them suddenly hits the wall of the ditch, killing itself. At that moment, the young seismologist shows up again.

Clearing the rubble and excess green blood, they discover that the creature is several metres long, and that the snakes were a kind of tentacle-like tongues protruding from its three-pronged beaked mouth. Rhonda checks her seismographs, learning that there must be at least three more of those snake-mouthed monsters.

When the three are going back to Perfection another of the creatures tries to capture them.

They can only see a trail of dust flying as the monster swims invisible through the soft soil of the valley.
Val, Earl and Rhonda run for dear life and end up up to some tall rocks where the creatures cannot climb.

They stay there, but the creatures are very patient. Finally, Rhonda devises a plan hey manage to climb from one rock to the other and to jump into their van, being closely followed by the hungry monsters. They deduce that creatures can make sense of the noise people make in the form of vibrations, either by simple movement or talking loudly.

Back to the town and explain the situation, the shopkeeper Walter decides to call the monsters graboids.

But when they think they have outwitted the graboids by taking refuge atop the roofs of buildings, the graboids begin destroying the buildings' foundations (which are simple and fragile, completely made of planks of wood). In the process of fighting off the creatures, several of the townsfolk loose their lives.

The survivors pick up a bulldozer and they try to run on it.
They also go to pick up the Gummers, which have prepared many weapons. T

They think of a plan. They throw dynamite to the worms, who swallow everything but are afraid of strong noises, which hurt their sensitive sense. The dynamite explodes within one of the critters, killing it.

They try the same trick with the last remaining graboid, but this critter spits out the dynamite, and they have to run away from their safe hiding place.

Val is on the open earth, so he is going to be detected and eaten by the surviving graboid. He decides to run, but the graboid is very fast. When Val is about to jump from a high cliff, he steps aside, but the graboid can't stop because of the trends momentum it built up, and falls from the cliff to be crushed under it's own weight.

It seems all fine and dandy and a good happy ending, but the final scene shows some loose dirt moving on the dry soil of the valley, proving that there is at least a few more ravenous creatures alive.

the end...
-----------------------------------------------

overall, the film though a little corny at times, is certainly enjoyable to watch and has some pretty amazing creature effects
The character grow fairly likeable, and it leads into several sequel films and even a tv series (i haven't watched it but i hear it's pretty decent)
so if i had to rate it, I'd give a fair 7 or 8 out of 10.

But as for the graboids themselves, they are a particularly unique and interesting take on the sandworm type of monster.
even having their own unique life cycle....

*puts on posh glasses and moves to a chalkboard with a diagram of a graboid...*

which means it's time for a session of....
EXPLAINING THE "GRABOIDS" (analyzed by Talie the pyroraptor)

Latin name: Vermiformidae Caederus Americana

GRABOIDs (also sometimes known as "land-sharks" or "Dirt Dragons.") are gigantic subterranean organisms, superficially resembling oversized worms or larva, with bulky, serpentine bodies, which can grow up to an average length of 30 feet long, and 6 feet across at its widest point, and may weigh 10-20 tons.

It completely lacks eyes, relying mostly on vibrations and sound and their heads mostly consist of a massive, armored beak, which is used to push aside the dirt whilst digging or rather "swimming" through the soil.

This beak opens up like a grotesque flower; as it consists of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandibles on either side.
And inside this beak, they possess a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tentacles or tongues; each of which are prehensile and have a maximum reach of at least ten feet.

Normally kept retracted in the GRABOID's throat, they help the collasal worm in snatching prey and pulling it toward them, potentially capable of pulling item of 2 or 3 tons maximum.

Another thing to note is that, anatomically speaking, the GRABOIDs are essentially a tube wrapped with thick skin-muscle, which is necessary to manipulate its external spines that run down the surface of their back and sides. A strong internal musculature would enable it to flex its entire body, undulating in a curling, and corkscrew motion through the ground.

According to genetic testing done on various corpses collected, they seem to come from a group of animals entirely separate from most living vertebrates, living mollusks or living arthropods, with a lineage seeming to stretch back all the way to precambrian times. And it's because of their their entirely different evolutionary path, that has allowed them to develop some very strange quirks over millions of years.

Such as there ability for their eggs to go dormant without each for over a hundred or so years at a time.
which is part of the reason why modern humans didn't known much about them until the first encounter seen in the films.

They seem to breed both traditionally and Asexually. Allowing one individual to spawn a bunch more of it's species.

and their strange metamorphic lifestyle:

-The first stage is the egg, obviously followed on by the tiny hatchlings.

-The second major stage is the standard Graboid...

-the third stage is where things get....weird... After eating a large amount of food the Graboid will die but its tongues live on and begin a metamorphosis by bursting out of the dead grabbed and turning into "Shriekers".

SHRIEKERS are much smaller than the typical Graboids, about 5 feet long and 4 feet tall, and unlike the giant worms, their creatures live in caves or sometimes on the surface of the ground itself. Shriekers are very agile and can run up to 25 mph on three-toed feet and stubby legs.

Unlike the usually solitary Graboids, Shriekers are pack hunters, using their numbers to bring down large prey.
Strangely enough, they still can't see, nor can they hear in the ranges that humans can.

instead their main means of sense is thermal, following the heat signature of each other and of their prey.
(which is partly why they do so well in caves)

anyway, the main role of this life stage is to multiply, the more food they eat, the more offspring they asexually produce.
Giving them at a least a chance of surviving the hostile world when they appear... eventually, they find a good place to suspend themselves, form a cocoon and them like a cattpillar morphing into a butterfly, they shift into the final life stage....

-the last Stage involves the shriekers turning into something i cannot say here, so let's just call them "BLASTERS"

"BLASTERS", also referred to as "Flying Shriekers", Blast-Offers or Butt Launchers, is the term for the final morph/stage of the Graboid's life cycle, the imago stage.
Much like butterfly is the term for the imago stage of a caterpillar.

The Blaster differs from the Shrieker in three significant ways: It possesses wings; it has a rocket-like ability to launch itself into the air; and it has the ability to lay eggs.
They essentially have the role of traveling to new territory to lay the next generation of graboids.

It is considered by some (including Burt Gummer), to be an even larger threat than Shriekers and Graboids due to their heat seeking abilities and ability to glide after blasting off.

This ability to fly is the result off the Blaster's most unique trait in which it works two chemicals into its tail section.

They come from two separate organs in the body with these in turn go to two separate sacs that inflate with the chemicals so that they can mix them in the air and blast off.
Once these two chemicals mix, they become volatile and react violently when exposed to the air, creating a lifting explosion.

very much like the Bombardier Beetle.
------------------------------------------------------------------

so overal a pretty cool movie monster if i do say so myself

Description
Welcome to the halfway point to my 2020 Halloween poster selection (poster number six)

And for this post, i thought we take a bit of gander into the world of movies...
and whilst i have some posters coming up with pretty dark and scary premises...
i thought it would be nice to have a poster based around a film that is a bit more action with hints of comedy in nature.

What's scary about this concept is more the main creature/monster that purses the character throughout the story.
A large worm-like organism that seem to burrow through the sand and soil like a shark would swim through water...

that's right for this post we'll be looking at
THE GRABOIDS FROM THE TREMORS FRANCHISE

Before we talk about the creature itself, i think it's a good idea to look at the film itself...
so here we go:

BASIC EXPLANATION OF THE FILM

Tremors is a 1990 American horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood.
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd, Brent Maddock, and S. S. Wilson...
And written by Maddock, Wilson, and Underwood.

It was released by Universal Pictures and stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire.
(as well as being one of the earlier films that featured Ariana Richards, aka "Lex" from Jurassic park)

The basic plot revolves around a small town is gripped with fear
over strange giant underground creatures living beneath them, killing them off one by one.
and with no way to contact help from the outside world, the townsfolk must work together to survive this subterranean threat.

But I think that isn't enough of a dive, so let Us have a deeper look into...

THE MAIN STORY OF "TREMORS" (1990):

The story mostly follows the main protagonists such as:
-Valentine "Val" McKee, played by Kevin Bacon
-and Earl Bassett, played by Fred Ward

who start out as two "good-for-nothing" odd-job workers in the little countryside town called "Perfection"

SIDE NOTE: yeah whoever the founder was, clearly might have been a bit pretentious to give it that name, as though "Perfection" is indeed fairly peaceful.
It occupies a small part of a large dried-out Valley, surrounded on nearly all sides by mountains, except for a county road.

Let's just say that if you were looking for a job that pays well, "perfection" is not really the place to live...
It's too small, too underdeveloped and very far from the nearest town or city.
Fairly isolated from the rest of the state.

anyways, that aside, let's get back to the story....

Our main duo spend their days mending fences and railings, helping farmers with meagre crops, and occasionally taking care of cows.
They have the use of a down-trodden truck to get from place to place and are friends with most of the villagers.

It's an easy enough life, but:
1- after a while, grew kinda boring...
2- to make matter worse, they weren't really making much in the way of profit.

One day, whilst out of the road preparing for "garbage day", they duo find a young woman out in the wilderness, so they go to investigate.

She introduces herself as Rhonda LeBeck (played by Finn Carter), a university geology student who has been investigating a strange frequency of tremor signs from her seismographs, but weirdly without any earthquakes present. Val likes her, but prefers daydreaming about some playmate, so with cold feet, he doesn't ask the seismologist out.

As they continue on their way, the duo spend the rest of that day, doing the mundane labor that I've mentioned before.
In this case, it mainly shows them clearing out some of the townsfolk's rubbish. as they do so, they reflect how they don't feel like the years of hard labor for meagre wages just wasn't worth it anymore.

Disenchanted with the odd jobs they perform for the townsfolk, Val and Earl finally decide to collect their meager possessions and move out of town, even turning down a lucrative job from the local potter, Meghan, to build her a new ceramic oven, she even offers them free beer, but they turn it down.

Just then, as they are about to head on their way, they find the town drunkard, Edgar, on the top of a electricity tower.
Stranger still, he's dead, with a rifle in his hands. They start wondering how on earth his corpse managed to get out their and why he was holding.

They take him to the doctor who confirms that Edgar died of dehydration, apparently from staying up on the tower so long he died of thirst.
But this leaves the reason for his death unsolved, why on earth would he just stay up there for perhaps three or so days?

Clearly something very strange is going on here....

Later that night at the doctor's trailer, where he and his wife live while building a house, the doc hears a strange noise and sees a natural phenomenon like a steam vent spewing from the ground. He goes to investigate, thinking they may have discovered a natural gas pocket. Suddenly, the ground beneath him collapses and he's pulled forcibly down into the hole, screaming in pain while his wife tries to pull him out.

She frantically digs in the ground and a snakey head pops up and hisses at her.
She retreats to their car but whatever attacked her husband begins to pull the car under the surface!

After the local rancher is found muliated, followed by several construction workers, the town soon comes to think that there may be a murderer on the loose. They also discover the doc's car when they hear the stereo still on and the headlights sticking up vertically.

When our protagonist due, find the road out of the valley, blocked, they try to head back to town but their vehicle gets stuck.
They eventually shake the truck loose and head back into town. When they get there, they discover a long, snake-like appendage wound around the rear axle.

The shopkeeper Walter Chang (played by Victor Wong), lends them two horses so they can go and tell the county police, because they found that all the phone lines are cut, and there is no mobile phone network coverage on in this area of the valley.

Several people are not worried at all in spite of everything that's going on: Burt and Heather Gummer (played by Michael Gross and Reba McEntire respectively) already had built themselves a nuclear refuge and crammed it with heavy weaponry, so they don't feel they need to have fear of anything. (they are basically those adimtely paranoid doomsday preppers.

Val and Earl ride as fast as they can but their horses are suddenly spooked by some of the snakes.
They try running on foot, but that is when the creature comes after them. As they run, they try to jump across a concrete ditch; the creature chasing them suddenly hits the wall of the ditch, killing itself. At that moment, the young seismologist shows up again.

Clearing the rubble and excess green blood, they discover that the creature is several metres long, and that the snakes were a kind of tentacle-like tongues protruding from its three-pronged beaked mouth. Rhonda checks her seismographs, learning that there must be at least three more of those snake-mouthed monsters.

When the three are going back to Perfection another of the creatures tries to capture them.

They can only see a trail of dust flying as the monster swims invisible through the soft soil of the valley.
Val, Earl and Rhonda run for dear life and end up up to some tall rocks where the creatures cannot climb.

They stay there, but the creatures are very patient. Finally, Rhonda devises a plan hey manage to climb from one rock to the other and to jump into their van, being closely followed by the hungry monsters. They deduce that creatures can make sense of the noise people make in the form of vibrations, either by simple movement or talking loudly.

Back to the town and explain the situation, the shopkeeper Walter decides to call the monsters graboids.

But when they think they have outwitted the graboids by taking refuge atop the roofs of buildings, the graboids begin destroying the buildings' foundations (which are simple and fragile, completely made of planks of wood). In the process of fighting off the creatures, several of the townsfolk loose their lives.

The survivors pick up a bulldozer and they try to run on it.
They also go to pick up the Gummers, which have prepared many weapons. T

They think of a plan. They throw dynamite to the worms, who swallow everything but are afraid of strong noises, which hurt their sensitive sense. The dynamite explodes within one of the critters, killing it.

They try the same trick with the last remaining graboid, but this critter spits out the dynamite, and they have to run away from their safe hiding place.

Val is on the open earth, so he is going to be detected and eaten by the surviving graboid. He decides to run, but the graboid is very fast. When Val is about to jump from a high cliff, he steps aside, but the graboid can't stop because of the trends momentum it built up, and falls from the cliff to be crushed under it's own weight.

It seems all fine and dandy and a good happy ending, but the final scene shows some loose dirt moving on the dry soil of the valley, proving that there is at least a few more ravenous creatures alive.

the end...
-----------------------------------------------

overall, the film though a little corny at times, is certainly enjoyable to watch and has some pretty amazing creature effects
The character grow fairly likeable, and it leads into several sequel films and even a tv series (i haven't watched it but i hear it's pretty decent)
so if i had to rate it, I'd give a fair 7 or 8 out of 10.

But as for the graboids themselves, they are a particularly unique and interesting take on the sandworm type of monster.
even having their own unique life cycle....

*puts on posh glasses and moves to a chalkboard with a diagram of a graboid...*

which means it's time for a session of....
EXPLAINING THE "GRABOIDS" (analyzed by Talie the pyroraptor)

Latin name: Vermiformidae Caederus Americana

GRABOIDs (also sometimes known as "land-sharks" or "Dirt Dragons.") are gigantic subterranean organisms, superficially resembling oversized worms or larva, with bulky, serpentine bodies, which can grow up to an average length of 30 feet long, and 6 feet across at its widest point, and may weigh 10-20 tons.

It completely lacks eyes, relying mostly on vibrations and sound and their heads mostly consist of a massive, armored beak, which is used to push aside the dirt whilst digging or rather "swimming" through the soil.

This beak opens up like a grotesque flower; as it consists of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandibles on either side.
And inside this beak, they possess a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tentacles or tongues; each of which are prehensile and have a maximum reach of at least ten feet.

Normally kept retracted in the GRABOID's throat, they help the collasal worm in snatching prey and pulling it toward them, potentially capable of pulling item of 2 or 3 tons maximum.

Another thing to note is that, anatomically speaking, the GRABOIDs are essentially a tube wrapped with thick skin-muscle, which is necessary to manipulate its external spines that run down the surface of their back and sides. A strong internal musculature would enable it to flex its entire body, undulating in a curling, and corkscrew motion through the ground.

According to genetic testing done on various corpses collected, they seem to come from a group of animals entirely separate from most living vertebrates, living mollusks or living arthropods, with a lineage seeming to stretch back all the way to precambrian times. And it's because of their their entirely different evolutionary path, that has allowed them to develop some very strange quirks over millions of years.

Such as there ability for their eggs to go dormant without each for over a hundred or so years at a time.
which is part of the reason why modern humans didn't known much about them until the first encounter seen in the films.

They seem to breed both traditionally and Asexually. Allowing one individual to spawn a bunch more of it's species.

and their strange metamorphic lifestyle:

-The first stage is the egg, obviously followed on by the tiny hatchlings.

-The second major stage is the standard Graboid...

-the third stage is where things get....weird... After eating a large amount of food the Graboid will die but its tongues live on and begin a metamorphosis by bursting out of the dead grabbed and turning into "Shriekers".

SHRIEKERS are much smaller than the typical Graboids, about 5 feet long and 4 feet tall, and unlike the giant worms, their creatures live in caves or sometimes on the surface of the ground itself. Shriekers are very agile and can run up to 25 mph on three-toed feet and stubby legs.

Unlike the usually solitary Graboids, Shriekers are pack hunters, using their numbers to bring down large prey.
Strangely enough, they still can't see, nor can they hear in the ranges that humans can.

instead their main means of sense is thermal, following the heat signature of each other and of their prey.
(which is partly why they do so well in caves)

anyway, the main role of this life stage is to multiply, the more food they eat, the more offspring they asexually produce.
Giving them at a least a chance of surviving the hostile world when they appear... eventually, they find a good place to suspend themselves, form a cocoon and them like a cattpillar morphing into a butterfly, they shift into the final life stage....

-the last Stage involves the shriekers turning into something i cannot say here, so let's just call them "BLASTERS"

"BLASTERS", also referred to as "Flying Shriekers", Blast-Offers or Butt Launchers, is the term for the final morph/stage of the Graboid's life cycle, the imago stage.
Much like butterfly is the term for the imago stage of a caterpillar.

The Blaster differs from the Shrieker in three significant ways: It possesses wings; it has a rocket-like ability to launch itself into the air; and it has the ability to lay eggs.
They essentially have the role of traveling to new territory to lay the next generation of graboids.

It is considered by some (including Burt Gummer), to be an even larger threat than Shriekers and Graboids due to their heat seeking abilities and ability to glide after blasting off.

This ability to fly is the result off the Blaster's most unique trait in which it works two chemicals into its tail section.

They come from two separate organs in the body with these in turn go to two separate sacs that inflate with the chemicals so that they can mix them in the air and blast off.
Once these two chemicals mix, they become volatile and react violently when exposed to the air, creating a lifting explosion.

very much like the Bombardier Beetle.
------------------------------------------------------------------

so overal a pretty cool movie monster if i do say so myself