Publication Date: 10-31-2025

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) review

Dir. Brent Maddock

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection was the point in the Tremors franchise (a) was strictly catering to the love and admiration the fans of the first two had for the characters and biology of the subterranean worm creatures and (b) the budgets for these sequels began to dramatically decrease. Tremors 3, as it sits, is a film made for hardcore fans of the franchise and those who don’t mind a little Sci-Fi (capitalized for a reason) treatment to their beloved franchise in the respect of look and feel.

The low-budget is evident by the limited human interaction with these beasts, be them Graboids, Shriekers, creatures with that hatch from Graboids that can walk on land and sense any kind of nearby heat with thermal sensors, and the new “Ass Blasters,” which are pretty much Shriekers with the ability to soar thanks to butane gas in their hindquarters. This time, instead of a Mexican oil field, we return to Perfection, Nevada to find Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) residing in a heavily armed and secured bunker, despite no Graboid sighting in the valley for the past eleven years, and residents from the first film, such as Miguel (Tony Genaro), the Mexican rancher and Nancy (Charlotte Stewart) and her daughter Mindy (Ariana Richards), also still residing in Perfection. Earl and Grady have moved on to start their own theme-park in Bixby after making a fortune killing Graboids in the Mexican oil refinery so, much like Val in Tremors II, their significance in this film is reduced to a sidenote.

Burt’s closest friend in town besides Miguel is Jodi Chang (Susan Chaung), who know owns and operates the general-store-turned-tourist-shop of her late uncle Walter Chang. Jodi is usually subject to Burt’s paranoia and the antics of “Desert Jack” (Shawn Christian), who puts on a haunted tour of sorts through Perfection Valley for tourists. However, when Graboids prove to still occupy the land, Burt and the remainder of the valley are prohibited from fighting back by several government agents, who claim that the Graboid is an endangering species. If, however, harm is safety of the townfolk is compromised, the agents agree to evacuate everyone in Perfection, only making it easier for Melvin Plug (Robert Jayne), the spunky teen from the original film, and his band of realtor goons to build a series of condominiums in the area. Burt, “Desert Jack,” and Jodi, however, still to take matters into their own hands in combating the uncommonly advanced Graboid species even as they continue their metamorphic state.

Tremors 3 directly appeals to fans simply by the genial and nostalgic sentiments it summons by reintroducing us to characters from the first film, all of whom played by the same actors they were originally played by. Call me sentimental or easily fascinated, but it’s a delight to see characters like Miguel and Melvin back once again, in a way that personalizes the story and keeps it consistent, rather than having new characters populate the valley. Imagine how much worse this sequel could’ve been if Perfection were populated with people like “Desert Jack,” who shout and holler every word like they were raised in a line-dancing bar. Because Brent Maddock, who worked on the previous two Tremors installments, commands the director’s chair here, I feel there’s a great respect for the source material through and through with this project, even if intentions and the end result are a tad questionable at times.

With that, the special effects have admittedly taken a sharp downturn. When the Graboids, specifically “El Blanco,” the new albino Graboid we see in this film, rise from the ground, mostly to taunt their future victims by wiggling in the air, they look like soft-serve ice cream, and the action involving them is incredibly limited, showing great budgetary restraints on special effects. The limited interaction with these monsters shows the serious cutbacks of the film, and while the new “Ass Blaster” creatures initially seems juvenile, the fun continues when we see, again, what Tremors has really been about from the start: thinking of intuitive ways to hunt and kill subterranean behemoths that are almost always finding ways to outsmart the human characters.

Aside from one serious biological attribute about the Graboids at the end of the film, which, I feel, is simply a sign of screenwriting laziness on part of S.S. Wilson and Nancy Roberts, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection works to give us down-home nostalgia, as we return to Perfection, and provides the kind of suspense and silliness we’ve come to expect with this franchise. Forgive some evident special effects shortcomings and a potential flaw in biology and the film still has that lovable sense of fun and weirdness that has helped the series last in two separate decades.

NOTE: Take a listen to my interview with Michael Gross, where we talk all things Tremors, how and why Universal revived the series in 2015, and why rights issues makes the future of the franchise murky:

My review of Tremors (1990)
My review of Tremors II: Aftershocks
My review of Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
My review of Tremors 5: Bloodlines
My review of Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell
My review of Tremors: Shrieker Island

Starring: Michael Gross, Shawn Christian, Susan Chaung, Tony Genaro, Charlotte Stewart, Ariana Richards, and Robert Jayne. Directed by: Brent Maddock.