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2015's Tremors 5: Bloodlines should be a lot worse than it is. The fifth instalment in a franchise that also spawned a short-lived television show in 2003, this is also a straight-to-video effort, overseen by veteran B-movie director Don Michael Paul (Jarhead 2, Sniper 5, Lake Placid 4, Who's Your Caddy?). Perhaps owing to low expectations, Tremors 5 is an entertaining enough sequel, sporting decent production values and even bringing back franchise mainstay Michael Gross. It's not all good news, however - despite a polished presentation, Paul's movie is unable to escape its low-budget origins, with a slipshod screenplay and dull plotting, not to mention occasionally risible dialogue.
Now a minor celebrity with his own survivalist television show, Burt Gummer (Gross) has carved out a career based on his Graboid-hunting skills, even releasing his own line of food and drink products. Out of the blue, he's approached by Travis Welker (Jamie Kennedy), who wants to join Burt's team and help the old man fulfil his potential. Negotiating a mutually beneficial deal, Burt and Travis travel to South Africa, where Graboids have started attacking the locals. Erich Van Wyck (Daniel Janks) seeks to enlist Burt's assistance to capture an "Ass-Blaster" variation of the Graboid, but, as to be expected, things do not exactly go to plan, leaving the veteran hunter to clean up the infestation.
With a screenplay credited to four writers, Tremors 5 falls victim to a common pitfall of direct-to-video creature features: overcomplicating a simple narrative. This should be a story of Burt simply kicking butt in South Africa with help from Travis, but forgettable, generic ancillary characters are thrown in as well (no names ever stick), and other pointless subplots are added, including a futile detour involving Burt being locked in a cage that only leads to a lion urinating on him. A minor human antagonist is introduced as well, whose sole purpose is to get eaten. No real imagination is presented in Tremors 5, which is also highly derivative, liberally borrowing from Aliens and Jurassic Park, while the script also takes inspiration from 2013's Pacific Rim. The original Tremors was a very funny tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy, but unfortunately this fifth entry is not nearly as successful on the humour front. The actors try to mine laughs, but it only leads to a handful of awful improvised lines from Kennedy, and other horrendous attempts at comedy, including the aforementioned scene of a caged Burt. Dialogue is expectedly standard-order, in need of a spark of wit to liven up the enterprise. Also, it's borderline embarrassing to see Kennedy's stunt double doing BMX stunts during the opening credits.
Tremors 5 does contribute to the mythology of the franchise to an extent, even opening with a segment from Gummer's TV show which discusses the Graboids and Ass-Blasters at length for anybody who isn't familiar with the franchise. And upon arriving in South Africa, Burt finds that the monsters have evolved somewhat differently, which allows the movie to shake things up a little bit. The location switch to Africa was likely done for budgetary reasons, but it does add new scenery to the series, even though the cinematography is exceedingly workmanlike. On a more positive note, Tremors 5 does boast reasonably convincing special effects for a direct-to-video effort, and director Don Michael Paul doesn't make the mistake of keeping the digital beasts front and centre for the entire movie. Rather, glimpses of the creatures are fleeting, relying more on sound design and practically-achieved sprays of dirt to establish the presence of the Graboids. However, there is a particularly woeful attempt to mimic the raptors in the kitchen scene of Jurassic Park that only serves to underline how much Paul pales in comparison to Steven Spielberg.
The only actor to appear in all the Tremors movies as well as the TV show, Gross continues to have a lot of fun in his iconic role, emerging as the best thing in the entire movie. When Tremors 5: Bloodlines observes Gross battling the Graboids, it's solid fun, even if the rest of the movie is not nearly as successful. Kennedy, who was so amusing as the film buff in the Scream series, mugs the camera too often, while the rest of the cast members fail to make an impact. Still, for what it is, Tremors 5 provides a certain degree of entertainment in spite of its shortcomings, and the fact that it's not irredeemably awful is a big deal.
5.8/10
