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Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors
A behind the scenes look at the making of Tremors and its sequels in the 25th anniversary year
"This high-access tell-all...[is] an unexpected treat" - 4/5, Empire
Welcome to Perfection, Nevada
A throwback to the kind of sci-fi B movies that had long gone out of fashion, Tremors was a box office flop that became a home video phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels and a short-lived TV series.
Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors is the first book to go beneath the surface of the Tremors franchise, featuring new interviews with more than 50 cast and crew members, including stars Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross, director Ron Underwood, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, and the monster makers who brought the Graboids to life.
Seeking Perfection also includes:
- Interviews with cast and crew from Tremors 1-5 and the TV series
- Newly-discovered photos from the Tremors set
- Storyboard excerpts
- Commentary on every episode of the TV series
- Exclusive coverage of the special 25th anniversary Tremors screening in Los Angeles
- A look at the 10-year journey from script to screen of the latest sequel, 2015’s Tremors 5: Bloodlines
Seeking Perfection is the ultimate, 100% unofficial, reference guide to Tremors!
PLUS! Buy Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors in paperback on Amazon US and get the Kindle edition for no charge on Kindle Matchbook! Perfect for anyone who wants to keep a copy on the shelf and carry another on their smartphone, or buy a paperback as a gift and keep the Kindle edition.
"Informative, entertaining and, above all, a joy to read" - 9/10, Starburst
More about the book
More than two years in the making, Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors features high-profile insight into Hollywood filmmaking from some of the biggest names in the industry.
Starting with co-creators S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock and Ron Underwood, the book examines their love of B movies and student filmmaking that brought them to Hollywood, before they embarked on ambitious plans to take control of their own big-budget productions, starting with 1986's Short Circuit.
The story then moves to their time working with Steven Spielberg at Amblin, before delving into their plans to make a low budget horror movie set entirely during the daytime, something unheard of in the industry.
Author Jonathan Melville's interviews with executive producer Gale Ann Hurd (Aliens, The Walking Dead) and Universal's Jim Jacks offer rare insight into the minds of those working in Hollywood in the 1980s, with their candid opinions revealing what really goes on behind studio doors.
Seeking Perfection goes on to bring the views of actors Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Ariana Richards, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro - plus many behind the scenes crew from the first film - into the story, revealing the trials and tribulations of making a monster movie in the desert.
With dozens more interviews covering all of the sequels and the troubled TV series, this is a must-read for anyone with an interest in filmmaking and TV production as well as all fans of the Tremors franchise.
In Seeking Perfection you'll find all of the answers to all of the questions you never knew you had about the Tremors series - Mike White, The Projection Booth
"This high-access tell-all...[is] an unexpected treat" - 4/5, Empire
Welcome to Perfection, Nevada
A throwback to the kind of sci-fi B movies that had long gone out of fashion, Tremors was a box office flop that became a home video phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels and a short-lived TV series.
Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors is the first book to go beneath the surface of the Tremors franchise, featuring new interviews with more than 50 cast and crew members, including stars Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross, director Ron Underwood, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, and the monster makers who brought the Graboids to life.
Seeking Perfection also includes:
- Interviews with cast and crew from Tremors 1-5 and the TV series
- Newly-discovered photos from the Tremors set
- Storyboard excerpts
- Commentary on every episode of the TV series
- Exclusive coverage of the special 25th anniversary Tremors screening in Los Angeles
- A look at the 10-year journey from script to screen of the latest sequel, 2015’s Tremors 5: Bloodlines
Seeking Perfection is the ultimate, 100% unofficial, reference guide to Tremors!
PLUS! Buy Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors in paperback on Amazon US and get the Kindle edition for no charge on Kindle Matchbook! Perfect for anyone who wants to keep a copy on the shelf and carry another on their smartphone, or buy a paperback as a gift and keep the Kindle edition.
"Informative, entertaining and, above all, a joy to read" - 9/10, Starburst
More about the book
More than two years in the making, Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors features high-profile insight into Hollywood filmmaking from some of the biggest names in the industry.
Starting with co-creators S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock and Ron Underwood, the book examines their love of B movies and student filmmaking that brought them to Hollywood, before they embarked on ambitious plans to take control of their own big-budget productions, starting with 1986's Short Circuit.
The story then moves to their time working with Steven Spielberg at Amblin, before delving into their plans to make a low budget horror movie set entirely during the daytime, something unheard of in the industry.
Author Jonathan Melville's interviews with executive producer Gale Ann Hurd (Aliens, The Walking Dead) and Universal's Jim Jacks offer rare insight into the minds of those working in Hollywood in the 1980s, with their candid opinions revealing what really goes on behind studio doors.
Seeking Perfection goes on to bring the views of actors Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Ariana Richards, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro - plus many behind the scenes crew from the first film - into the story, revealing the trials and tribulations of making a monster movie in the desert.
With dozens more interviews covering all of the sequels and the troubled TV series, this is a must-read for anyone with an interest in filmmaking and TV production as well as all fans of the Tremors franchise.
In Seeking Perfection you'll find all of the answers to all of the questions you never knew you had about the Tremors series - Mike White, The Projection Booth
304 pages, Paperback
First published July 20, 2015
16 people are currently reading
404 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Melville
5 books21 followersAs a film journalist and critic, Jonathan Melville contributed to the likes of BBC Radio Scotland, SFX Magazine and the Edinburgh Evening News.
2022 sees the publication of his third book, Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic, going behind the scenes of the 1983 film with contributions from cast and crew.
His second book, A Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander, was released in 2020 and looked at the making of the 1986 film. It features new interviews with more than 60 cast and crew, including Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown, plus Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Melville's first book, Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors, went beneath the surface of the horror comedy franchise, combining extensive research with more than 50 brand new interviews with the cast and crew of all five Tremors films and the short-lived TV series.
Read an interview with the author about Seeking Perfection
2022 sees the publication of his third book, Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic, going behind the scenes of the 1983 film with contributions from cast and crew.
His second book, A Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander, was released in 2020 and looked at the making of the 1986 film. It features new interviews with more than 60 cast and crew, including Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown, plus Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Melville's first book, Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors, went beneath the surface of the horror comedy franchise, combining extensive research with more than 50 brand new interviews with the cast and crew of all five Tremors films and the short-lived TV series.
Read an interview with the author about Seeking Perfection
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 4, 2015
Seeking Perfection by Jonathan Melville
Welcome to Perfection, Nevada
A throwback to the kind of sci-fi B movies that had long gone out of fashion, Tremors was a box office flop that became a home video phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels and a short-lived TV series.
Seeking Perfection is the first book to go beneath the surface of the Tremors franchise, featuring new interviews with more than 50 cast and crew members, including stars Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross, director Ron Underwood, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, and the monster makers who brought the Graboids to life.
First off, I love Tremors. I remember watching it in the early nineties over and over again. I could pretty much recite every line of the film off by heart. I even loved the sequels, despite their obvious restricted budget, the excellent scripts more than made up for it.
So, when the opportunity of reading a making of book came along, I jumped at the chance. I mean, I love Tremors and I love trivia, so delving into one of my favourite franchises that goes a bit deeper than the goofs section of imdb.com was a no brainer.
Broken down into sections, first detailing the genesis of the film and history of the film makers, then interviewing the cast and crew of each production in depth, Melville pulls no punches in questioning the on set tension that still remains between film makers and the studio that financed them.
Melville is a clearly a fan of the series, as this isn’t just a cash in written by a hack, but a thoughtful celebration from fan that saw a void that needed to be filled. You can tell by the warmth given out by the actors and crew in their answers that he’s done his leg work in chasing them, buttering them up enough to give genuine answers as they reminisce about good times had. I revelled in all the little nuggets of trivia that are dug up, interesting points that will make me look at the films differently next time I watch them. Discovering how Tremors was conceived (originally called Land Sharks) and the secrets of the production process brought many revelations to a super fan such as myself.
All in all, if you’re a fan of Tremors, Melville delivers a concise history of the series that in my humble opinion, ranks as one of the best monster movies of the 20th century, whilst igniting a sense of nostalgia and fulfilling many questions that a fan like me had never thought to ask.
5/5
Welcome to Perfection, Nevada
A throwback to the kind of sci-fi B movies that had long gone out of fashion, Tremors was a box office flop that became a home video phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels and a short-lived TV series.
Seeking Perfection is the first book to go beneath the surface of the Tremors franchise, featuring new interviews with more than 50 cast and crew members, including stars Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross, director Ron Underwood, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, and the monster makers who brought the Graboids to life.
First off, I love Tremors. I remember watching it in the early nineties over and over again. I could pretty much recite every line of the film off by heart. I even loved the sequels, despite their obvious restricted budget, the excellent scripts more than made up for it.
So, when the opportunity of reading a making of book came along, I jumped at the chance. I mean, I love Tremors and I love trivia, so delving into one of my favourite franchises that goes a bit deeper than the goofs section of imdb.com was a no brainer.
Broken down into sections, first detailing the genesis of the film and history of the film makers, then interviewing the cast and crew of each production in depth, Melville pulls no punches in questioning the on set tension that still remains between film makers and the studio that financed them.
Melville is a clearly a fan of the series, as this isn’t just a cash in written by a hack, but a thoughtful celebration from fan that saw a void that needed to be filled. You can tell by the warmth given out by the actors and crew in their answers that he’s done his leg work in chasing them, buttering them up enough to give genuine answers as they reminisce about good times had. I revelled in all the little nuggets of trivia that are dug up, interesting points that will make me look at the films differently next time I watch them. Discovering how Tremors was conceived (originally called Land Sharks) and the secrets of the production process brought many revelations to a super fan such as myself.
All in all, if you’re a fan of Tremors, Melville delivers a concise history of the series that in my humble opinion, ranks as one of the best monster movies of the 20th century, whilst igniting a sense of nostalgia and fulfilling many questions that a fan like me had never thought to ask.
5/5
October 16, 2015
Alright, so. This is “Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors”.
The words 'unofficial guide' do not always inspire confidence, but happily this book is good, and clearly a labour of love for the author – and really, much of the joy of the book comes from the author clearly and obviously being a huge fan of the movie, and anyone who grew up in the age of the VCR, and did the whole ritual browsing of rental places for anything new and exciting, will know exactly where this guy is coming from, after reading his foreword. Very sympathetic, and the passion for the movie, and thus this book, is not only what makes it readable, but also what literally allows it to exist – he probably would not have gotten this level of access and interviews (though, not all comments and interviews are new material, or exclusive to this book) if he had been anything less than dedicated. Which, you know, you probably have to be if you want to write a book about a 25 years old monster flick that didn't exactly set the world on fire.
Sidebar: Tremors is really good. It's low budget, and kind of odd (a sort of comedic throwback monster flick, with a “western” setting? Sure thing!), but Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon are great together, the female lead is clever and capable (“That Tammy Lynn Baxter, she do much pole vaulting?”) and there are daft looking underground monsters called graboids. What more could you possibly want? What's that? The hippie dad from Family Ties as a survivalist gun nut? Okay. We'll throw that one in for free.
So if you haven't watched Tremors, but somehow ended up reading this, what are you doing with your life? Get thee to a TV.
The downside to this book is that it focuses on the franchise, and not just on Tremors, but that's a personal thing – I don't really care about, say, the Tremors TV show. But that just means I can stop reading at about the halfway mark, and that's fine. The inclusion of extra stuff doesn't make the first half worse.
The format here is a bit formulaic, with some Wikipedia-ish info-dumps on occasion (did we really need an aside on VCR and Betamax?), and the section on Tremors 5 is something a few minutes on Google could have told you, but when he's talking Tremors, it's pretty good stuff. Worth a read if this was one of those movies you caught as a kid, that just sort of stuck with you – you know the kind; you could watch it at pretty much any time, and re-watch it on occasion. Tremors is very much on that list for me (along with other cinematic masterpieces like 'Return of the Living Dead', 'The 'Burps' and 'The Thing', just to make it very clear that I'm old). Would I recommend it to a random reader of books? No. Watch the movie instead. Or go do whatever – maybe ride a pogo stick?
3.5 stars.
The words 'unofficial guide' do not always inspire confidence, but happily this book is good, and clearly a labour of love for the author – and really, much of the joy of the book comes from the author clearly and obviously being a huge fan of the movie, and anyone who grew up in the age of the VCR, and did the whole ritual browsing of rental places for anything new and exciting, will know exactly where this guy is coming from, after reading his foreword. Very sympathetic, and the passion for the movie, and thus this book, is not only what makes it readable, but also what literally allows it to exist – he probably would not have gotten this level of access and interviews (though, not all comments and interviews are new material, or exclusive to this book) if he had been anything less than dedicated. Which, you know, you probably have to be if you want to write a book about a 25 years old monster flick that didn't exactly set the world on fire.
Sidebar: Tremors is really good. It's low budget, and kind of odd (a sort of comedic throwback monster flick, with a “western” setting? Sure thing!), but Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon are great together, the female lead is clever and capable (“That Tammy Lynn Baxter, she do much pole vaulting?”) and there are daft looking underground monsters called graboids. What more could you possibly want? What's that? The hippie dad from Family Ties as a survivalist gun nut? Okay. We'll throw that one in for free.
So if you haven't watched Tremors, but somehow ended up reading this, what are you doing with your life? Get thee to a TV.
The downside to this book is that it focuses on the franchise, and not just on Tremors, but that's a personal thing – I don't really care about, say, the Tremors TV show. But that just means I can stop reading at about the halfway mark, and that's fine. The inclusion of extra stuff doesn't make the first half worse.
The format here is a bit formulaic, with some Wikipedia-ish info-dumps on occasion (did we really need an aside on VCR and Betamax?), and the section on Tremors 5 is something a few minutes on Google could have told you, but when he's talking Tremors, it's pretty good stuff. Worth a read if this was one of those movies you caught as a kid, that just sort of stuck with you – you know the kind; you could watch it at pretty much any time, and re-watch it on occasion. Tremors is very much on that list for me (along with other cinematic masterpieces like 'Return of the Living Dead', 'The 'Burps' and 'The Thing', just to make it very clear that I'm old). Would I recommend it to a random reader of books? No. Watch the movie instead. Or go do whatever – maybe ride a pogo stick?
3.5 stars.
April 13, 2016
Excellently written book and full of information!
Seeking Perfection covers each of the sequels and the TV series, while looking ahead to 2015's Tremors 5: Bloodlines.
The book goes into detail on the early careers of Underwood, Wilson and Maddock, including their time as young filmmakers and work with Steven Spielberg, before covering their first hit film, Short Circuit. The book then looks at the development of Tremors, initially called Beneath Perfection, before detailing its production and reception by critics and fans.
If you are a fan of Tremors, this is the book for you!
Seeking Perfection covers each of the sequels and the TV series, while looking ahead to 2015's Tremors 5: Bloodlines.
The book goes into detail on the early careers of Underwood, Wilson and Maddock, including their time as young filmmakers and work with Steven Spielberg, before covering their first hit film, Short Circuit. The book then looks at the development of Tremors, initially called Beneath Perfection, before detailing its production and reception by critics and fans.
If you are a fan of Tremors, this is the book for you!
Read
September 26, 2015Beyond Perfection
I'm a huge Tremors fan so when I came upon this book, I was thrilled. Whether you're a casual fan of the movies and tv show or are obsessed with them, this book is made for you. It's filled with behind-the-scenes information about all the movies, including the upcoming Tremors 5, and the tv series. It even reveals the backstage turmoil surrounding the Tremors tv series and why it only lasted one season.
I'm a huge Tremors fan so when I came upon this book, I was thrilled. Whether you're a casual fan of the movies and tv show or are obsessed with them, this book is made for you. It's filled with behind-the-scenes information about all the movies, including the upcoming Tremors 5, and the tv series. It even reveals the backstage turmoil surrounding the Tremors tv series and why it only lasted one season.
June 2, 2016
Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors is an interesting and entertaining look into the making of one of the most beloved Horror franchises ever made. This is a book for ALL Tremors fans and filmmakers alike. It is a very enjoyable read on a well-deserved subject.
October 17, 2015
Fascinating and fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyable trip through behind the scenes of the franchise.
Recommended reading.
Recommended reading.
June 14, 2017
This book is a must for any Tremors fans!
January 20, 2020
As a lifelong Tremors fan this book was the best! It was great learning about such an amazing series from the people involved.
October 11, 2024
Everything you could want to know and more about one of my favorite movies!
February 23, 2025
Excellent history on the first 4 films and TV series
I love the Tremors films, at least the first 3, and had the DVD set of all 7 and the tv series laying around. I was inspired to grab this book, which covers what I'll call the Stampede Era of the series, movies 1 thru 4 and the tv series, which really are the best of the bunch. A bunch of behind the scenes info, set photos, etc. Also, the author has audio commentaries on a couple of the original film releases, so you know he is legit. It's worth checking out if you love the series or just enjoyed the films.
I love the Tremors films, at least the first 3, and had the DVD set of all 7 and the tv series laying around. I was inspired to grab this book, which covers what I'll call the Stampede Era of the series, movies 1 thru 4 and the tv series, which really are the best of the bunch. A bunch of behind the scenes info, set photos, etc. Also, the author has audio commentaries on a couple of the original film releases, so you know he is legit. It's worth checking out if you love the series or just enjoyed the films.
May 27, 2021
The ultimate Tremors guide
This was such a refreshing ad detailed read about the first 4 Tremors films with tonnes of anecdotes and facts. A must for any Tremors fan
This was such a refreshing ad detailed read about the first 4 Tremors films with tonnes of anecdotes and facts. A must for any Tremors fan
February 9, 2024
So a very dear friend was kind enough to buy me this book and I love it. The interviews and knowledge is so good.
May 15, 2021
I loved it. Was a great in-depth insight into one of the best monster movie franchises ever. It goes from the early days of the creators up to tremors 5. One of the reasons I wanted to read it was the info on the short-lived series which is how I discovered the show and still hold fondly and was a bit disappointed not at the book but all that happened behind the scenes the book entails. But still a good show. If you are a tremors fan or just curious check this out, a book about a great franchise that ultimately is about a group of people just trying to survive their slice of perfection.
May 18, 2020
This is a must for Tremors fans! Fun read, full of interesting little facts. Almost half of the book is devoted to the first movie - rightly so. It is generally well written and will leave you wanting to rewatch the movies :)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews