Neil Kopit

This prequel of the bone-chilling Tremors begins in the town of Rejection, Nev., in 1889, where 17 men die under mysterious circumstances. Spooked by recent events, the miners who populate the town leave in droves until there's nothing left but a shell of a community. It's up to the remaining residents to get to the bottom of the deaths -- but they must do so before they, too, are eradicated off the face of the planet.

As a child living in Africa, Jill Young saw her mother killed while protecting wild gorillas from poachers led by Andrei Strasser. Now an adult, Jill cares for an orphaned gorilla named Joe -- who, due to a genetic anomaly, is 15 feet tall. When Gregg O'Hara arrives from California and sees the animal, he convinces Jill that Joe would be safest at his wildlife refuge. But Strasser follows them to the U.S., intent on capturing Joe for himself.