Tear Jerker / Tremors

• In the first film, the tragic deaths of Edgar, old man Fred, the doctor, his wife, and Walter are all very sad to one degree or another. Oddly enough, it's Nestor's death (and more importantly Melvin's reaction) that really hits you in the gut. Melvin's tearful pleas sure help.
  Melvin: "No way, no way man! You guys gotta do something! You gotta do something!"
  • Even harsher if you don't know Melvin's last name from subsequent movies. If all you've seen is the original, it's unclear whether the boy might be related to Nestor, but whether he is or not, Melvin, who's at most in his mid teens, just watched a man he has likely known his entire life just be murdered and eaten by a monstrous creature. Scrappy he may be, but one can't help feeling sorry for him as he breaks down into panicked sobs and screams.
• Miguel's death in the third movie, especially since he was one of the lucky ones who survived the original Graboid invasion. Burt immediately blames himself, taking Miguel's rosary as a memento, and when he tries to report back to Nancy and Mindy, he's only able to get as far as telling them what happened before he can't go on any more and quietly hands his radio to Jodi. For a man who completely knows what kind of series he's in and plays the absurdity of Burt's character to the hilt throughout the movies, Michael Gross completely lands the tragedy of the situation with his acting.
• The Reveal in the second film that Burt's wife, Heather, left him. It's mostly Played for Laughs, but Burt is clearly depressed by the situation and is pretty clearly trying to hide his feelings under a tough facade.
• Earl is pretty messed up in the second film, having seen so many of his friends die, Val leave him behind when he got married, and living in fear of the Graboids return.
• Burt's situation in the start of Tremors 6: in earlier sequels, the one thing that kept Burt relatively anchored was the fact he had something approaching kindred spirits in the other denizens of Perfection, who were similarly tough, independent and bloody-minded enough that they chose to live in the middle of nowhere with dangerous man-eating giant worms for local wildlife because it would let them be free. Well, this film starts with a stark case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: all those spirited and endearingly crazy locals have given up and drifted out of town (or, presumably, been eaten), leaving just Burt and his son alone in the middle of nowhere, living in what used to be the town grocery store, surrounded by memories of better times. For an added punch, we're told that Burt's merchandising and videos and all his other profit-generators have dried up, so he's facing imminent foreclosure by the IRS. It's truly a sad sight to see the series' most memorable and iconic character reduced to this husk of himself.
• The deaths of Dr. Flynn and all but one of her team in the TV series episode Night of the Shriekers. They really just wanted to do something good, and preserve the shriekers for a noble purpose, and even when they were arguing with or interfering with Burt's plans to kill every shrieker in the valley, they weren't that forceful, stupid, or obnoxious about it and put their own lives at risk more than anyone else for the most part.
  • Well, until Dr. Flynn decided to cook off a cache of ammunition in a room full of people that is. She was lucky that nobody was hurt, and even then she got three people trapped and subsequently nearly killed by the Shriekers.
    • And then Dr. Flynn got herself and another of her team eaten as well. When will people learn that trying to control voracious monsters never ends well?
    • The death of Otto, the abovementioned guy eaten with her, might be a straighter example as he seemed like a nice enough guy, doing his best to help solve the situation, and seeming a bit hesitant about Flynn's plan. .
• 4-12's death is pretty sad. Yes, he was a vicious lab experiment who had been created for warfare, but Cletus clearly regarded him as his best friend and so long as he got those cactus buds, he was apparently quite mellow. And unlike the other monsters faced by Burt and his companions, their victory over 4-12 is not portrayed as a triumph, but as an unfortunate necessity. The fact that 4-12's death is accompanied by a particularly sorrowful soundtrack makes it hit all the harder when Cletus cries over his lost friend.
• Tremors 7: Burt's Heroic Sacrifice and death. He goes out getting eaten by the biggest Graboid in the franchise and takes her with him.