The Crazies is What a Horror Film Should Be
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The Crazies certainly stands out in a frenzied era of horror remakes and even outshines the 1971 George A. Romero original. With a larger budget and four decades of progressive technology under his belt, Director Breck Eisner did not make this film in vain; he pays due homage to Romero by conveying a satirical view of the human race in a steady-paced shocker that doesn’t rely on special effects in lieu of plot and character development. The Crazies has it all.
Horror Queen Says: Bloody Thumbs Up!
Written by BHM Editor Horror Queen
February 26, 2010
Movie Trailer
Additional Reviews:
Reader-submitted (Beanfigger)
Release: February 26, 2010
Directed by: Breck Eisner
Written by: Scott Kosar, Ray Wright and George A. Romero
Starring:
Timothy Olyphant as David Dutton
Radha Mitchell as Judy Dutton
Joe Anderson as Russell Clank
Danielle Panabaker as Becca Darling
Christie Lynn Smith as Deardra Farnum
It’s a day like any other in Ogden Marsh, Iowa and a handful of the town’s 1,260 people are at a local ball game. Things turn sour when out of the blue the town drunk wanders onto the playing field wielding a rifle and looking slightly postal. Lucky for the crowd, handsome Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) steps in and guns him down.
As
it turns out the man wasn’t drunk…he was just being a jerk.
Just as everyone is healing from this tragedy, other people’s inner jerk begins to surface. Case in point, farmer Bill starts to show signs of a fever, lethargy and overall rudeness. His worried family takes him to the town doctor (and Sheriff’s wife), and sure enough her keen diagnosis confirms that ‘Bill’s not right.’ He’s sent home with some aspirin and a plan to visit the big city for a scan in a few days. Unfortunately, within hours Bill turns into a raving homicidal maniac, burning his house down and murdering his own wife and child. Watch those flu symptoms, people.
Lethargic and murderous? The question arises as to whether
or not The Crazies is a zombie film and the answer is no,
although the original film was created by Zombie Master George A.
Romero of Night
of the Living Dead fame. Zombies by definition are mindless,
walking dead and ‘the crazies’ are for the most part very much alive.
That being said, what’s happening to the townspeople of Ogden Marsh is
close enough to a zombie outbreak to cause widespread
panic. We’re not sure just how widespread until the US Military
suddenly steps in, in what appears to be some sort of combination
quarantine / extermination exercise, sending those with even a slight
fever to ‘separate quarters’. This seems like a good idea given the
circumstances, until one of those people turns out to be Sheriff
Dutton’s pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell). As you can imagine all
hell breaks loose in effort to get Judy back, especially since her mild
fever is due only to her pregnancy. And get her back they do, but not
without a near escape of ‘death by pitchfork’, one of the most chilling
scenes in the film (not to mention a blatant violation of the Geneva
Conventions).
How did the US Military get involved? We all know accidents happen in the name of warfare (think M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening or if you want to be more realistic, Chernobyl). Although Romero spends more time on the military point of view in the original film, both he and Eisner cleverly convey the irony between what caused the infectious disaster and the methods used to contain it. The result is a lot of military spending and one messed up little town.
Now on the lamb, Sheriff Dutton and friends spend the rest of the film playing dodge and dart with the military and the crazies, and watching each other for signs of being ‘not right’. Performances are convincing – from Olyphant’s portrayal of the protective sheriff to his trigger-happy redneck deputy, Russell (Joe Anderson). Their journey keeps us glued to our seats right up until the bombshell ending.
Horror Queen Says: Bloody Thumbs Up!
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