The Crazies

'The Crazies' (2010) is a remake of zombie-maestro George A Romero's 'other' film from the seventies. Most people only know him in connection with his Night/Dawn/Day/Land quadrology, but he also made The Crazies back in the early seventies. It was basically a zombie film by another name; instead of the undead you had people infected (in the non 28 Days Later kind of way) with a contamination which basically meant they go nuts (or crazy, basically).

If you've seen the other remake of George A Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead (2004)' then you should kind of know the 'look and feel' of the Crazies' remake. It sort of feels like a compendium piece to Dawn's remake, even down to having a Johnny Cash song over the opening credits.

We have a place crashing a toxic chemical which gets in a small American town's water supply, making everyone start killing each other. Naturally the Government is on hand to generally mess things up for the hapless townsfolk who have already started to murder each other in various grisly ways.

The story follows the sheriff, his doctor wife, his deputy and another girl as they desperately try to flee the town while being pursued by nut-jobs, the government and the paranoia that one or more of them may well be infected.

It's not the most mind-blowing of premises, but it does the job. It's not original enough to really stand out. I suppose the most different aspect to it is that the 'infected' or 'non-zombies' (or whatever you want to call them) do still retain enough intelligence to generally act a little difference to your average undead menace (you don't get too many zombies driving cars and firing shotguns at our heroes!).

If you're generally into your zombie movies then this one will do the job. It has enough of a budget to raise it above the bucketload of B-movies who are using the 'zombie craze' to sell itself and the cast, although nothing out of the ordinary, do enough to make us root for them.

Nothing too memorable, but nothing too awful and will certainly entertain any horror fan for an hour and a half.

When residents of a small-town begin attacking each other, the survivors are lead away from the area, but when they learn of others still trapped in the town they head back to rescue them before they fall victim to the bloodthirsty creatures.

This was a hard one to get a handle on as there's stuff to love and dislike here. Some of the stuff works, from the build-up in the beginning with the family being stalked in the house before it being set on fire to the gory ambush in the morgue, there's some nice action scenes early on that create a pretty creepy air especially when combined with the investigation angle. The assault on the camp as well as the action in the burned-out ruins of the town are rather nice and certainly big, fun action scenes that provide some nice blood and gore, and it gets a lot of fun out of an abbreviated ambush in a car-wash and a truck- stop encounter, but the fact remains that there's a lot of problems here. The biggest flaw is that the middle segments, after a strong opening, just drain the energy from the film as it continually repeats the tender family relationship that never once feels threatened or in danger, despite attempts to force the issue but it knowingly won't and just renders the whole thing pointless. Also, by dropping the number of encounters down it leaves the relentless pacing of the first half incredibly slowed down and dull afterward, drawing out the film a little too long in this section. Another big serious flaw is the complete and total lack of explanations for the toxin dropped in the town, which is a real mystery on all fronts in how it works, its' purpose and wherever the toxin came from. This is a major flaw which really hampers the film along with its other flaws as otherwise, this is a decent effort.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and children-in-jeopardy.

The Crazies, a remake of a seldom-seen 1972 George Romeo film, is about a small town whose inhabitants drink tainted water and become deranged. The movie is slick but still terrifying, relying not only on wacked-out effects but also on unadulterated suspense to really rattle your nerves.

At a Little League game in Ogden Marsh, Iowa, a man wanders into the outfield carrying a shotgun. When the man raises the weapon, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) shoots him dead. But the man wasn't drunk, he'd just gone crazy. Dutton investigates further, with the help of his deputy Russell (Joe Anderson), and discovers that a plane carrying a deadly cargo has crashed into a nearby creek, thus poisoning the town's drinking water.

From there, events quickly get out of hand, as anyone who'd drunk water from their taps becomes first listless and unresponsive, then mumbly, then completely unhinged. But that's only the beginning of the nightmare for the town, which is then surrounded by a military force bent on containing the virus by any means necessary.

This is only kind of a zombie film. I mean, no one's dining on the flesh of their living compatriots, there's no shambling, and mindless killing. (There's plenty of killing, but the afflicted people still have the capacity for reason.) One thing I liked about this was that precious time isn't spend trying to discover the reason for everyone's behavior; attention is focused on the survivors and how they react to what's going on. I also appreciated that at no time does anyone, even the sheriff, have this superhuman ability to know what must be done and how to do it. Dutton isn't a superhero, he's a sheriff.

Another thing that helps a lot is the pacing. Too often, things either move so quickly that you can't figure out what's being done to whom or too slowly so that the suspense angle becomes the boredom angle. This is crucial for a horror film, which basically trafficks in suspense. Director Breck Eisner keeps the action coming without holding up the story (e.g., no drawn-out standoffs when it would look implausible), and there are plenty of creeping-up-on-you moments to choke twelve cows.

Olyphant looks a lot like a younger Bill Paxton here, and he's a good fit - Sheriff Dutton is a solid leader, but he's not an improbable one. He's the kind of guy who rises to the occasion, not surpasses it completely. If you're looking for a movie where the hero is always armed to the teeth and subsequently never gets much more than a scratch on him, this isn't for you. Dutton has to constantly fight with his own instincts and change his attitude during the course of the movie (save everyone, save his wife, save a few people, save himself).

People who make horror movies know they're making them for a pretty select audience. Lots of people don't like horror movies at all, and those who do are somewhat picky about them (particularly with so many big-budget ones from which to choose), so standards are high. It's important to grab that core audience, show them something they haven't seen or haven't seen done particularly well, then smack them upside the head. Classic horror films used the horror of the unseen to great effect, and more-recent genre films try the same thing. (One reason for this is that we've become inured to in-your-face slasher films, because the anticipation of the slasher doing his slashing has largely been eroded. But that's a digression right there.

Basically, if zombie movies in general are your bag, you should love The Crazies. (If you don't like any horror films regardless, there's no way you should see this.) The Crazies is effectively scary, mixing human emotions with raw blood and gore and endless edge-of-your seat thrills.

In Pierce County, Iowa, the Sheriff David (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to kill the local Rory Hamill (Mike Hickman) that is threatening the community in a baseball game with a rifle and an insane behavior. Then his wife Dr. Judy (Radha Mitchell) examines another local, Bill Farnum (Brett Rickaby), who has a strange behavior. In the night, Bill traps his wife and son in the room and then he burns their house to the ground. On the next morning, David and his Deputy Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) are called by three hunters that had found a dead pilot in the Hopman Bog. David and Russell find a big airplane in the bottom of the bog. Sooner the army seals off the town and imprisons the population in tents and concentration camps. David, Russell, Judy and her assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker) escape and sooner they discover that the plane was airborne with a biological weapon and crashed contaminating the water supply of the population. Further, there is no antidote for the victims that are doomed to die or become incurably mad. The quartet tries to find a breach in the containment to reach the next town, but the escapees are hunted by the army.

I usually hate remakes, but "The Crazies" (2010) is a rare case when the remake is better than the original film of George Romero. The tense plot is slightly different from the original story of 1973 that reflected the paranoia of those years of Cold War. Further, the plot focuses in the personal drama of David and Judy and not in the military action like in the 1973 movie. The screenplay, direction and performances are above average and this film worth watching. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Epidemia" ("The Epidemics")

I didn't know diddly squat about this movie before I saw it, and that's how I recommend you see it also. The back of the DVD case sorta spoils some of the fun, so avoid reading it if you can. All I'll say about the plot is pretty evident from the title and cover picture (a blood drenched pitchfork). This is a movie where chances are you're gonna see someone get it with a pitchfork.

The overall story and theme reminded me of the classic thrillers of the 70s, so it came as no huge surprise when I learned that this was a remake of a 70s George Romero flick. By comparing it to 70s thrillers I mean to say it's the story of a lone protagonist or small group fighting against a grossly overpowering enemy. This sort of "hopeless underdog" theme was probably a result of the political climate of the 70s, when people were waking up and realizing that our beloved guv'meant and friendly corporations were sucking us dry like a 2 hour old wad of Bazooka Joe bubble gum. So this distrustful awakening spawned excellent conspiracy flicks like "Coma", "The China Syndrome", "The Andromeda Strain" and "The Stepford Wives" which flew in the face of the traditional tale of a superhero good guy vs. a clear and present danger, instead showing a more disturbing scenario of a protagonist at the mercy of a far more insidious and often faceless enemy.

What, you're saying? Then who's the dude with the pitchfork? Well broadly speaking, again as you might guess from the title, the enemy is an entire town gone crazy. That's what makes this hit home. With the enemy being our neighbors and friends, it's not like we're threatened by a fantasy 2-headed space beast. Instead the threat is something that exists around all of us. As the actors mention in the "behind the scenes" DVD feature, this is the terror of something safe & familiar which is turned upside down.

In that respect it reminded me of another excellent thriller, "The Strangers" about an ordinary couple terrorized by ordinary people in very un-ordinary ways. Again, no supernatural monsters or (as my title says) no "zombies" are required to instill perfect fear. This is the sort of movie that'll leave you thinking "wow, that really COULD happen." That's the mark of a truly terrifying story.

The acting is fantastic, and although I had never seen any of these people on screen before, I instantly liked every one because they seemed so real and personable. My favorite character was "Russell" who plays a harmless sheriff's deputy, but as the film gets darker, he too becomes more fidgety and cynical to the point where you're not sure what's going on in his head.

Special effects are really good. No obvious cgi garbage. Yes, the film crew really did roll a few trucks and trash a few streets to make the carnage authentic. Makeup also is really convincing, so much that it's more disturbing than the actual gore (which surprisingly there isn't a whole lot of; most of the violence is handled quickly from creative angles that pump up your imagination).

Entertainment value: 10/10. This flick hits you from the very first scene and keeps the suspense rolling through the whole thing. The scares are well placed. Things remain tense without the need for unnecessary kitschy horror clichés... although there's at least one scene where the movie isn't afraid to make fun of itself a little. I'm talking about the over- the-top bone saw scene which was as much comedy as it was horror. Lots of reasons to see this movie so go out and rent it already. You'll never see your neighbors, or pitchforks, the same way again.