Remake of Bioterrorism Creep-fest has its momentsby
Morgan P Salvo
The Crazies, is based on the 1973 George A. Romero film of the same name, originally called “Code Name: Trixie”. Joining the ranks of newly remade apocalyptic scenarios, The Crazies has been given the remake treatment with Romero serving as executive producer. The original always struck me as the missing link between Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, though this movie borrows only marginally and has a focused life of its own.
While Crazies'73 took place in Pennsylvania, this time the plot revolves around the inhabitants of Ogden Marsh, a small Iowa town, suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. Beginning with a disheveled guy interrupting a kid’s softball game, carrying a shotgun and then a mortician attacking people with a bone-saw (the only other time I’ve seen that weapon of choice was Planet Terror), soon the Sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) and deputy (Joe Anderson) figure out something is definitely wrong in their little community. Bouts of insanity are more frequent and are traced to whom started drinking the water first. Turns out a plane crashed into the town’s main river and military force has moved in and are dispensing martial law, taking no prisoners. They are literally wiping Ogden Marsh off the map along with all its inhabitants, infected or not. As in the 1973 classic, The Crazies uses victims driven insane by governmental chemical-warfare experiments in place of zombies but for the most part the results are the same. But wherein the first one was more politically motivated, dead set on making parallels to the Viet Nam War, the Kent State shootings, ongoing riots and other early-’70s conflicts, this Crazies is more personal, focusing on the Sheriff, his wife/town doctor’s (Radha Mitchell) plight against all odds. They are up against evil gas-mask wearing military on one side and vein-popping wide eyed crazies on the other…take your pick.
Brought to us from director Breck Eisner (who helmed the dreadful Sahara), The Crazies definitely has a semblance of style thanks to cinematographer Maxime Alexandre’s (High Tension) atmospheric touch. But it seems for every good thing an equally lame thing occurs. Some of the stronger scenes seem to chicken out. There’s some blood and gore but mostly of the afterthought kind. The choice was made more toward thrilling instead of visceral, allowing the blood splatter off-screen and a lot of death by soundtrack. Every scary shock is accompanied by insanely loud music. The infected go nicely maniacal but are not shown as often as in most zombie flicks, only to be revealed in startling out-of-nowhere close-ups. When they do get to wallow in their own insanity it’s a crap shoot as to what they are capable of. They don’t just eat brains; they like to mess with things via their warped-out id. Think of it as zombies sans inhibitions with an agenda. 
Anderson (The Ruins) was fun to watch thanks to his handle on his character’s spiral-into-madness development. The rest of the acting was adequate amidst the bad dialogue but something about the persistence and interaction between the characters kept it alive and translated into the beat of the film. With only a mention of biological warfare and dropping any political undercurrents, The Crazies has a feel of the pod-induced sleep walking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (both versions) combined with the campy hazmat blockbuster Outbreak. The Crazies, not a great movie by any standards, holds it own. In this day and age with the Michael Bay’s deafening crunch of everything re-made in 70’s horror, The Crazies was refreshingly sane.
The Crazies
Starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson
Directed Breck Eisner
2 ½ stars
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