The Crazies Movie Review
The Crazies Movie Review
A cool drink of water.
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The box office is chock-full-o nuts right now — the insane asylum of Shutter Island, the mind-bending paranoia of Ghost Writer, and the full moon madness of The Wolfman — but when The Crazies opens this Friday, it's going to take the cuckoo cake.
The movie starts off with a bloody bang when small-town Iowan sheriff Dave Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) has to shoot one of the local residents dead after the man turns inexplicably insane and tries to go on a rampage. Crisis averted.
Not so fast, Trixie! There's more gore in store when a government conspiracy (Code Name: Trixie, which is also an alternate title for the original 1973 version of The Crazies, as conceived by George A. Romero) is uncovered and the residents of Ogden Marsh are quarantined and systematically killed by the U.S. Military. Dutton and his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell) narrowly escape, along with Dutton's deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) and Judy's assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker). They go on the run, narrowly missing several near-death encounters before things get even worse.
That's really all you need to know, plot-wise. The strength of the film lies not so much in the story, but in its horror aspects — there are numerous nail-biting suspense sequences (a rogue bone-saw garnered gasps from the audience) and legions of nasty, gooey infected people riddled with brain-rot (the double-team deaths of a mean mama and son brought about cheers) doing bad things. (The ending of the movie is quite over-the-top ridiculous, but if you're still with the characters by then, it'll fit well enough.)
Scripted by Scott Kosar, who's previously penned remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror, The Crazies is, by all accounts an improvement upon the original (which was more a political allegory germane to that bygone era). It's definitely not a scary or believable story, but it's exciting and knows all the right scare-beats. Director Breck Eisner demonstrates growth after his first feature, Sahara (2005), and Almost Human keeps getting better and better with each project (they most recently did the makeup effects on The Burrowers, Quarantine, and Fear Clinic).
In spite of his character being the flattest and most stoic in the film, Timothy Olyphant (whose done viral horror before, in Stephen King's Dreamcatchers) brings a corona of credibility to the small town sheriff who can suddenly kick ass like an action hero and outwit-outrun-outlast the government like DB Cooper on steroids. Radha Mitchell (whose done viral horror before in Silent Hill) fares better as the more layered and sympathetic town doctor (but is less-believable as a pregnant woman who survives some awfully insurmountable odds). Danielle Panabaker (best-known to genre fans from her turn in last year's Friday the 13th remake) is fine as the damsel in distress, but it's Joe Anderson who is the real standout in the cast. He also made the strongest impression in the otherwise laughable The Ruins a couple of years back, so it's a pleasure to watch him command every one of his scenes again.
The Crazies isn't spooky in the way you might hope, given the device of having people you know, your friends, neighbors and family, infected and slowly turning into something else (ala The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Astronaut's Wife, or even Cabin Fever). It's not about the people, so much as what happens to them once they are stricken and then the terrible things they do. The lack of buildup and tension is compensated by some eye-popping set-pieces, such as a berserker in a morgue, a pitchfork-poking madman going on a spree in a makeshift medical triage, crazies running a killer carwash, and so on.
The Crazies may be more about the sizzle than the steak, but it's very well-done. (Did I mention the awesome fiery death scenes?)
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
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