The Crazies

This remake of Living Dead maestro George A Romero's little seen 1973 flick is a reasonably efficient horror movie that packs in plenty of shocks. Creepy visuals and clinical direction squeeze every possible jolt from a script that staggeringly opts to remove the characterisation and social commentary of the original. Consequently, The Crazies is a passive experience that feels like watching someone else playing a gory video game. Albeit a very well produced game where you wonder what perilous scenarios await.

Taking place solely in a remote town in Iowa, Sheriff Dutton (Olyphant) is forced to take action when one of the locals behaves in a threatening and nonsensical manner. This behaviour soon spreads and the 'infected' are turned into zombie-like killers whose sole instinct is to kill. The government quickly seal off the area and those left - led by the Sheriff - are forced to fight both 'crazies' and soldiers for survival. Who can they trust though, especially as a 'crazy' might be lurking among their own ranks and be liable to turn homicidal at any moment?

The first half of the movie, where the threat is established, ramps up the tension superbly. The washed-out colours that are used to depict the environment create an unsettling Romero-esque vibe and the sense of isolation and brewing chaos is gripping. It's only in the movie's latter section that the quality deteriorates, as the plot homes in on a small group of survivors whose characters have barely been given a second thought beforehand.

Casting Timothy Olyphant in the lead role misfires badly, as he's seemingly unable to reign in the wild-eyed glares that make him look more maniacal than heroic. The story would have benefitted from a central protagonist we could really trust and root for. Radha Mitchell is criminally underused, with her role so thinly developed that her defining characteristics could be scribbled on the back of a postage stamp. "Sheriff's wife. Pregnant." There's nothing more to her part than that. Poor lass.

The Crazies has an over-reliance on 'tap on the shoulder' style thrills to generate tension, although director Breck Eisner does pull these off with aplomb. Two scenes, one involving an electric saw in a mortuary and another in a car wash, are genuinely terrifying and display enough invention to keep our eyes continuously peeled. However, the only time you'll be reaching for the sick bucket is when one character opts for self-sacrifice as a means of saving the others. This is truly horrific as the person's last moments before death are bathed in such sickly sentimentalism that it evokes the risible demise of Bruce Willis in Armageddon.

Far from perfect, The Crazies is disposable and enjoyable at the same time. The characters are merely throwaway plot functions, but the world in which they live is so absorbingly depicted as it shifts from the mundane into a nightmare. Don't expect the little grey cells to be stimulated while watching the movie. Do expect several shivers down the spine at regular intervals.


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