Remakes of George A Romero films are developing a nasty habit: between 1990′s Night Of The Living Dead, Zack Snyder’s Dawn Of The Dead and now, The Crazies, all three have turned out to be pretty good films, far better than they have any right to be. After a couple of days with no internet access at BurnAllZombies’ headquarters, things are finally back up and running, so we can finally tell you just why we were pleasantly surprised by The Crazies.
Set in the small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, town sheriff David Dutten (Timothy Olyphant) shoots a local when he walks into the middle of a baseball game with a loaded shotgun. It’s the first of several unusual occurrences in the town that leads to Ogden Marsh being cut off from the world at large, with a military force initiating a lockdown of the town and forcibly testing its inhabitants for a virus. Dutten sets out to find his pregnant wife (and town doctor) Judy (Radha Mitchell) to escape town together, accompanied by deputy sheriff Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) and Judy’s receptionist Becca (Danielle Panabaker.) But with the locals turning homicidal and the military on their tail, David and Judy have a much tougher time than just hopping in their car and driving out of town.
The Crazies is something of a contradiction, or perhaps just a mish-mash of styles, but this is no bad thing: at its heart, it should be a zombie film, but the crazy murderous villains aren’t zombies; it should be tense, but it still remembers to have a sense of humour; and it should be claustrophobic, but instead we’re treated to rolling fields and vast farmland. That’s not to say that all those things don’t happen: the make-up and actions of some of the villagers are zombie-like; when the tension kicks in, the film will have you on the edge of your seat; and in amongst all those farms, there’s always a barn, a truck-stop or even…a car-wash?
There are other ways in which The Crazies both breaks and acknowledges the mould, perhaps most obvious in its casting and usage of characters: Danielle Panabaker managed to scream her way through Friday The 13th, ensuring some of the teenage audience might carry over, but we don’t usually see horror films acknowledge a husband-and-wife team in this way, except perhaps as parents of the aforementioned teens. Both are likeable enough (and good enough actors) that we want them to survive, but there’s even that bit more to it: David and Judy are representatives of their town, and if they can survive, then Ogden Marsh can too. As such, similarities to 30 Days Of Night and The Mist abound in the tone of the film, but The Crazies steers clear from any other imitations of those movies.
What’s at stake here isn’t a bunch of teenagers (Panabaker aside) but rather a whole town and its way of life: few of the other townsfolk are given a name or a purpose, but Ogden Marsh still has a tangible identity with a quaint and cosy lifestyle. Even as David and the others are fighting the crazies of the title, there are constant reminders of just how good and peaceful life in the town should be. But it’s also possible that the crazies of the title aren’t actually the infected townspeople, but David and Judy (and us) for daring to think that they might survive against such insurmountable odds…
But enough existential nonsense and analysis of meaning: The Crazies is an action/horror film, and things are sufficiently well set up to allow things to be enjoyable and tense (if the two can ever go hand in hand) without wanting to scream at characters for going places or doing things which they clearly shouldn’t. When the direct confrontations with the crazies come, most of them are slow and deliberate, and the few occasions that the film resorts to a cheap scare is usually just to allow a bigger moment to build.
Some of the set-pieces are ridiculously inventive, and the cinematography proves especially effective in incorporating these into the action, from the car wash which may (or may not be) surrounded by crazies to the truck stop outside of town with its large windows and narrow maintenance routes. The make-up and practical effects going into the crazies and their effect on Ogden Marsh are worth a mention as well: the film doesn’t overdo the gore, but there’s enough to make things realistic and painful looking.
In the face of the crazies, Olyphant and David Dutten are early contenders for bad-ass of the year (one scene with a knife proves that several times over). Radha Mitchell’s performance is good enough to stand up against Olyphant’s intensity, but Judy proves just a little bit too similar to her character from Silent Hill to really stand apart (which was a bit too similar to Pitch Black in turn…typecasting ahoy, and all that.)
For a film that turns out so well from something so simple, The Crazies is both enjoyable, and somewhat uncomfortable to watch (in that way that horror movies are meant to be.) While not overlong, it might pack some more punch with a shorter running time, but that’s not to say that The Crazies needs improving. Anything but, to be honest: it’s one of the best zombie movies to be made in recent years. And it isn’t even about zombies!
Zombie Rating: B+
The Crazies is in cinemas now.
