Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Breck Eisner
Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker, Joe Reegan, Preston Bailey, Christie Lynn Smith
RunTime: 1 hr 40 mins
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Rating: NC-16 (Violence)
Official Website: http://www.thecrazies-movie.com/

Opening Day: 22 July 2010

Synopsis:

In this terrifying glimpse into the "American Dream" gone wrong, an unexplainable phenomenon has taken over the citizens of Ogden Marsh. One by one the townsfolk are falling victim to an unknown toxin and are turning sadistically violent. People who days ago lived quiet, unremarkable lives are now depraved, bloodthirsty killers. While Sheriff Dutton and his pregnant wife, Judy, try to make sense of the escalating violence, the government uses deadly force to close off all access and won’t let anyone in or out – even those uninfected. An ordinary night becomes a horrifying struggle for the few remaining survivors as they do their best to get out of town alive. Breck Eisner directs this suspenseful reinvention of the George A. Romero classic.

Movie Review:

In between his critically acclaimed Living Dead series, zombie-meister George A. Romero made a low-budget thriller about a bioengineered virus accidentally released into the water supply of a small town, turning its townsfolk into deranged murderers- hence the moniker "The Crazies". Breck Eisner’s remake embraces the B-movie spirit of the original, and in that regard accomplishes an efficiently fast-paced, brutal and thrilling creepfest that is certainly one of the more worthy horror remakes of late.

Keeping the story lean and simple, Eisner’s version opens with a high school baseball game where a local townsman strolls dazed onto the field, clutching a shotgun like he’s about to shoot someone. After a brief standoff, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) shoots the man dead. But that is merely the beginning, as one by one, other citizens of the town quickly begin to exhibit increasingly bizarre and violent behaviour. The perceptive sheriff suspects it has something to do with a plane going down in the swarm, especially after a group of local hunters find a pilot who died after crash-landing.

Nevertheless, knowledge is hardly the cure here, as even a crude military containment operation fails to stop the infected turned murderous lunatics. So David goes on the run with his pregnant doctor wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell), joined by his deputy (Joe Anderson) and Judy’s medical assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker), trying to stay alive as best they can amid the carnage. Their escape is not simply from the 'crazies', but also the authorities whose definition of containment is merely eradication of all persons dead or alive.

Romero’s original was released in the heart of the Vietnam era and gleefully tapped into the zeitgeist of '70s paranoia and governmental distrust. Eisner’s movie lacks the subtext that Romero’s had, but what it lacks in relevance and perhaps therefore credibility, Eisner keenly makes up for it in suspense. From the get-go, he draws you in with a genuinely creepy atmosphere percolating in a claustrophobic small-town setting, what fear and anxiety amplified by the fact that these infected are friends and neighbours suddenly gone berserk.

Quickly building to a boil, Eisner unleashes the tension in brutal violence that doesn’t attempt to keep the proceedings teen-friendly- unlike some defanged horror remakes. At the local high school turned military containment area, one of the infected walk around an isolation room with a pitchfork where those suspected of being infected are tied down to hospital beds, puncturing his victims’ torsos, but not before threatening to kill them with suspense. Ditto that for an extremely tense scene where Dutton and his group of survivors are trapped in a car and dragged through a carwash. But Eisner uses the gore sparingly and wisely, reserving it for scenes intended to shock and scare the audience instead of numbing them into nonchalance.

Eisner also avoids the horror movie cliché of characters too daft for its audience to care for. Timothy Olyphant brings a smart savviness to his character, the lead survivor who takes it upon himself to ensure the survival of the rest of the group. Radha Mitchell’s character is also more than just another freaked out female, exhibiting admirable steeliness and nerves in the midst of the lunacy. Olyphant and Mitchell have always proven to be reliable actors, and Eisner’s movie benefits from their presence instead of unknown teen actors only interested in displaying their assets.

Of course, Eisner is also aware that his movie was never going to be more than B-grade horror movie fare, but "The Crazies" is better for his embrace of what it is and his adroitness at exploiting its premise fully, while avoiding certain clichés that other remakes have simply retreaded. It may not be as groundbreaking as "28 Days Later" but this is a straightforward and thoroughly effective remake that captures the thrills and the chills of the original for a modern-day audience.

Movie Rating:



(Efficiently fast-paced, brutal and thrilling, Breck Eisner’s remake of the George Romero original is one of the more worthy horror remakes of late)

Review by Gabriel Chong