The Crazies, a remake of George A. Romero's horrible original, stands the test of horror and actually scares the audience. With constant remakes being thrown at us today (seriously, does Hollywood have any originality left in it?), it is only a matter of time before one of these remakes hits the audience and leaves an impression that even the biggest zombie bite can't take off.
The Crazies is about a small town in Iowa called Ogden Marsh, where a plane crashes into the town's water supply and infects the townspeople, turning them into maniacs hell-bent on killing. Sound stupid? Well, it is. But it's the way this film delivers its plot that makes it work. While it could have been just more mindless zombie film drivel (yeah, I know, they're not ZOMBIES, but just get over it already) as seen in Day of the Dead or any other zombie film released in the last 10 years, it tends to stray away from the usual formula. Sure, we've all seen these scares done a million times before, but there's just something exciting about seeing Timothy Olyphant stab a woman in the neck with a knife, isn't there? The characters are all seemingly one-dimensional. None of them really jump off the screen, and the only character I was rooting for throughout the entire film ended up deader than Kentucky Fried Chicken. The downside to this film is that it's predictable. Because the characters aren't deep, they simply become just someone to watch on the screen. We know who is going to die and who is going to live, so when the time comes for someone's untimely death, the drama of the moment is lost because we saw it coming from the very beginning. Also, and I kid you not, all of the scary scenes from the film were revealed in the mesmerizing trailer. When the time comes for a jump scare (and there are LOTS, bad heart people beware), we know it's coming because we saw it in the trailer. Kind of takes away from it, don't you think? That's not to say that these scenes are bad, because they aren't. Many of them are nicely directed, with one or two really original scenes that stood out from the rest of the movie. I just wish the movie took more of these original approaches, because if it did, it would only have been that much better.
While we are bombarded with stupid remakes and horrible supernatural films (Twilight) being released, it is a breath of fresh air to see a genuinely scary one. Sure, we've seen these characters a million times before and we've seen these situations in every horror film ever released, but that's not to say this film doesn't do them right. The Crazies knows what it wants to be, and it achieves it. I just wish the film had some more crazy scenes!
And yes, this entire review was just a big build up to that horrible pun.
The Crazies is about a small town in Iowa called Ogden Marsh, where a plane crashes into the town's water supply and infects the townspeople, turning them into maniacs hell-bent on killing. Sound stupid? Well, it is. But it's the way this film delivers its plot that makes it work. While it could have been just more mindless zombie film drivel (yeah, I know, they're not ZOMBIES, but just get over it already) as seen in Day of the Dead or any other zombie film released in the last 10 years, it tends to stray away from the usual formula. Sure, we've all seen these scares done a million times before, but there's just something exciting about seeing Timothy Olyphant stab a woman in the neck with a knife, isn't there? The characters are all seemingly one-dimensional. None of them really jump off the screen, and the only character I was rooting for throughout the entire film ended up deader than Kentucky Fried Chicken. The downside to this film is that it's predictable. Because the characters aren't deep, they simply become just someone to watch on the screen. We know who is going to die and who is going to live, so when the time comes for someone's untimely death, the drama of the moment is lost because we saw it coming from the very beginning. Also, and I kid you not, all of the scary scenes from the film were revealed in the mesmerizing trailer. When the time comes for a jump scare (and there are LOTS, bad heart people beware), we know it's coming because we saw it in the trailer. Kind of takes away from it, don't you think? That's not to say that these scenes are bad, because they aren't. Many of them are nicely directed, with one or two really original scenes that stood out from the rest of the movie. I just wish the movie took more of these original approaches, because if it did, it would only have been that much better.
While we are bombarded with stupid remakes and horrible supernatural films (Twilight) being released, it is a breath of fresh air to see a genuinely scary one. Sure, we've seen these characters a million times before and we've seen these situations in every horror film ever released, but that's not to say this film doesn't do them right. The Crazies knows what it wants to be, and it achieves it. I just wish the film had some more crazy scenes!
And yes, this entire review was just a big build up to that horrible pun.