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The Crazies

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(75)
3 star:		(41)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

THE CRAZIES is not a great film, nor will it likely even enter the "Hall Of Fame" of zombie-type movies. However, it is a tight, well-constructed and reasonably well-acted thriller that is more than worthy of a look.

In the small mid-western town of Ogden's Marsh, high school baseball season is just getting started. Everyone in town is there to size up the quality of this year's team...and frankly, life just couldn't get any finer. In less than 2 minutes, we get learn all we need to know about this little town...we see that it's a town where everyone knows everyone. Everyone has a place and is contented. Life is simple but satisfying. But when a glassy-eyed farmer with a shotgun wanders onto the field of play (actually, he has what might be described as a zombie-like stare), the sheriff (played at a perfect pitch by Timothy Olyphant) tried to talk him out of his weapon. Their brief, tense confrontation ends in the death of the farmer...and the town is rattled. Things quickly escalate as more and more citizens begin acting weird, violent and yes, CRAZY.

It isn't quite a zombie movie...no dead person is coming back to life. In fact, it's more a cousin to 28 DAYS LATER, where the zombies were really just people infected with rage. But whatever the case, we essentially see the very quick collapse of this little society...especially when the government quarantines them and begins to separate the sick from the well.

The movie takes a fairly predictable path from here...there's not really much we haven't seen before (although the film does feature the scariest journey through an automatic carwash that we've ever seen). But there is seldom much in the way of the truly new in this genre...it's all in the execution. If the film is constructed well enough, we don't pay quite so much attention to some of the plot holes (or if not holes, at least areas the stretch credibility, even if we accept the initial premise). THE CRAZIES is well-constructed, and uses its modest budget well. It doesn't attempt anything it can't pull off well, so there aren't lots of cheesy effects. It assembles a small core of characters, and makes us care about them just enough to draw our sympathy at their plight.

The central relationship is between sheriff Olyphant and his wife, the town doctor, played by Radha Mitchell. They are a couple that has clearly been together for awhile, and there are no big histrionics between them. They feel like a couple that has a natural ease between each other, and even when pushed to extremes, there's never any doubt that they're comfortable. This reflects the overall ease of the movie...it doesn't push too hard. Olyphant and Mitchell feel more like a married couple that is comfortably at ease with each other...not the typical movie couple who always have to find a way to tear each other's clothes off and fool around, even as the world collapses around them. I liked that...and it made me really root for them.

In many ways, the most interesting relationship is between Olyphant and his deputy, played by Joe Anderson (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE). Their interplay, the casual deference of the deputy for his boss, their unshakeable sense of duty all feel natural. These are good guys...but in quiet, unassuming ways. They just do what they feel is right, even if they're really scared. The movie is not showy about them...it's not like their Mel Gibson & Danny Glover in LETHAL WEAPON...they're just a couple of small town law enforcement officers who wear their badges not only with pride but with an instinctive understanding that they have RESPONSIBILITY as well.

The movie has scares aplenty, and lots of tense scenes. There's a great scene in the latter half when the couple is confronted by a couple of crazies in their own bedroom...we've got four people basically clawing and scratching at each other in a tiny room, and it's maddening to watch.

It's nice to see a good, honest little film that knows its business, but takes the time to get enough little details right to make it just a bit more than ordinary. If you're in the mood for a few jump-in-your-seat moments, you could do far, far worse than THE CRAZIES.

Length:: 3:59 Mins

Gina from Haunted Flower reviews "The Crazies" directed by Breck Eisner and produced by George A. Romero based on his 1973 version. It stars Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, and Joe Anderson. A contagious mental illness takes over the inhabitants of a small town in Iowa.

[...]

I knew nothing about The Crazies going into the theater. I didn't know it was originally produced by the father of the zombie genre, George Romero. And I didn't expect to see a movie about a sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) and his pregnant wife (Radha Mitchell) with my own wife six months pregnant. Please note: this review contains spoilers.

The movie starts out slowly. In these stressful times, we're all too familiar with scenes of sudden gun violence in an idyllic setting. After sheriff Dutton is forced to gun down a former town drunk on a little league field, the town of Ogden Marsh begins to unravel. Everybody knows everybody else in this small town and a murder leaves emotional aftershocks that traumatize its citizens. This includes Dutton's wife, who happens to be the town doctor.

The tension slowly notches up from there. These early moments are critical in establishing The Crazies as a superior horror film. The petty rivalries, the secret and not-so-secret grudges, the sadistic bullies - all of the townsfolk's deepest impulses are let loose through the TRIXIE virus, a military bioweapon that has accidentally (?) contaminated the town.

Unlike so many other horror movies, Dutton and his deputy Clank (Joe Anderson) are precisely the people who should be dealing with an outbreak. The problem is that they are little fish in a very big pond. The movie quickly morphs from a slasher flick to survival horror when the military gets called in, loses control, and pulls out.

What makes The Crazies so refreshing is that it plays on horror tropes, using it to narrative advantage. We find out that the soldiers who are executing townsfolk aren't faceless, that the TRIXIE virus may or may not be transmitted through the water supply, and that taking one's temperature isn't a guaranteed means of identifying who's infected. The Crazies makes no promises but always delivers.

This ambiguity may frustrate some people who expect everything to be wrapped in a neat bow, but director Breck Eisner knows that there is horror in uncertainty. It's precisely this lack of clarity that makes the movie so good - the villains aren't unilaterally evil, the victims aren't always helpless, and the solutions aren't always moral. The Crazies wallows in the gray area of harsh decisions, treating an outbreak with all the ethical gravity of a war.

Let there be no doubt, this is as much a war movie as it is a horror movie. The real crazies, Eisner seems to say, is anyone who would trust authority. These days, that may not be such bad advice.

P.S. Stay through the credits!

Make no mistake-"The Crazies" is a horror film. You may have read that it's really a modern remake of an old 1973 George Romero horror film by the same name. I haven't seen Romero's original, but this film is very well-done.
The biggest name in this film is Timothy Olyphant in the lead role as sheriff of small town Ogden Marsh, Iowa (population 1260). The rest of the cast and the director, Breck Eisner, are not quite as well-known, but they all do a very competent job. The acting and the directing are so well-coordinated that you never have the feeling the film is trying to "showcase" a particular actor, nor that the actors are ever competing with each other for attention. That, along with the pace of this film, which to me seemed just perfect (transitioning very gradually from casual to almost frenetic as things fall more & more apart) really allows the viewer to suspend disbelief and immerse yourself in the story. And there is plenty of story. There's plenty of scares too, but this film never loses sight of telling a story, focusing on a small group of people trying desperately to escape this town alive. They have not only the "crazies" to contend with but also the military (in classic Romero style, the government is no more trustworthy than the disease). The violence is just sufficient to maintain a real sense of suspense, without over-the-top or gratuitous gore.
The film is almost entirely first-person viewpoint, and along with the characters we learn that something is terribly wrong, people are going berserk and senselessly attacking others; that it apparently came from the cargo on a military plane that crashed in the marsh which supplies the town water; that it might have become airborn; that the military is rounding up and quarantining everyone; and finally, that nobody is going to be allowed to get out...
There are also plenty of head-fakes in which you don't know whether something awful is about to happen or not, but these too are done in a reasonably sophisticated way, not overly calling attention to themselves but just keeping you constantly on-edge and not knowing just what's coming next.
The blu-ray looks great and the musical score is good, particularly at the ending credits. There are a moderate number of "bonus features"; three short (10 minute) featurettes being the most interesting to me. This was really filmed in Iowa, as well as in rural Georgia (enabling filming to avoid the cold Iowa winters and the hot Georgia summers). The whole story takes place over just a couple of days. I'm doubting there will be a sequel although the final sequence left open the possibility. This is a very nicely-done horror film with good characterization and a somewhat understated style. It should appeal not just to horror film devotees but to a somewhat wider audience.

The Crazies is a remake of a 1973 movie of the same name directed and written by George A. Romero ( Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead fame). George Romero is the Executive Producer for this new film. The movies starts off with scenes of a town in chaos, with burning buildings, houses, and cars. We then switch to 2 days earlier, of peaceful shots of Ogden Marsh, a town with a population of 1260. But, not for long... During a local high school baseball game the local drunk, Rory,comes across the field with a shotgun in hand and a crazed look on his face. Sheriff Dave Dutten (Timothy Olyphant) attempts to calm him down, but is forced to shoot and kill him, when he raises his shotgun. The movie unfolds with various scenes of the town slowly descending into anarchy. Husbands are burning their families, a doctor sews up his patients mouth, as people are losing their minds. During this time, 3 locals find a dead parachuter in the swamp. Dave and his deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) take a trip out to the swamp, and find a military plane under the water of the swamp. Could this plane be the cause of the locals going crazy?

The next 2/3rds of the movie, deals with the United States military quaranteeing the town; no one gets out, and no one gets in. The military cuts the phone and internet service, and rounds up all the townspeople to the local High School. Dave is separated from his pregnant wife, Dr. Judy Dutten (Radha Mitchell), when the military runs a scanner over her, and it goes off. The rest of the movie deals with Dave, Judy, and Deputy Russell attempting to evade the military, and escape Ogden Marsh.

I enjoyed the intensity of the film, as the small group escapes one intense scene after another. The car wash scene was a favorite of mine, along with a brawl between Sheriff Dave and a doctor. The director (Breck Eisner) definitely kept up the pacing of the film to keep you interested throughout. As other reviews have mentioned, I also liked the actors interactions with each other. Especially between Dave and his wife, and Dave and his Deputy. As the desperation of them escaping escalates, there are great scenes making you wonder which of the 3 have the Trixie virus, if not all of them. Timothy Olyphant is one of my favorite actors, and I thought he did an excellent job in this film.

I just wanted to mention why I did not give this film 5 stars. There were some glaring plot holes and "leaps of faith" required from the viewers. For example, the military is supposedly watching all the streets and highways for townspeople, yet several times during broad daylight our group just marches down the highway with no one bothering them. I know this is a fictional movie, but you would think they would be a bit more careful. And definitely make sure you keep watching through the End Credits. The DVD Extra's were also very good for a horror film.

DVD Extra's :

* Behind the Scenes With Director Breck Eisner
* Paranormal Pandemics (Could the Trixie virus be applicable to the real world)
* The George A. Romero Template
* Make-Up Mastermind : Rob Hall in Action (transforming the actors to the infected)
* 2 Episodes of "The Crazies" Motion Comics
* Visual Effects in Motion (showing various movie scenes with shot film and added visual effects)
* Movie Trailers

I have never seen the original "Crazies" film so I can not comment on which version is better. The Crazies(remake)takes an overplayed zombie genre idea and tries to make it more realistic. The story is told simply with a plausible background story. Instead of hordes of zombies running around like supercharged baboons or sloth-like undead roaming aimlessly, these "zombies" are alive and act fairly human(at least from a distance), but have a pretty mean disposition. Depending on how far gone they are, they can almost seem normal...I said almost. What makes it seem much more real is that they still seem to have a little memory of the former selves and react to people they know. The special effects and gore are played down a notch, but it doesn't make the film any less frightening. This is largely because the "zombies" are the least of your worries! I'm a fan of some of the classic zombie films and there have been a number of good ones in recent years, but The Crazies is one of the few that made me think could this happen? ...and that's pretty scary in itself!

Tonight, I had the choice of doing my taxes, or going to see The Crazies... Choosing the lesser horror, off to the movies I went. I left feeling satisfactorily terrorized, though I am still convinced that a single IRS agent has the power to inflict more pain then an entire crew of a horror flick...

Anyway, the premise of the movie is simple: a small town sheriff married to a small town doctor is puzzled when his small town folk start acting odd. Soon, his small town town is overrun with small town zombies being chased by big town soldiers. Can the sheriff save himself and his pregnant wife from the ensuing mayhem?

While not as brilliant and fresh as 28 Days Later, The Crazies is generously sprinkled with truly frightening moments. Yes, it relies on a story that has been told many times before, but does so in an unexpectedly proficient manner: there is no dialogue uttered unless it directly furthers the plot; the gore is aplenty, but never crosses into the realm of disturbing; the experienced actors Olyphant and Mitchell display the confidence of professionals who know we know they are there only for the paycheck, but still they want us to feel they have earned it. I respect that!

Verdict: I DON'T want my money back! (I am still waiting for the refund for Jennifer's Body... :o( )

PS: For any Midsomer Murders fans: you may have seen Joe Anderson (the Deputy) play the slightly mad scientist in the episode Second Sight.

Even the critics liked this one better. The original film (of the same name, written and directed by the grandfather of survival horror, George A. Romero) and the remake share some similarities in plot, but the characterizations are completely different. But Romero did co-write this one; I guess some hindsight helped this version. Here we have local law enforcement struggling to figure things out instead of former military folk trying to do the same. With Olyphant and company, the film seems a bit more grounded as (at least for me) we actually care about these characters more than their 1973 counterparts.

Either way, we are given a good turn of survival horror as a small town becomes infected by a military bioweapon. The story rides upon the edge of a knife with one slip putting the characters against the infected and the other means getting caught by the military. It is a good look at 'creepy' instead of standard and expected scares, though there is more than enough of the later. There is a great climatic final bout before the credits roll and in the end, I might even watch a sequel if it still had the same characters.

The BD features a bit more than standard fair in the way of special features: a good commentary track with the director, a handful of behind-the-scenes and even a pair of motion comics. All of the features are put together well, no tedium or monotony in the lot. As for presentation, the picture is crisp and clear and the 5.1 track does add to the tension. I'd rather heard a 7.1 track, but I guess I'm still waiting for soundtracks to catch up.

It is rare nowadays to see a real and honest horror movie. Most times we are spoon-fed psycho teen popcorn flicks or gorefests with no plot. While both can be mildly entertaining it is nice to find one that is worthwhile.

Breck Eisner's "The Crazies" provides a lesson for our times - the mess may be bad, but the cure sure looks a lot worse.

Based on a George Romero flick, "Crazies" does not break much new ground in horror movies, but it does have something to say about the nature of evil. An idyllic Mid-west small town seems just like any other idyllic Mid-west small town until the town drunk stalks into the middle of a youth league baseball game with his shotgun. David (Tim Olyphant, "Deadwood," "Justified"), the town lawman, tries his best but when you're confronted with a shotgun toting drunk, odds are you're going to need to use your gun.

This tragedy might go unnoticed as a once-in-a-generation tall tale that you so often hear of small towns ("Remember the time when the cops gunned down that guy at the ballgame?") if it weren't for the fact that across town a farmer burns his family home to the ground after locking his wife and son inside.

Something is wrong in Pleasantville.

Eventually David and his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell, "Man on Fire"), who just happens to be the town doctor, begin the fight to save their town, only to have that fight circumvented by the arrival of The Government. Unfortunately for David, Judy, and their neighbors, The Government appears much more interested in making this problem go away - by any means necessary - than with saving the town. As far as The Government is concerned, the only thing worse than destroying a small American town with a Government-engineered biological weapon is to have the story break on the national news.

David, Judy, and their friends must not only survive the Crazies - who are only too happy to kill you in the most violent manner possible - they must avoid falling into the helpful, welcoming arms of Big Brother. This poses an interesting question - where do you turn for help when the people who are in charge of helping you want you to disappear?

Olyphant has become one of our most reliable actors. With a glare or a quick one-liner, Olyphant conveys a depth of character - and often menace - that draws you in. When David makes an unimaginable offer to Judy, you believe him, just because Olyphant is that good.

"The Crazies" is a violent movie, although not nearly as bloody as the plethora of other zombie films we've seen in recent years. Tension rather than terror rules the day here, and that's a good thing.

Director Breck Eisner has taken the concept of George A. Romero's original movie, and produced a contemporary version of The Crazies that feels like the worst parts of Outbreak and 28 Days Later combined. Better in every single way, terrifying at every turn, this is a nail-biter, an updated horror film that does not disappoint.

When a quiet, elder gentleman interrupts a high school baseball game by walking into centerfield toting a shotgun, the town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa is irrevocably changed. With residents suddenly plagued by a mysterious sickness that turns them into psychopaths, the military springs into action, quarantining the entire town and attempting to stifle the outbreak by removing and immobilizing the sick. Meanwhile, sheriff David Dutton (Olyphant), his wife (Mitchell), the town deputy, and one other fight for survival

Despite the fact that nothing is terribly original, the movie avoids being too predictable. Scares jump off the screen from beginning to end, and the tone of the movie is believable enough to be ominous throughout. Some of the scenarios in which the sick bound out after our heroes are completely unexpected. The special effects are creative enough to add well to the thrust of the film without being Michael Bay level ostentatious. The makeup and gore are top-notch as well, with blood, brain, and viscera splattering multiple times, accompanied by my approving applause.

Horror fans will love this movie, and I view it as redemption for an underwhelming predecessor. I loved it from setup to explosive ending. Be on the lookout for the pitchfork scene! YIKES!

Jason Elin