BEETLE REVIEWS THE CRAZIES

The Crazies takes place in a small, middle of nowhere, "Friendliest Place on Earth" hometown called Ogden Marsh, that's citizens begin to lose their fucking minds and go bat-shit crazy on one another when a military plane carrying a biological weapon crashes into the lake that supplies their source of drinking water.

The Crazies is actually a remake of a 1973 George A. Romero film, and I'm not quite sure if not knowing this would have helped or hurt this film.

In one respect the film never felt very original. It borrows many typical horror cliche's like semi-relying on Jump scares to get the audience to, well, jump. The worst moment in the film actually is during one of these borrowed moments that involves the worst use of the "Behind You" cliches. The way it's used actually made me make an audible groan in the theatre.

Luckily it's superbly directed by Breck Eisner, the son of Michael Eisner, and it's for this reason that I would reccommend this film to others. In fact this would have probably gotten a "rental" rating if it wasn't for his efforts. If it wasn't for his direction this film would be your typical foray into the "Horror" Genre. This guy clearly knows how to give direction and motivation to his cast, because it fuckin shows. Each character clearly has something that motivates him or her to act the way he/she does.

The Story itself tends to be pretty interesting at the best of times. The subject matter of your neighbor is now a crazed psychotic killer and the fact that there is really no one you can fully trust. The film gets all the more interesting when The US Military invades the town in an attempt to contain the pandemic in an effort to prevent a global crisis. The film tries to make the military out as some really bad guys but it just doesn't really work. Their by no means "Good"", but their also never fully "Bad". The film takes an interesting turn when we learn that the Military is just following orders.

As I said before the film is really nothing special. It never manages to be really scary, but at the same time it's got several kills of the year in it. The way some of these characters are offed make for some cringe inducing yet extremely enjoyable original moments in an otherwise somewhat bland film. Probably the best scene in the whole film is a set piece that I like to refer to as "The Killer Car Wash". If it isn't already obvious, the scene takes place in a car wash and actually manages, for the first time I can remember in movie history, to make something so normal like a car wash, terrifying. The scene builds and builds, only giving you glances of the killers hidden inside, before they finally decide to strike. It's fuckin glorious.

The characters in the film, well never really given any backstory, are fun to watch and easy to root for. There's the sherrif of Ogden Marsh named David Dutton (Played by Timothy Olyphant), his wife Judy (played by Rhada Mitchell) and the Deputy Russell Clank (My personal favorite character, played by Joe Anderson). Their all pretty interesting but I'd have to say the best relationship in the film belongs to David and Russel as they constantly have each other's backs and seem to really understand each other. Their just a joy to watch, David with his higher authority that suddenly means, well, nothing and Russell constantly playing the bad-ass.

The film also benefits from the setting of Ogden Marsh, one of thise small redneck towns that we all have driven through at least one time in our lives. It feels real and authentic, and the opening shot of ther town in complete ruins before the film flashes back to an earlier time is pretty neat. Unfortunately, even though the whole town is suppossedly infected we never get more than maybe a handful of Crazies attacking our small group of survivors throughout the film. I mean, we see a shitload of Crazies being held in a caged-in area by the military and when they manage to escape I was especting our heroes to have several run ins with mobs of these things. Instead we just get a shot of the town suddenly aflame when our heroes return in an attempt to flee. We never see how it gets this way kind of taking away some of that "cool" factor.


Overall, while there's nothing that will really stay with you after the film is over, The Crazies is still one of the best remakes I've seen and therefore is definitely worth a viewing if you've got nothing else better to do. Walk, don't run to your local cinema as, even though it's got nothing to get excited over, it's still the best horror film to come out this year so far.


3/5