The Crazies Review

Synopsis

The Crazies revolves around a small American town, Local sheriff John (Timothy Olyphant) and his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell) live happily. That’s until locals start acting bat shit crazy, killing family members and bleeding from orifices and such. The military steps in to intervene and soon everything goes to hell, its then up to John and his wife to do everything in their power to stay alive, avoiding plague ridden folks or the shoot first and ask questions later soldiers.

Ok, I’ve never seen the George A. Romero original and I’m completely unaware of the source material, so I can’t really compare the two. That being said however, I had a great time during my stay with The Crazies, the film starts off beautifully, a nice and subtle introduction, we get to know our leads and then slowly and surely – the shit starts to hit the fan. We get to experience the contamination and quarantine from the side of the occupants, so the audience is just as in the dark as the protagonists. Kind of like the way War of the Worlds focused in on Tom Cruise and his family’s struggle to survive. This change of pace really sucked me in; I could really empathise with John, Judy and the locals, I was feeling their confusion, their panic and who to trust during the escalating madness.

Breck Eisner’s direction is great, there’s no flashy photography, no gimmicks just a wonderfully crafted horror/thriller. As I was watching The Crazies it kind made me reminisce of Katherine Bigelow’s Near Dark, the photography, the music, the action, and both the heroes making the best out of a hopeless situation. Basically it’s the kind of cool film john Carpenter would have made about 20 years ago. Both Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell are excellent leads with special mention going to Joe Anderson as Russell – John’s friend that’s defied all odds to survive… but is not necessarily really all that there!  The music by Mark Isham is great, it really serves the picture well and it gives you that John Carpenter feeling.

Overall I really enjoyed The Crazies, there are some gapping plot holes you have to ignore, but if you can - there’s a great film to be found here!

**** (4 out of 5)