It might well be a remake, but The Crazies proves to be a sharp and intelligent take on the zombie genre. If it could have stayed away from cheap tricks to get easy scares then it would have been a right belter...

In a terrifying tale of the American Dream gone wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown. A reinvention of the George A. Romero classic, THE CRAZIES is directed by Breck Eisner (SAHARA) and is based on a screenplay by Ray Wright (PULSE, CASE 39) and Scott Kosar (THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE).
 
David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is sheriff in a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his house after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh...with insanity. Investigating along with Dutton is his able deputy and his wife (Mitchell) who as the town doctor feels an additional sense of responsibility as to the actions going on around her.
 
Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a struggle for survival as they try to get out of town alive.

As the mysteries around the 'fever' gripping the town slowly start ti unravel, the film itself picks up momentum and heads into a very different direction. Last year Carriers did something similar by placing 4 disparate characters on the road in a ravaged world, but in the Crazies we first focus on the small-town collapse as well as the aftermath. The real-world origins of the outbreak make things more chilling and in turn more intriguing but again the plot isn't above going to the stock and trade type of shocks that become tedious rather than frightening.

When left to do some acting, all concerned are excellent. Olyphant does well as the sheriff losing control and fearing the worse with his onscreen wife proving just as capable. The dynamic between the two is enhanced by the addition of two younger characters who go beyond the stereotypical eye-candy routines.

When the government finally show up and lock the town down, we get a series of well-constructed if unoriginal set-pieces and the atmosphere of the opening half is gone. Things slide towards a rough and ready finale which could have been tacked on to any film... it's a shame as we anticipated more from the razor-sharp opening moments.

I do commend the film for explaining the source of the plague... it's been a recent trend (in the likes of the aforementioned Carriers as well as the superb Zombieland) to ignore the cause and go straight to the effects. Whilst this can work in some cases, in others we would prefer a more complete picture.

Official Site: www.thecrazies-movie.co.uk

Also Visit: www.ogdenmarsh.com

Rating: ***

Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker
Director: Breck Eisner
Written by: Scott Kosar and Ray Wright
Runtime: 101mins
Certificate: 15
Release date: Feb 26th, 2010

Review: Cassam Looch

Still think you can watch the world ending again? Well go nuts with 2012, Carriers, Zombieland, The Road, Daybreakers and Book of Eli. No seriously... go CRAZY.