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Judy (Radha Mitchell) shares a hair-raising (and hair-pulling) experience in a remake of George Romero’s “The Crazies.” |
Unlike Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller “Shutter Island” that only looks like a horror movie, “The Crazies” is the real deal, an old-fashioned fright fest of paranoid persecution with blood and pitchforks and screaming and knives and contagious viruses and flamethrowers and military cover-ups and people fleeing for their lives.
The story – a taut remake of 1973’s “Crazies” directed by legendary zombie guru George Romero – takes place in the idyllic rural community of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, where the only really good-looking townspeople are local sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and his hot doctor wife Judy (Radha Mitchell).
Coincidence?
Of course not. They are two of the survivors of a mysterious virus that sweeps through town, turning regular American citizens into yechy-looking crazies who bleed from their noses and want to kill everyone around them.
The Duttons are joined by Deputy Sheriff Russ Klank (Joe Anderson) and a cute local teenager named Becca (Danielle Panabaker) as they try to stay alive by dodging not only the crazies, but American troops would rather shoot everybody in town than take the time to sort the diseased from the uninfected.
“The Crazies” isn’t a great movie by any stretch, but neither was Romero’s original. We learn just enough about the characters to give them an identity, then it’s on to the chase sequences and suspense setups. (Read more…)