It's been a number of years since I last saw George A. Romero's 1973 version of 'The Crazies', his much overlooked tale of a virus taking hold of a little town in Pennsylvania, and here we are 37 years on faced with Breck Eisner's reimagining which is based on a screenplay by scribes Scott Kosar and Ray Wright.
Now Kosar and Wright are by no mean slouches in the reworking of past genre flicks having been involved in the screenplays for no less than 3 previous remakes that include 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (2003), 'The Amityville Horror' (2005) and Pulse (2006). So just what freshness can they bring to the table?
With the slew of unnecessary remakes and prequels of late it's hard to get on board and excited about a reworking such as 'The Crazies'. However, many will be pleasantly surprised by the movie and its strength of never letting up or becoming overly predictable.
All in all 'The Crazies' is a thoroughly enjoyable infection-esque tale of contaminants, paranoia and forced military intervention. The action this time around moves to Iowa and the small town of Ogden Marsh. A biological contaminant gets into the towns water supply and soon begins turning the once civilised locals into psychotic maniacs. It's truly an amalgamation of several ideas from horrors past yet still seems to grab the viewer and whip them along at break-neck speeds.
It's a fight for survival in Ogden Marsh as the military move in on the locals and try their best to contain the debacle, most of the time shockingly with unflinching brute force.
Unfortunately, this pace along with the taught action pieces, leave little room for the character developments and the strained relationships involved in this sudden paranoid environment. Thankfully, however, the performances more than make up for this with some extremely competent performances by both leads Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell. But it's the surprising performance from the young Brit actor Joe Anderson that really steals the show. Anderson plays Russell, the local deputy, who soon becomes somewhat of an unpredictable presence in the light of the disaster taking over the town.
OVERALL SUMMARY
'The Crazies' is by no means a normal 'zombie-ish' type movie but zombie fans will love it. It's an expertly helmed flick which Eisner has treated with great care and attention. And I'm very pleased to be able to say that. So yes it's (yet) another remake but it's one of the good ones!
'The Crazies' arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray on Monday 19 July 2010 here in the UK. And don't forget to enter our great new exclusive giveaway where you can win a DVD collection plus a flat screen TV right here.
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