The Crazies (2010)

When a plane carrying a biological weapon crashes and infects a towns water system, a domino effect of infections begin, infecting anyone whom drinks the water with the engineered virus. Turning them crazed and psychotic, sending them on an uncontrollable killing spree, in this remake of the 1973 George Romero classic.

My predictions on how aspects of this film were going to be presented were right on. In the 1973 original, the people infected with the virus exhibited no physical signs of infection, it was their ‘actions’ that showed that they were infected. In this remake, the infected resemble those crazies in 28 Days Later, and Carriers with their obvious and disgusting sickly appearance, making it extremely easy to spot one of the “Infected” on the street.

A lot has been altered for this remake. One particular scene that crossed over from the original into the remake was the scene where a crazed man sets his house on fire, burning his family inside. However, most of the film gives a fresh, updated, perspective of the classic storyline.

The masked “Cleanup Crew” responsible for exterminating the virus, and anyone infected with it, show absolutely no regard for human life. They only care about keeping their made-made virus, at bay and top-secret. If anyone even remotely exhibits signs of the infection, they are loaded up into trucks like cattle, or shot right on the spot. Lord forbid anyone not infected show anger, an extremely common human emotion, for they are seen as an infected threat and exterminated immediately. There is no “We must thoroughly test every single person to see if they ARE infected” like you see in films like “Outbreak.” No, everyone is seen as infected, hands down. This is all extremely realistic and sad, and you really feel for the characters. Having their loved ones shot right in front of them, seeing their loved ones randomly go insane, is a persons worst nightmare, and the realism of these films make them scarier than any zombie film.

Overall, I thought this film was really good. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original, but I did like the storyline, and ended up liking the remake more than the original. The ending wasn’t the best, but for some reason I accepted it. I had recently read the script, available in the “goretastic goodies” section, and the ending in that version of the script is different to the actual theatrical ending. Both endings were good, and were both essentially similar in style, but different in comparison.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars!

5 comments:

  1. Did the knitting scene make it to the remake, please tell me the old lady with knitting needles made it, please, for the love of god...

    ReplyDelete
  2. No Pax, unfortunately it did not. Here's a tissue. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have not seen it but hope to when I get days off.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I saw The Crazies on my last days off and quite enjoyed it. I have not seen the original in years and again was lucky enough to see it in a theatre.

    I thought the beginning with the Johnny Cash Song was eerily reminiscent of the Dawn of the Dead remake, and was a great choice.

    I liked the story and really liked the scene where they find the plane and then size of the plane, I know a small part but really enjoyed it. If the military ever had a weapon close to this type of biological weapon then towns and cities would be eliminated.

    A weapon that causes your enemy to turn on itself and then 72 hours later you can send in the regular troops to mop up what is left, staggers the imagination.

    A great review as always, you have a great eye for observations and I like how you can see the message in the movie and not get hung up on the amount and type of violence in a movie.

    I will see this movie again in theater if I get a chance.

    ReplyDelete