-

Breck Eisner’s The Crazies is a movie unashamed of what it is; a zombie-centric gallery of jump-scares and gore moments. There’s the quaint little town where things start to go horribly wrong, the erstwhile sheriff who wrings his hands with each new terrible discovery, and of course, an endless number of scenes where characters wander into the dark and are immediately pounced upon by the soundtrack. It might sound like I’m slagging the movie, but I’m not. The Crazies is a bloody good time and it works because of these elements.

It’s been years since I’ve seen Romero’s original, but the new film feels like it lives right down the road from that one. Ogden Marsh is a happy, sleepy little burg in Iowa; one of those cinematic farm towns where everyone shows up to the little league games like they were the World Series. One afternoon, Sheriff David Dutton sees the town drunk marching across the ball field in the middle of a game…holding a shotgun. The deputy shoots him down before there’s any real trouble, but here a mystery begins.

David learns the drunk had been sober for years and the coroner report shows no signs of alcohol. Like an epidemic, more violent events occur, all over town, following a seemingly inconsequential path. A family is burned alive inside of a house while the husband mows the front lawn, there’s an immense plane sunk in the swamp nearby, and the moments of rural farm life are interrupted by ominous shots that seem as if they are being broadcast via satellite feeds. The film moves at a merciless pace, and at the half hour mark it takes an abrupt turn from horror towards a more action/sci-fi oriented direction.

As a result of events I won’t go into here, Sheriff Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and his faithful deputy (Joe Anderson) find themselves in the burned out wreckage of Ogden Marsh which now looks like a ghost town, fighting their way past the now infected and insane populace and another more menacing threat, which they are less equipped to battle against. They are trying to find David’s pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell), who has been quarrantined in the town. In and back out will be a harder task than the one facing the misplaced gang in Walter Hill’s The Warriors. On this day, the entirety of the universe, minus his wife and deputy, has decided it is against David Dutton.

There isn’t a second of  The Crazies you haven’t already seen somewhere else, and the movie sets up a clear delineation point regarding who will enjoy it; you can either tolerate a high-strung jump scare or you can’t. This movie is so chock-full of them that a drinking game could easily be created. But the movie looks great, and the corn fields, the bright, baby-blue skies, and white-washed all American townsfolk are all turned in on themselves to evoke dread, mistrust, and dark currents of governmental intrusion. The Crazies aren’t exactly zombies, but they perform almost all the same functions. Gas masks, high-powered sniper rifles, and trucks loaded down with human cargo evoke a concentration camp kind of imagery. This milieu is filmed in a gritty, frightening way and there’s something startling about the manner in which Eisner goes about ripping the town apart.

Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell and Joe Anderson deliver strong work as the central survivors and they form a believable bond. Olyphant, seemingly channeling 1980′s era Michael Biehn, and Mitchell have good chemistry together and their husband/wife connection is the simple but strong structure upon which The Crazies hangs our investment. We want to see them make it to the end of this nightmare even if Ogden Marsh is a goner.

The violence is graphic but not depraved or terribly overdone. The entire film moves forward with a relentless, determined energy and it doesn’t have time to linger over mutilated bodies. There is every kind of demented attack you could think of, but Eisner gives them all a certain zest and creativity. A scene involving  a knife, a wounded hand, and a rampaging attacker drew cheers from the audience. My personal favorite was seeing  an out-of-control coroner brandishing a bone saw like it was Steven Tyler’s guitar. The Crazies does take itself seriously, but it’s less politically and socially charged than Romero’s original. It also has a healthy sense of black humor that actually elevates it a bit in my eyes. It is unlikely that a horror fan will go into this and come out disappointed. Fortunately, Eisner has made it palatable for the rest of us too.

The Crazies opens, like Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn of the Dead, with a song by Johnny Cash. This film isn’t quite as good as that remake, but it’s accomplishing the same thing and hitting many of the same beats. At the end, as the credits roll, there’s Willie Nelson on the soundtrack. Both songs are more up-beat, cheerful than brooding rock-a-billy. The  film has come full circle and the point has been made. Beneath the folksy, smiling veneer of the good life, unseen monsters lurk.

Rating: