Movie Review: The Crazies

George A. Romero’s 1973 original film, The Crazies, is a cult classic for horror fans, but has never crossed into the mainstream consciousness like Romero’s zombie films.  The low budget original is awkwardly-made but charming. Ambitions fly a little too high and the story performs a balancing act between horror film and government conspiracy thriller.

Because of the original film’s faults, The Crazies seems like a likely candidate to be remade.  The premise is strong; what if a small town was infected with a disease that made everyone lose their sanity and become violent towards friends and family?  A modern remake of that concept could certainly provide some scares if done well.

Director Breck Eisner’s 2010 reimagining of The Crazies begins promising enough.  The opening shot depicts the town ablaze in flames with seemingly no survivors.  A title card reading “TWO DAYS EARLIER” leads us into the story proper and shows the same town peaceful and intact.  The device gives a ticking time bomb feel to the movie and promises the mayhem to come.

The first 30 minutes of the film contain a slow burn tension uncommon in many modern horror films.  A brief scene taking place on a baseball diamond is genuinely suspenseful.  A sequence involving an infected father going after his wife and kid is also a highlight and reminds of the dynamic of The Shining.  These early exciting moments build a great sense of dread and give the feeling that the rollercoaster ride is just beginning.

Then the government gets involved and the scope of the movie is blown wide open.  The genre changes from an isolated-setting horror movie to an action/thriller.  The creeping dread is replaced by action set pieces, some of which are exciting (a sequence involving a car wash stands out) and some of which feel derived from an average shoot-em-up zombie movie.

Most of my disappointment in The Crazies comes from the abandoning of the premise.  Instead of making the transformation of the infected humans gradual and suspenseful, all of a sudden the town is overrun with brain-dead killers who may as well be classic zombies.  The military element adds a wild card to the mix, but the more interesting element remains the Crazies themselves.

Even with the genre change, the movie wants to inject as many jump scares as possible.  Expect many instances of characters reaching out and grabbing another character by the shoulder, while a loud music cue gets an automatic jolt from the audience.  The frequency of the false jump scares dulls the horror element, but plays into the feeling of a cheap thrill ride.

But is the cheap thrill ride fun?  Yes, in many sequences the ride is worthwhile and exciting.  However, The Crazies succeeds in individual scenes and set pieces as opposed to being a wholly satisfying experience.  For a horror remake released in February, you will rarely see a movie that succeeds this well.  It’s not especially smart filmmaking, but it most definitely isn’t dumb.  The Crazies won’t show you anything you haven’t seen before, but can still be solid fun and even contains some high excitement in key scenes.

Overall Rating:  3 out of 5