The Crazies (2010) Review

Written by: Googopqp   

When some sort of virus infects a small town sheer chaos reigns supreme over the citizens as they find themselves quarantined, spread out, and some even murdered. But what kind of virus causes the host to go insane and kill people? That is the question, and its up to David, played by Timothy Olyphant, and his wife Judy, along with some others, to find an answer, or at least a way out of the town, before they to get killed. But will they make it or will they end up meat to the slaughter?

I was actually surprised with this film. Really I was. I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be rather good. I havn't seen Romero's movie from the 70's to compare, but on its own this film is able to stand up on its own legs and give itself some balance. One reason was the movies pace, it starts fast, very fast (almost too fast :P) and doesn't really let up for anything. There aren't many dull or boring moments and its an endless struggle for survival.

There isn't much gore in the film, but there is some good prop effects with jaws ripped open or what not. But the film is also not graphic in its violence, mostly cut aways or squib gunshot effects. But thats all okay, because what it lacks in gore it makes up in timing. For some mainstream audiences there are some good jump moments, some rather good timing, and some good tense moments to the film that are all built up by the cinematography and the sound effects, like scraping metal on walls. This was all a good thing that the movie did right in its style.

To me, these virus, epidemic, scare films are quite intriguing if done right. Not that this one is making me question my life and reality, but it did a nice job at questioning, what if....what if this did happen to your town. Because diseases and viruses can spread anywhere and its a scary thing to think about. But in nature, this film can be compared to The Happening, but this one didn't suck and had at least some gore.

The acting in the film was pretty decent, not bad not too great or really stand-outish. I'd say the only stand out person is lead man Timothy Olyphant, who was in Scream 2 (for all you horror fans reading this :P), because he gave a performance that sort of made him an everyday type of guy while keeping a badass persona about him and that was pretty kewl.

Although, this movie did have some noticable and easy to catch flaws, and really the one thing I wish they would've done with this was make it a bit longer and slower paced in the beginning. They start off with a killing, then a few short minutes later there is another, then another, then more scare moments, and it seemed like they were rushing the film and not focusing on the development they could have been doing. But besides that I really enjoyed it.

Overall, The Crazies is a pretty good remake, although I can't compare with the original film. Its got SOME gore to it, but its not a graphic film. Its good and worth checking out, but it is a bit rushed and could've gone for a bit of a longer time. But besides taht its got some decent tense building moments and jump moments and is worthy of that 7/10!!!! at least in my opinion!

-Dustin "Googopqp" M.