I’m always wary when a studio announces a remake because most of the time it’s a remake of a film that was rather good. My main worry with the 2010 remake of ‘The Crazies’ was that it would be a cheap cash in on the current trend for horror remakes with glamorous, barely believable teen heart-throbs. An odd choice to remake, I thought, as unlike Jason or Freddy ‘The Crazies’ is not particularly well known. I’m happy to say that the remake not only confounded my expectations, it’s actually a pretty great film.
Loosely based on the original, the new film takes the central premise and uses the significantly higher budget to good effect. I was concerned that the new film might follow the depressing ‘show-and-tell’ nature of many modern remakes when we actually see the downed aircraft that’s only mentioned in the original. But this is handled well and the filmmakers don’t feel the need to spoon feed us any more. Thankfully, the lead character, local Sheriff David (Timothy Olyphant) is intelligent enough to work things out like a relatively normal person. Which is a refreshing change. Neither missing the obvious entirely like many older horror characters nor being a total smartarse about it like the characters in the ‘Scream’ series.
The bigger budget allows for some great set-pieces in the new film. Particularly the examination at the local school to evacuate or quarantine the townsfolk which has an explosive and gruesome finale as the military lose control. As noted above, the downed plane is shown and the ‘final option’ only hinted at in the original forms a major part of the ending of the remake. None of these feel unnecessary, however, and don’t detract from the basis of the story.
A major shift from the original is that the military have no significant characters in the film. Instead it concentrates almost entirely on the Sheriff, his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell), his deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) and his wife’s hospital assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker) and their attempts to escape the quarantine or evacuation. I was impressed by Timothy Olyphant as he plays the Sheriff with the right amount of calm you’d hope someone ‘in charge’ should have but tempered by the concern that things are far from normal. He’d be terrific in a Western, I reckon. Radha Mitchell works well alongside him and, as previously mentioned, these characters are blessed with a modicum of common sense so you’re far more likely to want them to succeed. Joe Anderson is something of a revelation, not only because he finely balances the ‘is he/isn’t he’ infected moments but also his accent is, to my ears anyway, spot on. Danielle Panabaker must be wondering when she’ll get to play a character that isn’t the unluckiest woman alive if this film and the recent ‘Friday the 13th’ remake are anything to go by.
A note about the infected in this version. Once they are fully infected – only shown towards the end of the film – the infected are far more like the infected from 28 Days/Weeks Later, so this could be lumped in with other Zombie films if you really want. It’s certainly evocative of those films when the lead characters have to confront some infected in an attempt to escape the town from the local truck stop.
It’s also nice to see that Romero gets credited as a writer and executive producer. These may merely be for the original story and I’m not sure how much involvement he had in the making of this new film, but I’d like to think he added something more than his name to it and that he was impressed with the result. I certainly was.
Darker than the original at some points – the fate of the two groups from the high school, for example – and not as dark in others – the original’s subplot regarding Kathie and her father – the remake is a terrific update on the high-concept low-budget original. Just the sort of thing that should be remade. If it’s a good idea, then it’s quite possible it could be reworked into a good film, no? And yes, this is all an oblique reference to my loathing of the original Judge Dredd film that is finally getting a new life with a better writer and actor. Sorry Sly. Seriously, though, ‘The Crazies’ (2010) was a pleasant surprise and far, far better than I ever expected it to be, using the bigger budget and better acting to great effect. Definitely recommended.
And now, just because it’s my blog and I’ll do what I damn well please; that list of October/November films in full:
‘City of the Living Dead’ – AVOID
‘The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue’ or ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie’ – one for Zombie fans, but great nonetheless.
‘Zombi’ – One of the staples of the genre. Second only to the ‘…of the Dead’ films.
‘Dawn of the Dead’ – The Daddy. Absolute horror heaven.
‘Bubba Ho Tep’ – Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis as Elvis and JFK fighting an evil Mummy in a nursing home. Really? Really. Top entertainment.
‘Friday the 13th’ – All of them. Vary from ‘not bad’ to ‘utter bilge’. The remake is actually not too shabby, which was a surprise.
‘The Thing’, ‘Halloween’, ‘Escape from New York’ – okay, so I just threw the last one in there because it’s also a Carpenter but, honestly – and I know this word gets thrown around far too much these days – the first two especially are bona fide masterpieces of their genre and I never tire of them.
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