I’ve been disappointed in horror movies as of late. Seems we’ve had a few with interesting ideas but then they don’t execute them well. Ha. Execute. I made a funny. Too bad the recent horror movies haven’t made any. However, The Crazies, though my expectations were obviously low, managed to appease my hunger for the genre.
I’ve been disappointed in horror movies as of late. Seems we’ve had a few with interesting ideas but then they don’t execute them well. Ha. Execute. I made a funny. Too bad the recent horror movies haven’t made any. However, The Crazies, though my expectations were obviously low, managed to appease my hunger for the genre.
These days, I’m much more selective about my gore. As absurd as it sounds, I need my gore to have some kind of relevance. No, not a message, you git, but at least it should have purpose, if not a sense of fun. I’ve mentioned before about how torture porn just doesn’t cut it in my book. That being said, The Crazies isn’t so much a pure horror film as it is part thriller.
The inhabitants of small town Ogden Marsh are plagued by violent insanity after their water supply becomes contaminated by a toxin. A few of the uninfected try to survive attacks by the rest of the townspeople. And if you haven’t been paying attention thus far, those people are CRAZY.
As I mentioned, this is a bit more thriller than just horror. The gore is definitely toned down, though the effects are great and believable. There’s plenty of blood and squeamish moments to satisfy, and frankly, if bone saws don’t make you a little uneasy already, they will after watching this. I almost had to stand up in a moment of sympathy avoidance of said bone saw. Yikes.
The only thing I might say is that they maybe could have pushed the envelope a bit more with the presence of the crazy people. Not necessarily more blood, but maybe one more scene of action with them. But I suppose that could just the fact that I enjoyed the scenes with them so much that I wanted more. In a movie called, The Crazies, who couldn’t use more crazy? I suspect the reason the gore was a bit toned down was to make the film accessible to a wider audience, even though it still has an R rating. But I can see wanting to avoid deterring those that are a bit more squeamish. There is still plenty of delightful blood to appease those with a mild hematology fetish.
Timothy Olyphant plays the sheriff of the little town as he and his wife, played by the always wonderful Radha Mitchell (Yeah, I’d watch her write out her grocery list), try to get out of town before getting killed. Olyphant is good, too. I like him, maybe especially when he was on the cancelled-too-soon Deadwood.
There are some great seat-jumping moments here, too. Luckily they aren’t over-used, as they can quickly turn into cheap scares. Nobody wants empty calories in their horror films. Any inference to brain-eating is purely coincidental as this is NOT a zombie film. Just because it’s a remake of a George Romero film from the 1970’s doesn’t mean there are always zombies, so stop asking. It’s still a fun movie.
And there’s the rub; it IS a fun movie. It actually has a story with characters you get to know and hope make it. There’s some humor, and fun, tense action scenes, and a decent cast. It won’t win any awards, but then, this genre never does. It’s certainly a more than serviceable entry in the horror genre, and if you like that sort of thing, then I say give it a whirl. Hey, I’d rather see this than watch an injury-free Olympics. What? Why the look?
— Neil T. Weakley, your average movie-goer, pleasantly surprised for once.
