The Crazies
R (bloody violence, strong language); 101 min.
Arguments have raged among the geekerati for years now over what's better: slow zombies or fast zombies. But what if the zombies are neither shuffling ghouls nor Olympic sprinters; rather, what if they maintain their human capabilities, including managing to hang on to some of their mental faculties, and just become nine shades of evil?
That's the premise of The Crazies, a taut, suspenseful joyride through the zombie nation that's based on the 1973 film of the same name by the master of the slo-mo undead, George A. Romero ( Night of the Living Dead).
Technically speaking, "the crazies" aren't zombies, as they never really died. It just so happens that they were the unfortunate souls in a rural Iowa town who drank water from a nearby river that was contaminated by the crash of a secret government plane carrying unidentified cargo.
One by one, the townsfolk start losing it, turning on each other like hungry wolves in a meat locker. It's up to Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), his doctor wife (Radha Mitchell) and his trusty deputy Russell Clark (Joe Anderson) to try to figure out what's going on before they, too, succumb to the illness. Not helping matters are government agents who want to isolate the town before word gets out about what's happening there.
Tapping into paranoia about one's neighbors and remote bureaucracy, director Breck Eisner (son of former Disney head Michael Eisner) and screenwriters Scott Kosar and Ray Wright have fashioned an apocalyptic horror-thriller that succeeds thanks to characters worth rooting for and crackerjack pacing, as opposed to relying on over-the-top special effects. (The scene in the carwash might make you decide to start washing your car by hand.)
The Crazies is a B-movie in the best sense of the word, proving big names and a bigger budget aren't necessary for creativity. And it adds a new element in the zombie wars: fast, slow or just fast enough to catch you?
