Crazies, The

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Drama  |  Horror  |  Sci-fi  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Ray Wright
Scott Kosar
George A. Romero (1973 motion picture "The Crazies")

Directed by: Breck Eisner

Release Date:
Theatrical: February 26, 2010
DVD: June 29, 2010

Running Time: 101 minutes, Color

Origin: USA | United Arab Emirates

Summary

RATING: R for bloody violence and language

Starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, and Joe Anderson

A husband and wife in a small Midwestern town find themselves battling for survival as their friends and family descend into madness in The Crazies. A mysterious toxin in the water supply turns everyone exposed to it into mindless killers and the authorities leave the uninfected to their certain doom in this terrifying reinvention of the George Romero horror classic. (Overture Films)

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What The Critics Said

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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 55 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ryencoke gave it a6:
This was without question the absolute most predictable movie I have ever seen. And to top if off, the most cliched. Acting was pretty good. The overall concept of the story was superb, but poorly portrayed. Would I suggest seeing it? Yeah, maybe. Since there is just absolute garbage that is being released every week now. This may be one of your better choices. Would not buy it, only worth a single watch.

David R. gave it an8:
I went into this with quite low expectations. I thought the trailer looked good but fully expected just another run of the mill horror. I was very pleasantly surprised to find this film has some smarts. Its played straight for one thing - I've never been a fan of comedy horror - and it has some genuinely disturbing moments which I won't spoil by revealing. If you're not sure, give it a go. It won't be a life changing experience but I think you'll enjoy it.

Ben M gave it a4:
Incredibly average. The same, "you stay here by yourself while I go explore the dark part of the building by myself," conventions. Little gore and a waste of an always reliable Timothy Olyphant. A good rental.

James H. gave it a7:
The Crazies is better than the usual scary fare. Yes, it has some of the same absurdities and implausibilities as most of the others (WHY do people walk around aimlessly in the dark near places where the bad guys can jump out at you?), but the acting and writing is better than most. It held my attention throughout and I was entertained. There was a lot of violence, but I actually don't think it's as gory as most in this genre.

Don V. gave it a4:
Cliche ridden and over stylised. Seen and now dismissed.

Chad S. gave it a7:
Russell Clank(Joe Anderson), Ogden Marsh's deputy, comes to terms with his erratic behavior; he's paranoid and has a trigger-itch temper, which are symptomatic of the "crazies", so the infected lawman creates a diversion in order for the Duttons(Timothy Olyphant & Radha Mitchell) to escape the military soldiers' notice. Hands in the air, Russell approaches the barricade, then provokes the army to take the first shots when he waves his gun in the air. On the ground, wounded, Russell's last words are, "F*** you. For what you did," which pertains to the systematic destruction of this small Iowa town, but could have more far-reaching connotations, as Russell could be a stand-in for some universal citizen who withstood a bevy of American military campaigns, in which heavy casualties were involved. It's no accident that "The Crazies" is set in the midwest, a region of the country where people are less likely to be contemptuous toward the direction of our foreign policy. "The Crazies" is no "Blue Velvet", but the opening scene that highlights a farmer traversing the baseball field with a shotgun, almost serves the same function as the famous opening montage in the David Lynch film. Instead of carnivorous bugs buried in the grass, a carnivorous government is responsible for something buried in the swamp. Ogden Marsh is a town full of patriotic ideologues. At a funeral home, the mortician sews shut the eyes of his clients, the very same people who proudly display the American flag outside their homes. Here, the filmmaker shows how having blind faith in the integrity of our government's actions can sometimes get you killed. Nobody blinks an eye when innocent people die abroad. But when a plane carrying biological weapons crashes in the swamp, the ideologues experience what the other "crazies" in the Middle East experience. Most pointedly, the Duttons and their two fellow travellers watch as a mother and her son are shot in cold blood, even though they might not be "crazy". "The Crazies" might not be a political movie for some, and that's fine, because even if the moviegoer watches it like a zombie, it also works as a superior suspense/thriller.

Bryan K gave it a9:
In a film year of remakes such as The Karate Kid, highly awaited sequels such as Toy Story 3 and film adaptations of television shows such as M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, Breck Eisner's remake of George Romero's classic, The Crazies stands out from the rest. The plot concerns a small Iowa town where the town sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) begins to notice some residents acting out violently. Soon the army arrives and seals off the town and Olyphant is cut away from his pregnant wife (Radha Mitchell) who is mistaken as an infected. After breaking into the town and rescuing his wife Olyphant, his wife, his deputy, and a nurse from his wife's office must escape the county before they are either killed by the infected or the army. While the plot may seem a bit standard to other horror films of the present day the plot does have enough suspense and terror to sustain it. The film's acting was very well done, while not excellent it was better than most horror remakes. In most horror remakes such as The Wolf Man (2010) the actors primarily walk through their roles with no true inspiration, but the cast led by Olyphant does their best and appears to actually care about the roles at hand. They all have their own personalities and conflicts which allows for them to work outside the broad stereotypes associated with the horror genre(examples-hero, victim, hot female lead). The military appears as cold in their plans and their look. They are dressed in black and green and always wear their gas masks giving them an unearthly look. Visually the film worked in its set-ups and locales. Their is a sense of isolation and tension in many of the shots within the town and of the weakness felt by the characters. For instance when the film begins we are treated to a shot of the town's center district in ruins and flames and then we seen a shot only a few days prior showing the unassuming town as it was. Gore-wise the film does not fail, the effects are well done in their execution each spilling a ton of blood of screen. Fans of other horror films such as the Nightmare series (1984-2010) and Friday the 13th series (1980-2009) will not luck out. Unlike other films like The Wolf Man the gore is not overused or out of place in most scenes. Despite the better aspects the film does contain its faults. The gore effects which are well done are rather graphic and some viewers may have problems watching it, but gore hounds will love it beyond a reasonable doubt. Overall for a remake, The Crazies works better than most and is one of the best movies so far this year.

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