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The Crazies Review

I had no plans to see The Crazies. Not because it looked bad (though it certainly didn't look all that good from the trailer), but because it looked like any of 1,000 other slasher flicks. I haven't seen the original George Romero version, so I really had no frame of reference. Maybe I'd add it to my NetFlix list, but no more than that. Fortunately I'm married to a horror fan, so I ended up getting roped into seeing what turned out to be a much better movie than I expected.

First things first: it's not a slasher movie. At all. The "fear thy neighbor" aspect (a.k.a. the poster's tag line) takes up about ten minutes of screen time. The actual set-up of the movie felt very much like a scaled-down version of The Stand, where Captain Tripps was replaced with a failed bioweapon that caused madness. The accidental contagion release, the attempted containment, and the increasingly frantic responses are all old plot devices, but were well-used here. Some of these scenes were even more effective than most, such as the sight of the downed aircraft in the swamp, the truckloads of inhabitants, and the final "accident" that was designed to put an absolute end to the disease.

The characters weren't terribly deep, but the actors all did serviceable jobs. Joe Anderson as Deputy Russell Clank was an easy favorite, from his early laid back attitude through his slow decline into madness (while recognizing what was going on). Timothy Olyphant did a nice job as Sheriff David Dutton, balancing the survival of his family with his role as the town's protector. Radha Mitchell, as the Sheriff's wife Dr. Judy Dutton, served mostly as a combination plot/exposition device (and the only pregnant doctor ever to make her rounds wearing high heels). The other characters were mostly in-and-out, good during their time on screen but seldom there for very long.

There were really only a few misses. First, I thought the opening scene of the movie should've been cut. The cataclysmic imagery leading into a "two days earlier" scene has been used effectively in other movies, but here it was a misfire. I think the movie would've been better to start with the baseball game, and let the horror build from there. Fortunately, by the time you realize that the opening scene was a mistake, the movie has gotten your interest. Second, the foreshadowing was a bit ham-fisted. When we see Keene in his garage early on, the camera lingers on the tarp-covered classic police cruiser long enough to shout "Hey! Look! They'll need a car later on! Remember me when they need a car!" When the Sheriff chastises a group of out-of-season hunters, the movie starts shouting "Hey! Look! Guys with guns! They'll be trouble later!" Finally, the biggest miss of all was the ad campaign. Seldom have I witnessed a campaign so out of synch with what it's advertising. From the trailer to the posters to the movie title itself, the whole thing ran in the wrong direction. Maybe if it had been titled something like Containment Protocol and geared the ads toward "something" being wrong in a small southern town (but not knowing what that "something" is), it would be closer to the movie I saw in the theater.

In the end, I'm glad I got the chance to see this on the big screen. It was a decent execution of a scary/conspiracy theme, with good effects and generally likable characters. With Alice in Wonderland and Avatar selling out theaters, this one is definitely under most people's radar. If you get a chance, and enjoyed movies like Resident Evil or the first 125 minutes of Dreamcatcher, you'll likely enjoy this movie.

Collector/Modeler Interest:
There were a few cars used throughout the film, though none of them were really "stars." The Sheriff's patrol car would be easy enough to recreate with any of the diecast Crown Vics currently on the market and a set of custom decals. A model of the vintage cruiser would be much more difficult thanks to the lack of '73 LTD models, but there has been a movement lately to see more of the big '70s cars done in scale, so a resin kit may be available in the future.


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