The Crazies

Overture Films recently released an update to a George Romero classic from the 70's titled, the Crazies, and I saw it in the middle of the day at an out of the way theater. I've always been a big fan of the horror genre, since really falling in love with movies in the late 90's with the release of Scream. The genre has certainly seen its ups and downs since then going from the Scream trilogy, to the Saw saga, to new Halloween installments, to the Ring and Ring 2, and eventual parodies like the Scary Movie pics. It saw unprecedented success for an independent film with The Blair Witch Project, so it tends to be a genre that Hollywood studios will gamble on. But, when your talking horror it's usually never a gamble when Romero's name is attached, especially when it's a remake from almost forty years in the past.

Breck Eisner knew this and he was successful in crafting a film that is still rooted in the same primary elements that Romero was using in his original film. The updated version is ripe with tense scenes oozing with blood and gore, so much so that I had to remind myself that there would still be daylight when i exited the theater. Timothy Olyphant, plays the lead role of Sheriff David Dutton, and he does so very convicingly. I always pay close attention in these apocalyptic styled movies how it seems like the actors are coming to grips with the death and carnage around them. Alot of times it doesn't seem believable, but Olyphant and his co-star Radha Mitchell, with help from a solid script made it seem as authentic as I could imagine.

Minus a period during the middle of the movie where the outcome seemed obvious and the action had sort of puttered off, The Crazies constantly brought it and brought out emotions in me that really good horror flicks are supposed to.