MUBI

As a toxin begins to turn the residents of Ogden Marsh, Iowa into violent psychopaths, sheriff David Dutton tries to make sense of the situation while he, his wife, and two other unaffected townspeople band together in a fight for survival.

This film is well shot, but too much quick editing. That makes some scenes feel scattershot. Leaving the film hard to follow, which makes me wonder if that was what the filmmakers were going for in the first place, driving the audience crazy trying to make sense of it all.

It’s filmed more like a thriller then a horror film. Which is good in theory, but with the material not good in actual practice.

Since the film just tries to make the townsfolk seem to go crazy from some sort of toxic spill. Andit is a remake of a george Romero film. It jsut seems like having townsfolk go crazy is easier and more of a mystery then just making another zombie film.

I felt nothing the whole time i watched this film. No Shock i didn’t care about the characters. I was bored throughout. There was plenty of action hppening. It all felt very hollow, Again maybe it’s because i never got to now the characters. they were jsut sketches so i didn’t really care. It’s a shame what is happening to them, but other then that. How am i supposed to be drawn in or care.

Now i have seen the original and while that film isn’t all that good or well acted at least. I cared and followed the characters and the situations.

This film has decent acting but that is all. The film felt like a total waste of time watching it and i usually like Timothy Olyphant.

I can understand making the governmentThe villian, but the reason this is happening comes across as a afterthought. Just like it seems people get violent or sick when it’s convenient to amp up a scene. It would have been more interesting instead of them gaining the look of zombies. They stay normal like in the original. So you can’t necessarily tell if they have fully changed. Like in the original this is one reimagining that would have been just a better remakes because the changes make it seem more thrilling but dumb.

GRADE: F

Not the most original of horrors – shockingly derivative right down to it’s big groan filled final moments. Plus it’s episodic and repetitive plot (get to this barn, think they’re safe, audience see the crazy in the background, lots of screaming, they fight them off, someone gets picked off, they move on… and on… and on…) which made things sag in the middle somewhat. Not to mention that it’s really nowhere near as terrifying as it could be.

But it is often entertaining at least and has many moments to treasure – the shot of the submerged plane made me tingle with just a smidgen of cinephile glee, the guy with the garden fork, the car-wash (I’d swear one of the crazies was actually cleaning the car!).

But most of all it’s this guy, Joe Anderson.

The two leads – Radha Mitchell and Timothy Olyphant – are not bad (not particularly good either) and many of the minor characters are invested with enough interest as to make us care when they’re dispatched (not a great deal as it happens). But, every step of the way, they are upstaged by Joe Anderson’s deputy sheriff.
I can’t say that I’m entirely convinced of his acting ‘skills’ (the jury’s out – though I’m not sure why anyone would be looking for a credible performance here??) and it certainly wasn’t the things he was saying (much of the dialogue of ‘The Crazies’ veers from adequate to risible). Just that something rather wonderful was most definitely going on with his performance. Something that is surprisingly subtle for such a run-of-the-mill example of the zombie flic (a genre that has been so done to death that we have really reached overkill – sorry about the tired pun).

The first time we see Anderson, he doesn’t seem to register much at all. We’re not supposed to notice him I’d say (when there is a sheriff still in charge, the deputy is usually only there to take a bullet at the best of times). Then suddenly I felt he was getting my attention more so than anyone else. Part of this was contrived by the plot of course (he comes to the rescue several times) but I also started to notice something I couldn’t quite put my finger on (I think it’s when he loses the grubby hat and feels less of a red-neck).
Over time he takes up more and more attention. I felt I was being drawn in by such simple things about him like the tussle of his hair, his perfect bone structure or his lean frame. But, most of all, his eyes! – as blue and as piercing as Technicolor or Sergio Leone could ever have captured. (Surely I am not the only one staring at this guy??). I also begin to sense a carnality in his character that wasn’t there at the start. The other characters notice this too and they wonder if he is possibly infected. But it’s very much a carnality that is being eroticised. Either way, I didn’t care as long as he stayed in the frame!
It really has to be said that the more aggressive, more threatening Anderson’s deputy becomes, the more interesting, more intriguing – more downright thrilling he becomes. Over the course of the story he attains a mean and surly handsomeness that is a little too pleasing for comfort (I don’t think I was imagining it when I sensed a bristle in the audience once or twice when he was centre-stage!).
During his final scenes, on the road and facing the inevitable, he is quite magnificent to behold. The camera seems to love the lean swagger of his lanky frame to the point that no-one else on screen stands a chance. His is an almost electric screen presence I haven’t seen in a while. I couldn’t take my eyes off him towards the end – so that when he was gone, I felt such a loss and really didn’t care what happened anymore. Which is fortunate seeing as this rather lame horror was beginning to limp a little too literally by now and had more than overstayed its welcome.

A remake of a classic 70s horror film

The crazies is a horror/thriller/zombie film which does admittedly keep the audience at the edge of their seat.

As all good picture perfect stories begin, we start in small town America where David and Judy, husband and wife are happily living out the American dream. he is the town sheriff, she is the town’s doctor. When a local suddenly appears at a kids basebal game, welding a rifle we begin to see the veneer of the town slowly start to slip into madness.

A deadly virus has started to attack the town’s inhabitants and those who have the virus turn into deadly human killing machines.

Not the most original story but certainly one of the most entertaining zombie fillms to hit cinemas for a long time.

Director Breck Eisner manages to cram enough thrills, spills and horror to keep one going for years. The acting in the film is of a high standard considering the genre it is in.

The action scenes are brutal to say the least, and contain some memorable scenes; i.e the women are hauled off by the military and strapped to beds like in a mental aslyum and a ‘crazy’ with a pitchfork goes around and picks off victims at his will.

Not the most earth shattering film to come about, but certainly the most entertaining.

This film surprised me. It thrust me straight into the action when I least expected it, like dirty laundry thrown inside the washing machine.

The countless zombie films being released nowadays, what do they have in common? They have unsympathetic characters, weak protagonists, and, you got it, blood. Break Eisner’s The Crazies has one of those three, and it has a lot of it.

Yes, we’ve seen films like this one before. A town gets infected by a virus, transforming everyone into something not worth transforming into. But the difference lies in the performances of the actors, with Timothy Olyphant portraying the competent sheriff. Radha Mitchell, who portrays his wife, is not a stranger when it comes to escaping from malevolent forces (Rogue, Silent Hill), and it shows. She dons the character well, changing from the weak wife to an able woman near the film’s end. Joe Anderson, meanwhile, portrays the deputy with such ease that I was quite surprised that he can still outperform himself after that brilliant rendition of “Hey Jude” in the film Across the Universe.

Indeed, this isn’t another one of those zombie films with weak characters. We actually care for them, cheer whenever they escape from certain peril. The scares, though bordering on clichés, actually work, and the carwash scene proves how the director can effectively imbibe paranoia within the viewers in a matter of seconds. Yes, the film could’ve gone on to handle larger political issues, but this isn’t exactly the point here. This film is made to take audiences for a ride, and it does. This is survival-horror at its best, and for a zombie film, it is the type that usually comes once in a while.

Selamat datang di kota Ogden Marsh, Iowa, Amerika Serikat. Sebuah kota kecil dengan penduduk yang ramah dan saling mengenal satu sama lain. Keakraban diantara setiap warganya sendiri dapat terlihat pada berbagai acara yang digelar di kota tersebut. Seperti yang terlihat di film The Crazies, dimana seluruh warganya sedang berkumpul untuk menonton pertandingan baseball di sebuah sekolah.

Namun, tentu saja tak satupun dari warga Ogden Marsh akan menyangka bahwa pada hari itu, seorang pria bernama Rory Hamill (Mike Hickman), akan datang ke lapangan baseball dengan membawa sebuah senjata. Diduga sedang mabuk, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), segera mengamankan Rory. Tak disangka, Rory malah melawan dan berniat menembak David dengan senjatanya. Beruntung, David lebih siaga dan menembak Rory terlebih dahulu, sekaligus menewaskannya. Hasil pemeriksaan dokter, yang menunjukkan bahwa kadar alkohol di darah Rory dalam hitungan normal, semakin membingungkan David mengapa Rory melakukan hal tersebut.

Kejadian aneh di kota tersebut tidak berhenti sampai disana. Beberapa hari kemudian, seorang petani, Bill Farnum (Brett Rickaby), yang beberapa hari sebelumnya mulai bersifat aneh dan sempat diperiksa oleh istri David, Judy Dutton (Radha Mitchell), ternyata malah melakukan pembunuhan terhadap istri dan anaknya dengan membakar mereka hidup-hidup.

Penemuan sesosok mayat di sungat terdekat di kota tersebut, akhirnya mengarahkan David dan deputinya, Russell Clank (Joe Anderson), menemukan sebuah pesawat terbang yang jatuh di sungai tersebut. Nantinya, David akan menemukan bahwa pesawat tersebut berisi sebuah senjata biologis, yang karena kecelakaan pesawat yang membawanya, akhirnya mencemari sungai yang menjadi sumber air minum warga kota tersebut.

Dalam sebuah adegan yang mengingatkan akan 28 Weeks Later, sejumlah pasukan bersenjata pemerintah tiba-tiba melakukan evakuasi besar-besaran terhadap warga Ogden Marsh. Mereka melakukan penelitian dan memisahkan antara orang-orang yang dianggap sehat dengan orang-orang yang diduga telah tercemar dengan virus. David, Judy dan Russell kini harus segera melarikan diri dari kota tersebut setelah mengetahui bahwa pasukan pemerintah tidak hanya akan mengevakuasi mereka yang sakit, namun akan melakuakn penghancuran total terhadap Ogden Marsh beserta seluruh warga yang masih ada di dalamnya.

The Crazies sendiri merupakan sebuah remake dari film berjudul sama karya sutradara George A Romero yang pernah dirilis pada tahun 1973. Versi terbaru dari The Crazies sendiri harus diakui tidak memberikan sesuatu yang baru jika dibandingkan dengan film-film karya George A Romero lainnya maupun film-film bertema apocalypse lainnya seperti 28 Weeks Later. Bedanya mungkin jika pada film-film lainnya seorang korban terkena virus mereka akan berubah menjadi seorang zombie pemakan manusia, maka pada The Crazies mereka yang terkena virus hanya digambarkan akan meninggal atau bersifat lebih garang dari manusia biasa.

Sutradara Breck Eisner sendiri berhasil membangun intensitas ketegangan film ini semenjak awal film. Secara perlahan-lahan, Eisner kemudian terus membangun tingkat ketegangan yang lebih di adegan berikutnya dengan memberikan beberapa adegan kejutan yang harus diakui akan berhasil membuat setiap penggemar film-film thriller merasa terpuaskan. Tidak seperti film horror remake kebanyakan, berbagai adegan di film The Crazies dilakukan dengan sangat rapi. The Crazies tidak hanya menawarkan berbagai adegan darah yang selalu ada di film-film sejenis, namun juga berbagai pilihan gambar yang menambah kesan muram dan gelap dari film ini yang semakin akan menambah intensitas ketegangan dari jalan cerita.

Walaupun tidak ada yang memberikan penampilan yang sangat istimewa, para jajaran pemeran The Crazies berhasil menghidupkan setiap karakter yang mereka mainkan. Ini, sekali lagi, membuat The Crazies unggul jauh dari film-film sejenisnya yang banyak beredar dalam beberapa tahun terakhir. Joe Anderson, yang berperan sebagai Russell, mungkin adalah yang paling stand-out penampilannya dibandingkan jajaran pemeran lainnya. Anderson berhasil memberikan gambaran yang baik akan seorang Russell, yang walaupun dipercaya oleh David dan Judy, namun memiliki temperamen yang membuatnya perlahan-lahan dijauhi keduanya.

The Crazies sebenarnya tidak menawarkan sesuatu yang baru maupun istimewa di dalam jalan ceritanya. Namun, sutradara Breck Eisner berhasil memberikan perlakuan yang tepat untuk film ini. Dengan membangun intensitas ketegangan secara perlahan semenjak awal film, serta memberikan berbagai adegan mengejutkan di sepanjang jalan ceritanya, membuat The Crazies setidaknya tampil elegan dan lebih baik dari film-film sekelasnya yang banyak dirilis beberapa tahun belakangan.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Cliche #1: The film opens with an extreme long shot of a road that runs through downtown, which is littered with burning heaps of wrecked cars and burned out store fronts. Jump cut to the same shot, except this time it’s sunny and the screen reads “two days earlier.”

Cliche #2: A light comes from a barn and a woman thinks that her husband is inside. It is night out. Judging by how she walks, we can assume that she is a little creeped out. As she inches closer, we see a combine harvester roaring in place, with eerie fluorescent lights flickering off the inside of the barn. The woman stands in front of the vehicle, with its deadly front roaring away, and she asks if her husband is there. If someone is creeped out, why the hell would they stand in front of a crazy farm device that can mangle you into pieces?

Cliche #3: Like other sucky horror films, this one also sucks.

Cliche #4: Of course the government is behind it all! Now, send in the faceless military drones who hide behind gas masks and throw human beings into interment camps. I can’t count how many films I have seen where, after a pandemic is loose, the military always mistreats everybody they come across, always pushing the characters forward and never answer any questions. “I was just following orders!”

Cliche #5: To make things more intense and more “fucked up,” one of the female characters is pregnant.

Cliche #6: Instead of creating any real thrills or chills, the film relies on generic cheap scares, like people popping out of a corner or a hand suddenly, with lightning fast reflexes, shoots out from the bars of a jail cell.

Bad Script part 1: As the sheriff and his deputy float downstream with the boat man (or whatever you call the guy who revs up the motor and directs the boat) the sheriff subtly notices a GIGANTIC airplane underneath the river. Funny, how the water is so murky that you can barely see through it. Also funny, how when the camera pulls away into an extreme long shot looking directly down upon the three men in the boat, that it’s incredibly hard to make out the plane at all. How the hell did that guy spot it in the first place?

Bad Script part 2: There are three men who like to hunt animals. Later on in the film, they decide to hunt humans! Woah! Yet, at the final showdown, only two of them are present. Where the hell did the other one go? Hey, even scriptwriters are prone to forget the awful shit they are writing.

Bad Script part 3: How many scenes in this film rely on the whole deus ex machina approach? I counted at least three. There are probably more, but I don’t care.

Bad Script part 4: The main character gets stabbed in the hand, and, while the knife is still through his hand, stabs an infected lady through the neck. Their blood mixes together. How did he not get sick?!?

If anybody out there spotted any more then let me know!