The Crazies takes place in the fictional small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. When a disease starts to take hold of the residents that causes them to go stark-raving mad and homicidal, Sheriff Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), his wife, Dr. Judy Dutton (Radha Mitchell), the Deputee Clank (Joe Anderson) and local gal Becca Darling (Danielle Panabaker) band together to try to escape the infected and the military. Directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara), Crazies is a remake of a little known 1973 low budget George Romero flick.

Crazies could easily have been another run-of-the-mill remake like so many that have come before it. But thanks to a strong, smart script by Ray Wright and Scott Kosar and the focused directing effort by Breck Eisner, Crazies is less Amityville Horror and more Dawn of the Dead. While it doesn’t quite rise to the level of Zack Snyder’s early career calling card, it’s is entertaining from start to finish, with more than a few scares and a couple of sequences that should get you shifting in your seat. Without spoiling the moment, there is a scene involving a knife and a hand that gives M. Emmet Walsh’s Blood Simple scene a run for the money.

The cast is generally strong from start to finish. Olyphant works in the lead, though it’s debatable whether he will really be able to make the transition to feature leading man. His performance is a bit dull at times, and though Radha Mitchell is generally also good, you route for them to survive simply because they are the heroes of the movie, not because they have any particular chemistry or winning personalities. Anderson is better early on, but overacts a bit as shit hits the fan. Panabaker is fine, essentially playing much the same role she did in Friday the 13th.

The intensity builds nicely and it doesn’t make you wait very long for the good stuff. It plays down the typical message-laden Romero material, yet still retains the truly frightening aspect of the story, basically that the military’s tactics for containment of an outbreak doesn’t seem that far-fetched. The choice was made early on to lose the military perspective of the original, which serves the story well and succeeds in placing the audience in much the same position as the characters, figuring out what’s happening as the story moves along.

Where Crazies really succeeds is as a well made popcorn thriller. It may not be a masterpiece, but it’s better than 99 perfect of the similar genre material that oozes its way into theaters. You get the feeling that Eisner and co. actually thought beyond the opening weekend, hoping to convince audiences that might not normally see a movie like this to give something different a chance. It’s escapism without being stupid, capable of taking the audience on a ride while still giving them something to talk about on the drive home.

Quickie Score: 7.5 (out of 10)

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