The Crazies (2010) ~ Film Review
More than three decades after Romero released The Crazies, Hollywood renovated and repackaged it for today’s horror generation. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel with the title, The Crazies was released in 2010 and is pretty much the same story. A virus ravages a small town after a government plane carrying biological weapons crashes and leaks into the water system. As the powers-that-be struggle to “contain” the situation, the local sheriff and his wife, along with a couple of others, attempt to escape the town. I didn’t hate the original The Crazies, but I thought it struggled in the horror department. The story was there, but the gore and scares weren’t. This remake fixes pretty much all of my issues and manages to preserve the integrity of Romero’s creation, a feat few — if any — remakes do.
My favorite aspect of the original film was it literally dropped you right into the story. There was no beginning build-up, but rather an immediate rush of plot and paranoia. Romero did this with Night of the Living Dead and others, so it was nice to see the remake do the same. From the very beginning, shit is going down. Minor plot details are changed in this new tale, but the idea is still there. The government’s role in this film was different at times, but the overall political message remained the same. This version didn’t shove it down your throat quite as much as Romero did, but you…
