The Crazies (2010)
The Crazies (2010)
5/10
The Crazies is a serviceable but underwhelming horror film which, for a mainstream American release is almost a compliment. I have not seen the original Romero film so I will be reviewing this version without it in mind. It is the story of the destruction of the Ogden Marsh, Iowa via a toxin released through the water supply. The toxin turns residents insane with a penchant for violence and soon it is revealed the military is heavily involved in containing the outbreak. The Crazies manages to be decent but very forgettable due to a less than average script, uninteresting characters, a boring first half hour and an inability to contribute anything of real worth to the horror genre.
The story focuses on David and Judy Dutton (Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell), husband and wife and also town Sherriff and town doctor. There is also Russ (Joe Anderson) the deputy who works with David and Becca (Danielle Panabaker) a teenager who works with Judy. As the town deals with strange events, things quickly catapult into chaos as the military shows up and starts rounding up everyone into their parameter. The four characters manage to escape and they have to defend themselves from fellow residents who have gone crazy, the military trying to round them up and themselves and their own paranoia and/or infection.
The Crazies gets off to a rickety and slow start to say the least. It has an opening sequence that has David confronting an older resident who walks onto a baseball field during a local game with a rifle. David is forced to shoot him after which the title of the film comes up. It does not carry the weight or significance it wants, though it seems as if it wants to start off with a bang or at least a creepy sequence. The first half hour is outright boring with a completely failed sense of tension or mounting disaster. It wants to have a brooding tone that hopes to evoke unease in the viewer. It fails to do this and all we are left with is a pointless and weak opening act. It fails to establish any sort of character interest and we are not given any sense of these people outside of the fact that David and Russ have a good working relationship as do Judy and Becca. The worst part of the film is this section and if the rest of the film had been this unfocused it would have received a much lower rating. Luckily, after hitting the 40 minute mark the film hits an effective stride.
At one point early on, two scenes occur that breathe life into the film and prove that its strong points are the showcase scenes that involve direct and significant encounters with the crazies. The first involves David’s encounter with one of the crazies in a funeral home. It has adequate tension and despite not being overly involved in the character’s well-being, it manages to sustain the tension it generates through the situation. The second scene has the same effect. Judy and Becca have been taken away for having high temperatures and they are left strapped to gurneys as the military evacuates from a breakout. A crazy comes in with a pitchfork and starts stabbing others on gurneys. It is effective and frightening enough; these two scenes represent the real kick-off point for the film. Even though the characters are still essentially non-characters, the tension is well constructed and the situation itself is interesting enough to represent a spike in the interest level the film had up to that point.
The middle section of the film is easily the best part leading up to the third act. Once all four characters band together and make their escape, the film’s pace and quality increase considerably. As was said before, the strongest scenes in this film are the ‘action’ scenes. Most of them come from this segment. The highlight of the film which is head and shoulders better than the rest comes in a scene involving a car wash. The car wash scene is one of the best scenes from a horror film of recent memory. If the rest of the film had been this inventive and interesting, this would be a different review.
While the film has solid parts to it, as a whole it fails to generate much of any emotion. It is serviceable and it could have been so much worse but it also could have been so much more. There is no sense of dread or chaos in the film which is a bad sign as it involves the apocalypse of a town. Director Breck Eisner fails at building tension on a scene to scene basis. It could not even create a sense of intrigue as to the actual reasons behind the events of the film.
I could go on about the issues of The Crazies but they are just so simple that all there needs to be at this point is a conclusion stating them. Instead of tension throughout, Eisner plays it so safe that the film as a whole is rather bland and uninteresting. In addition to this, when there are no characters that have time to establish themselves, it is difficult to care what happens to them. It is because the film takes no chances, plays it safe and fails to assert itself in any substantial way outside of one scene that the film ultimately feels as if there is no reason for it to exist despite it being serviceable and adequate. That is just not enough.
5/10
The Crazies is a serviceable but underwhelming horror film which, for a mainstream American release is almost a compliment. I have not seen the original Romero film so I will be reviewing this version without it in mind. It is the story of the destruction of the Ogden Marsh, Iowa via a toxin released through the water supply. The toxin turns residents insane with a penchant for violence and soon it is revealed the military is heavily involved in containing the outbreak. The Crazies manages to be decent but very forgettable due to a less than average script, uninteresting characters, a boring first half hour and an inability to contribute anything of real worth to the horror genre.
The story focuses on David and Judy Dutton (Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell), husband and wife and also town Sherriff and town doctor. There is also Russ (Joe Anderson) the deputy who works with David and Becca (Danielle Panabaker) a teenager who works with Judy. As the town deals with strange events, things quickly catapult into chaos as the military shows up and starts rounding up everyone into their parameter. The four characters manage to escape and they have to defend themselves from fellow residents who have gone crazy, the military trying to round them up and themselves and their own paranoia and/or infection.
The Crazies gets off to a rickety and slow start to say the least. It has an opening sequence that has David confronting an older resident who walks onto a baseball field during a local game with a rifle. David is forced to shoot him after which the title of the film comes up. It does not carry the weight or significance it wants, though it seems as if it wants to start off with a bang or at least a creepy sequence. The first half hour is outright boring with a completely failed sense of tension or mounting disaster. It wants to have a brooding tone that hopes to evoke unease in the viewer. It fails to do this and all we are left with is a pointless and weak opening act. It fails to establish any sort of character interest and we are not given any sense of these people outside of the fact that David and Russ have a good working relationship as do Judy and Becca. The worst part of the film is this section and if the rest of the film had been this unfocused it would have received a much lower rating. Luckily, after hitting the 40 minute mark the film hits an effective stride.
At one point early on, two scenes occur that breathe life into the film and prove that its strong points are the showcase scenes that involve direct and significant encounters with the crazies. The first involves David’s encounter with one of the crazies in a funeral home. It has adequate tension and despite not being overly involved in the character’s well-being, it manages to sustain the tension it generates through the situation. The second scene has the same effect. Judy and Becca have been taken away for having high temperatures and they are left strapped to gurneys as the military evacuates from a breakout. A crazy comes in with a pitchfork and starts stabbing others on gurneys. It is effective and frightening enough; these two scenes represent the real kick-off point for the film. Even though the characters are still essentially non-characters, the tension is well constructed and the situation itself is interesting enough to represent a spike in the interest level the film had up to that point.
The middle section of the film is easily the best part leading up to the third act. Once all four characters band together and make their escape, the film’s pace and quality increase considerably. As was said before, the strongest scenes in this film are the ‘action’ scenes. Most of them come from this segment. The highlight of the film which is head and shoulders better than the rest comes in a scene involving a car wash. The car wash scene is one of the best scenes from a horror film of recent memory. If the rest of the film had been this inventive and interesting, this would be a different review.
While the film has solid parts to it, as a whole it fails to generate much of any emotion. It is serviceable and it could have been so much worse but it also could have been so much more. There is no sense of dread or chaos in the film which is a bad sign as it involves the apocalypse of a town. Director Breck Eisner fails at building tension on a scene to scene basis. It could not even create a sense of intrigue as to the actual reasons behind the events of the film.
I could go on about the issues of The Crazies but they are just so simple that all there needs to be at this point is a conclusion stating them. Instead of tension throughout, Eisner plays it so safe that the film as a whole is rather bland and uninteresting. In addition to this, when there are no characters that have time to establish themselves, it is difficult to care what happens to them. It is because the film takes no chances, plays it safe and fails to assert itself in any substantial way outside of one scene that the film ultimately feels as if there is no reason for it to exist despite it being serviceable and adequate. That is just not enough.
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