The zombie genre has been beating a dead horse (or undead horse) for a long time. A zombie purist would not consider this remake of The Crazies, and neither will I. The term zombie means “a person who is or appears to be lifeless, apathetic or totally lacking in independent judgment” (thefreedictionary.com). A movie zombie has become something different. A movie zombie is a re-animated corpse that feasts on the brains of the living. The Crazies is about a biological weapon accidentally being released into the drinking water of a small Iowa town. This bio weapon turns those infected into, for lack of a better term, crazy people. I think if The Crazies was a straight up zombie film it wouldn’t be as good as what was put on screen. The movie focuses on a group of town folks battling not only against the crazies, but also against the government, who are trying to cover everything up. The group of four that we follow are played by Timothy Olyphant (A Perfect Getaway), Radha Mitchell (Rogue), Joe Anderson (Amelia), and Danielle Panbaker (Friday the 13th). They play the townies really well and it is nice to have good actors, because much time is spent with them. Literal miles are traveled with these characters, as they embark on an adventure of survival. All along the way the group is suspicious of who may be infected. The locations are well chosen in the film, and you will never look at a car wash, or a mechanics garage the same. The scares that take place are a kin to the scares in The Strangers, and that is not a bad thing. Of course there is a fair amount of gore, but nothing to insane. I must give respect to the filmmakers for not going crazy with the CG. They use it where necessary to enhance the visuals not to create them. If you are not a fan of horror films it is worth seeing the film just to see how well the locations are used. If you are a fan of the horror genre you should be watching the movie instead of reading this review.
A Good Banana
No comments:
Post a Comment