Review: The Crazies

I was very excited over this film. As soon as I heard about it, I tried to track down George Romero's 1973 original. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be and I went into the movie theater blind. I knew the basic premise from the trailers but I made sure not to look to much into the film.

The Crazies takes place in a small Iowa town called Ogden Marsh. It revolves around Sheriff David Dutton and his wife, Judy. The farming town is shaken up after a few random acts of violence. A local man walks onto a high school baseball field with a loaded shotgun and another man burns down his own home with his wife and son trapped inside. Pretty soon it becomes apparent that the newly acquired homicidal tendencies of the people Ogden Marsh are not a coincidence.

I enjoyed 95% of this film. The 5% I hated was the end. I’ll get to that later. The characters in the film were very likable. I became really concerned for them. My favorite character was Deputy Russell Clank, played by Joe Anderson. He was very endearing and always tried to make Sheriff Dutton proud. He also offered a little comedy but not enough to dumb down the movie. I love it when character development in horror films is done well. Not that I think its always necessary in horror films but I do like it on the rare occasion it happens. The infected residents were very well done. They rarely spoke but when they did it was very eerie.

The film was very well done up until the ending. I won’t give it away but it was completely stupid. One of the things I liked best about the film was that it reminded me of the classics. It felt like an older horror film that didn’t depend special effects. Well, the last ten minutes completely shot that out of the water. Not only was the use of special effects stupid and completely messed up the story, they were also badly done.

I plan on purchasing this when it comes out on DVD. BUT every time I watch it I will press stop 10 minutes before the actual ending.

Try This

Bison Organic Chocolate Stout: This chocolate stout has a heavy, dark chocolate aroma. The taste is not very chocolate forward though. I almost think about coffee or espresso when I first tried it. It is very smooth and has a creamy mouth feel. I suggest drinking it with a good steak dinner. The bitter taste complements medium rare meat. (Unless you don’t like the taste of food and prefer your steak to taste like shoe leather.) This is the only type of organic beer I’ve had and I certainly want to try more after this. Cheers!