2010 Horror Remakes in Review: THE CRAZIES (2010)

I'm a huge fan of the original THE CRAZIES (1973) directed by George A. Romero so it is with apprehension that I went to go view the remake from director Breck Eisner. The trailers looked "fun" but the story seemed to have deviated much from Romero's story about a bio-weapon outbreak in which the government tries to clean up their mess at the expense of an entire town.

The Romero film was very much ahead of its time being a film about the government committing marshal law on a small town and sacrificing personal freedoms for that of the bigger populace. The original film unfolded from both the perspective of the townspeople, the scientists trying to find a cure for the disease, and the military personnel who must contain the outbreak. The remake simplifies the story telling it exclusively from the perspective of the townspeople, which I believe was a tragic mistake.

The remake de-evolves into a chase film really quickly. Everything and every moment is about getting to the next set up as soon as possible and while the film strives to give us 3 dimensional characters that we empathize with, instead it gives us a roller coaster ride of elaborate set ups (which feel more at home in one of THE FINAL DESTINATION films). Presenting the government as a wholly "evil" entity makes the film very one-sided instead of the multi-dimensional original. There are many incidents in the film that also just don't make any logical sense.

Skip this paragraph and go to the last paragraph if you haven't seen the film yet. SPOILER WARNING: The origin of the outbreak which is the downed airplane. There is no logical explanation why there wasn't a clean-up crew immediately after the airplane went down. In this day & age if a bio-weapon as dangerous as the one depicted in the film was "accidentally" released a clean-up crew would have been sent out and a media blackout would have gone into effect. There wouldn't have been spy satellites waiting in the wings for the town to be infected before entering. Secondly, when the group of survivors hide in a car wash from the military helicopter overhead that is trying to kill them, there is no logical reason why they just don't blow up the car wash instead of continuing to circle the car wash waiting for them to show back up. The big deal about separating those infected from those not infected when they were just going to kill everyone anyways makes absolutely no sense other than to have a big reveal at the end of the film.

Lot a Michael Bay film, THE CARAZIES is a whole lot bang with no logic or follow through that just leaves you hollow at the end. And trust me, I don't own a single Michael Bay film (whereas I own all of Romero's films).