The Crazies (2010)

VERDICT:
7/10 Township Rebellions

Finally, a good horror remake. It’s about damn time.

The Crazies is about a group of backwoods townies in the midwest who lose their minds for reasons unknown, start killing friend and family alike for reasons unknown, and the town sheriff who’s trying to figure out what the hell is going on before he finds himself at the wrong end of a pitchfork. 

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a horror movie here at Cut The Crap, mainly because there hasn’t been a horror movie actually worth seeing since Paranormal Activity last Summer, but waddaya know, this unexpected remake has proved to be a damn good way to kick off a new decade of horror. It’s not the scariest thing you’ll ever see, but damn if it doesn’t do a lot of other things right.

The first thing worth mentioning is that, for once, the characters aren’t stupid. With the exception of a couple times where the gang thinks they’re safe to split up, only to find themselves totally effed five minutes later, there’s a very realistic quality to the characters and how they react to what’s going down. When the crazy stuff starts happening, they’re the first to utter, “What the fuck is going on? We need to get the hell out of here,” and instead of panicking like a jackass or going down that dark alley with a dull knife to defend themselves, they continually manage to keep their cool, stay armed at all times and take intelligent actions towards saving their asses with each new life-or-death situation they find themselves in.

And oh how refreshing it is.

Man, aren’t we all tired of stupidest mother effers invading our horror movies? How is this still happening? We’re ten years into a new Willennium for cryin’ out loud. It’s just great to watch a movie like this and not feel compelled to yell at the screen or shake my head in frustration, hoping the hero gets killed just for acting like a total douche. More folks really need to get on this bandwagon, stat.

Only complaint with the characters is that they don’t get much time to develop and we don’t get much time to connect to them as a result, but a small price to pay for a crew who actually knows what the hell they’re doing.

The other thing about The Crazies is that it’s not all that scary. Half of the scenes feel new and exciting, the other half feel predictable and rehashed, but none of them really scared the living daylights out of me. Part of that is because the trailers give away lot of what’s going to happen before it even appears on-screen, but mostly it’s due to The Crazies being more of a thriller with a horror edge in the long run. It’s also not very in-your-face when it comes to blood and gore, but that might be more of a pro than a con for some. Still, I would have liked some “Holy CRAP!” scenes thrown in there to even out the mix.

Acting’s also pretty solid, which was surprising. That Timothy Olyphant seems to be in everything nowadays and he’s pretty good as the town sheriff, but this guy Joe Anderson (aka: Max from Across the Universe) really kicks ass as the town deputy with an itchy trigger finger. Keep an eye out on Joe. Good stuff, dude’s got potential.

The Crazies isn’t breaking the mold or anything, it just doesn’t fall into the predictable and frustrating cliches that so many horror movies fall victim to nowadays. The trailers might not sell this one all too well, but this is the best horror movies I’ve seen in a good while and it’s the best thing I’ve seen so far this year. Granted, the only other thing I’ve seen is Shutter Island and everything else that’s come out so far looks effing horrendous, so I guess it’s just better than Shutter Island. Pretty sure it’s better than Cop Out, too.

Good story, good execution, good way to spend 12 bucks. Even considered giving it an 8 for a while there.

Now I just need to see the original.