Horror Movie Odyssey: Day 5 - The Crazies (2010)
by delaythesun
I can’t for the life of me figure out why a person would want to remake the Crazies. The original is notable for exactly one reason - it was directed by George A. Romero, who made the Dead trilogy over a span of thirty years and a ton of complete garbage in between. It looked like it was made for nothing and stacked with “actors” who always seemed confused and possibly hungry. My guess is that...
I can’t for the life of me figure out why a person would want to remake the Crazies. The original is notable for exactly one reason - it was directed by George A. Romero, who made the Dead trilogy over a span of thirty years and a ton of complete garbage in between. It looked like it was made for nothing and stacked with “actors” who always seemed confused and possibly hungry. My guess is that the production was probably only able to fund the food trailer on alternating days.
You're Doing it Wrong
It is universally understood that remakes have one very specific aim. They want to take something that you have fond memories of, ruin it, and then feed it back to you in exchange for your money. This is a time honored tradition so my question is who was sitting around crossing their fingers for a Crazies remake? What hot demo were they hoping to tap with this movie. Perhaps whoever owned the rights to the original and saw how much money “The Hills Have Eyes” pulled in and it triggered some Pavlovian response whereby the producer couldn’t stop drooling until he “made a few calls?”
Sarah Palin Approved
The film opens with shots of the small town sheriff driving through corn fields on the way to a baseball game. This opening is completely key to the experience because it sets expectations. It lets you know that you have been transported to the “Real America” that politicians love to talk about. The fine people of Ogden Marsh are down to earth folks who want nothing to do with your decadent city bullshit. They even licensed a Johnny Cash song for the opener just to really drive the point home.
Crazy Good (see what I did there?)
Frankly, after the opener, there isn’t a whole lot to pick apart or make fun of. The movie is just too freaking good. It’s like the people in charge of this remake were actually concerned with it’s quality. Unbelievable. Once Trixie (the chemical weapon) is introduced to the town via a crashed military aircraft, all hell breaks loose. The town people that you met earlier are reintroduced as monsters that clearly retain a measure of their personality. For instance the pack of rednecks who were hunting out of season return near the end to hunt people.
