The Crazies is a remake of a classic George Romero movie from the 1970's. I've never seen the original, so this review will offer no comparisons. Although it is based on a Romero movie, whose name is synonymous with zombies, this isn't exactly a zombie movie. As far as gory horror movies go, this one is actually quite good. It's extremely dark and violent, too.

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but once again I want to complain about the trailer showing too much of the movie. I'm getting really tired of seeing the endings of movies spoiled by the trailers. This one is no exception. There's a scene in the trailer which shows the climax of the movie. It's a huge spoiler that really took away much of the impact of the movie's ending. I've gotten to the point where I now wait until a movie has been out for a couple of weeks before I go see it, then I purposely wait before entering the theater so I can avoid the trailers. I'm tired of having movies I want to see spoiled by the previews. I have to wait a couple of weeks so I can get a decent seat.

Timothy Olyphant stars as the sheriff of a small town in Iowa. One day at a baseball game, the town drunk wanders out onto the field with a shotgun and the sheriff has to shoot him down to protect his own life. The next day, a man burns his house down with his family locked up inside. Just when the sheriff is trying to figure out what is making random townsfolk do such crazy stuff, a bunch of military trucks and soldiers descend on the town and start rounding everyone up. When the sheriff and his wife and separated, he sneaks back into the town to find her, and that's when the nightmare really begins.

As I stated before, this is not exactly a zombie movie. The people in the town actually go crazy and take on weird physical traits because of what has affected them. Unlike the average Hollywood marketing department, I'm not going to tell you what makes the people go crazy. The fact that the military shows up and starts killing the crazies is plenty enough information for you to start trying to figure things out on your own. I liked how this story took what could have easily been a basic zombie formula and put a government conspiracy type twist on it.

The Crazies is an extremely violent and gory film, and it more than earns the R rating. There's a scene with a man going through a hospital stabbing patients with a pitchfork while they are strapped down to a gurney and screaming. There's a scene with a child who is stuck inside a house while the kid's father sets it ablaze. In addition to various gunshot wounds, there are some graphic stabbings, too. It's done quite realistically without a bunch of cheesy CGI blood, and I commend the filmmakers for that.

This was directed by Breck Eisner, who previously made the Clive Cussler adaptation of Sahara with Matthew McConaughey. Cussler filed a bunch of lawsuits regarding that movie, so it could be part of the reason why Eisner hasn't made a mainstream movie since then. I thought he did an excellent job with this film in the way he let tension build slowly and created some genuinely nightmarish scenarios using everyday locations. My favorite one took place in a car wash. After reading a string of bad zombie novels with anticlimactic endings, it was nice to see a movie that actually has a beginning and an end.

If you like action-filled horror movies, I highly recommend The Crazies. It's better than a lot of the other mainstream horror movies I've seen in the past couple of years.

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Scary Movie