The Crazies: Good Thrills, Weak Plot

The Crazies is a remake of a George Romero movie. The film is about a sheriff of a small town in Iowa who has to tackle a major problem: the water supply in the town is polluted by a government biological weapon which turns the townsfolk into, well, zombies! The government quarantines the town and seeks to destroy all of its citizens, infected and uninfected, undead or alive. The sheriff, with his wife and deputy, escape the town and the government's quarantine tactics, only to find themselves turning on each other. A nuclear bomb destroys the town, and the film ends with the sheriff and his wife walking to Mason City, only the audience knows that Mason City is set for "quarantine" as well. Sucks for them...

The film itself is high on scares. There were many moments that I jumped in my seat, and the suspense and terror was too much to handle. However, the editing of the film was conscious, as in some scenes you could tell that they removed a gorier shot. I'm interested in seeing the inevitable unrated edition, to see what I suspect was removed. Other thrills included a saw careening toward the sheriff, and a man whose eyes and mouth were sewn shut. The parts at the rest stop are just about the scariest in the whole film. The best scene in the movie is when an old woman repeatedly asks "Did Peter call?"

Yet the film suffered from plot holes and other confusing points. The man that was sewn was able to tell the sheriff a zombie was behind him, despite the fact that his eyes were sewn shut. They never explained how the deputy got infected, and how his transformation took the longest. Why would the government enlist townsfolk to help with the quarantine when they had an annihilate all people order? Also, the nuclear bomb blast scene was quite reminiscent of the "fridge scene" in Indiana Jones IV, as the couple were able to escape it unscathed. The ending was sad, as the couple were the arbiters of Mason City's destruction, just by walking into it.

For me, the thrills and the solid acting, coupled with the fact that zombies are just awesome, made up for the questionable plot. This is a three star film.