The Crazies follows firmly in the footsteps of movies like The Hills Have Eyes and Friday the 13th remakes. They’re brutal and have serviceable plots, but when the end credits roll, the movie ultimately is a letdown.
The Crazies does a lot of things right, but in the end falls victim to the same mistakes as its predecessors.
The movie’s biggest problem is trying to do too many things, and the end result is a messy plot with too many holes to be truly effective. The film is at its most effective in the beginning; a large cast is introduced and the situation unfolds rather slowly, dragging the suspense along with it.
But by the time the town starts falling apart, so does The Crazies. Every character that was introduced comes back into play in some manner but there’s never a chance to connect to any of them. The main cast gives an acceptable amount of effort and nothing more; none of the actors give their characters much credibility, and the movie definitely suffers because of it.
Most of The Crazies is actually about a vast government conspiracy (anything more would give away details). The movie flips back and forth between the main characters fighting for survival to them investigating what caused the disaster; it provides a good enough reason but is taken way too far and feels too forced to be believable.
There is also a ton of horror clichés spread liberally throughout the movie. Characters make terrible decisions time and time again. Too many things pop out from the screen. Everything in The Crazies has been done – and done better – by other movies. It cheapens the mood and draws you back from fully enjoying the story and the characters because you already know what’s going to happen; there’s no new ideas or plot twists, and it feels stale.
Just like every other horror movie that gets made today, The Crazies is a remake of a good horror movie that came out more than thirty years ago. The original was directed by zombie movie legend George A. Romero, in 1973.
Overall, The Crazies sets the bar for horror movies in 2010 so far, but it sets it firmly at medium; its only competitors have been the halfway decent vampire movie Daywalkers and the absolutely terrible Wolfman remake. It’s predictable and cliché ridden, but there are some genuinely intense scenes and the movie tries its hardest to be good. It’s worth the price of admission to go see it, at least.
