Something in an Iowa farming community’s water is turning the townsfolk into homicidal maniacs. So goes the scenario of director Breck Eisner’s effectively frightening redo of George Romero’s 1973 virus-run-amuck classic The Crazies.

The town sheriff (Timothy Olyphant, one my new favorite actors) makes the discovery, after which he, along with his pregnant doctor wife (Radha Mitchell) and deputy (Joe Anderson), decides to hightail it out of the place while fighting off the infected and eluding the military.

While the original was meant to be some sort of indictment against the military, the deepest this one really gets is Olyphant’s brief anguish over having to kill a local man. Like other recent remakes of ‘70s horror flicks, it’s a slicked-up scare machine, complete with satellite views of the town, cars flipping over or blowing up, and some CGI, in particular the spectacular fireball near the end.

But I didn’t mind the better production values, because Eisner (Sahara) actually manages to make the movie scary, from the excellently eerie early goings–I’ve never seen a thresher look so threatening–to the subsequent tense and bloody mayhem. One of the better scenes has Mitchell tied down to a bed as one of the title nut jobs starts stabbing the people around her with a pitchfork.

Even more chilling is the scene in which a woman hides with her son in a closet from her infected, knife-brandishing husband, who then locks them in and sets the house on fire. There’s also a scene that will make you think twice about ever going through a car wash again, and the part where Olyphant desperately scoots away from a runaway bone saw definitely made me squirm.

None of it would have been nearly as enjoyable without Olyphant, whose sturdy presence helps ground the pandemonium somewhat. Brit actor Anderson does a decent job as the increasingly unhinged deputy, while Mitchell (Pitch Black) mostly just annoyed me. All that being said, only a crazy person would watch a blood-spattered movie like this for the emoting. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 6/29/10

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,