It seems the best way to start off a George Romero remake is with a great opening to catch your attention that's set to a tune by Johnny Cash. Sure it's a weird thing to say, but look how great it worked out in the 2004 redo of Dawn of the Dead. Although it didn't work to that extent, the notion works out here too. In a way, it sets the tone. In Dawn you had the song 'When the Man Comes Around' while grisly scenes of chaos are rammed down your throat, and in Crazies you have 'We'll Meet Again', which doesn't set much of a hostile tone, but it certainly puts you in there with the other residents of Ogden Marsh, Iowa - a small midwestern town that falls victim to a biological virus.
What makes The Crazies a successful remake - and it is a fine remake at that - is that it is as relevant to it's times as Romero's original was back in 1973. The virus is brought to this small town by a bacteriological weapon, on rout to being destroyed, that accidentally crashes in a lake just outside the town of Ogden Marsh. The infection spreads through the town's water supply, and once someone is contaminated they completely loose their mind and become savages - killing family member and anybody who gets in their way. Stuck in the middle of this chaos is Sheriff Dutton (Olyphant), his pregnant wife Judy (Mitchell) and his deputy Russell (Anderson).
The film plays out much like your average zombie film would, following a group of survivors through all the madness that's unfolding and how it affects their lives. But it's obviously more influenced by movies like 28 Days Later than Romero's Dead series. And the infected aren't all too different from zombies, but once again their more like the 28 Days Rage Infected than Romero's classic walking corpses. But once the infection progresses, you can physically tell the infected from non-infected. Their veins swell out out of their head and their nose bleeds profusely, and their usually covered in fresh blood. No, these infected aren't anything original, but a bit refreshing and different.
This film doesn't only go for the throat with gross out gore, it has great tension and suspense - something most modern horror movies don't successfully juggle well. One aspect I liked was the fact that everybody poses a threat, not only the infected. In fact, the crazies were the least of the pack of survivor's troubles. You have the military locking the area up for contamination, shooting everybody in sight. There's the band of rednecks who view this as a game, wielding shotguns and shooting down the infected and piling them up in their trucks, and then you have the dangers of you or someone in your group becoming infected. In a way, your never really safe.
verdict: The Crazies could be ranked among The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House on the Left as being recent remakes that out due their originals, and I'd say it's up there with Dawn of the Dead as being a fun roller-coaster ride of a movie, original concept or not.
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