Olyphantastic vs The Crazies

It's a shame that most of the current crop of horror remakes are shit. Friday the 13th, The Hitcher, Texas Chainsaw, Prom Night, Day of the Dead, Sorority Row. All below par or outright crap. Halloween was a great effort. So with the odds stacked against it, The Crazies has risen to the top, along side he Hills Have Eyes and Dawn as the Dead, as a remake that at least gives the original a run for it's money.

Like George A Romero's 1973 original, it shows a small, middle American town come under the deadly influence of a mysterious, contagious virus. As the resident's begin to catch on to what is happening to them, a faceless and ruthless military move in to stop the spread of the condition which turns people into psychopaths. In many respects, it's a zombie movie (although the victims retain their personalities and their heartbeats) with the added threat of the military who are as cold and inhuman as the infected residents.

Sahara's Breck Eisner does a stunning job on a limited budget ($19 million). It has a slow, tense build up, a frantic middle act as Timothy Olyphant and Rhada Mitchell escape the clutches of the army and a great collection of taut set pieces as they make their way to freedom. With a 48 hour incubation period, the 'disease' allows for paranoia and mistrust to build amongst the principals, building the tension further. The cinematography has a gloriously rich, old fashioned CinemaScope feel rather than the hyper stylised Michael Bay stuff or colour drained J-horror genre, while Mark Ishim's score helps create an unnerving, eerie quality. The only downside is that the film jettisons Romero's Vietnam inspired subtext for nothing much else. You could argue there's a parallel to Iraq but it's unclear and muddled.

But The Crazies is a confidently made, nerveracking and atmospheric movie that needs to be seen with the lights dimmed and the sound cranked way up.