The Crazies

To say that 'The Crazies' is an appropriate title for this film is the understatement of the year. I definitely believe the government researches things the public knows nothing about, I don't know that I believe they'd be so careless as to let a giant plane carrying biological weapons aimed to destabilize a population crash into rural America, but what's that saying again? Shit happens.

The Gist Of The Movie:
The film centers around David (Timothy Oliphant) who is the sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a small farming community in Iowa where the locals all start to mentally deteriorate into homicidal maniacs. This is all caused by a plane whose contents made it into the area's supply of drinking water when it crashed into the marsh. The contents of the plane just so happened to be an experimental biological weapon manufactured by the United States government. When the government shows up and starts quarantining people the sheriff's pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell), is separated into the infected group. He, of course, goes back to rescue her and they try to make it out of town alive in what I'm guessing is a reinvention of the 1973 George Romero film of the same name.

What I Think:
Okay, so if The Happening got together with Outbreak and had a baby, this is sort of it. There are a lot of scary aspects to what it would be like to be in this situation, including a really effective use of biohazard suits, because there's something alien about brightly colored plastic uni-suits with matching goggle/gas mask facial accessories. There's also the terrifying knowledge that if there are people in biohazard suits, you should probably be in one too, but seeing as you're not, you might just be shit out of luck. There's also the feeling that you can't trust the person standing next to you and they can't trust you. Is your husband going to turn on you? Are you going to turn on your sister? I mean, even if you're not infected you might just go insane from the undeniable stress of the whole experience. And I guess I should explain what I mean by 'infected', because it is some kind of manufactured disease affecting these people. The medical science is never really explained fully, but my best guess is it's some sort of gradual breakdown of tissues, starting in the brain and working it's way through the body until you have glazed over eyes, spider veins, and you're bleeding from multiple orifices. So the crazies are a little reminiscent of zombies, especially in the aspect that they're super disconnected from their humanity, but they're a lot smarter and they don't want to eat you, they just want to kill you for the sake of killing you. In fact, you could say it's their life's ambition. Another difference between a crazy and a zombie is that eventually a crazy deteriorates to the point where they die, and a zombie has already been through that ordeal.

So you'd think that all this was what horrified me? Well it did, but the scene that made me most uneasy during this film was the Joyride-ish wheat harvester scene. A woman sees something is going on in the barn (we're already aware that her husband is bonkers at this point) so she goes out to check on things. Well the spinny part on the front of the harvester is whirring right along and the headlights are on so you can't see into the cab (channeling Joyride) and she just stands right in front of it. I was so anxious that she was about to be harvested I was ready to start yelling at her.

So in the end, folks, I would say this is a solid horror film with a pretty original story line. It plays on your distrust of other people, even those closest to you. It breaks down your hope that these people have any chance of survival. It relies more on silence and effective cinematography than loud noises and shadows flashing across the screen to scare you. It certainly has a few gory scenes, but mostly lets you fill in the blanks yourself. The only complaint I have is that David definitely has blood to blood contact with an infected person and apparently a bottle of hydrogen peroxide is enough to keep him sane, but other than that I'd say it's definitely worth a watch for anyone that's a fan of the horror genre, especially one who isn't always into buckets of blood.