What I Think Of: The Crazies (2010)

So yeah, The Crazies. It's like this horror movie came out of nowhere, built up great word of mouth, made double its budget and then disappeared, all this in 2 months. To be fair, horror movies don't generally stick around long in popular conciseness, especially one's that get released in January. So again, yeah, The Crazies. This 2010 film is a remake of the 1973 George Romero film of the same name and is directed by Breck Eisner (of Sahara fame, or is that infamy). It's about a small Pennsylvanian town whose inhabitants suddenly become violent and well, crazy. Somethings in the water stripping the town's people of any moral semblance and filter and it's up to Sheriff David Dutton (played by Timothy Olyphant) to figure out what's going wrong and find his pregnant wife, Dr. Judy Dutton (played by the beautiful Radha Mitchell. The original The Crazies is a huge cult classic, bringing horror fans around the world to collective orgasms. Can this new remake live up to the original? Here are some of my thoughts:

• Why do horror movies get released every January/February? It's like there are two things one can always expect at the beginning of each new year, people breaking their New Year's resolutions after 2 weeks, and many Romantic Comedies and Horror Movies get released. I know after a long winter we as Americans feel fat and tired, but seriously, why so many horror movies? Do we dream of running from crazed killers for our lives so we can burn off some calories?
  
• When does Timothy Olyphant not play a cowboy hat-ed, spur wearing cop? Deadwood? Check. Justified? Check. The Girl Next Door? Well he played a porno director so no. While he has many roles under his belt, none are ever as memorable than when he plays a Southern badge wearing cowboy.
• I'll watch Olyphant in anything, but please not another Hitman. That film is soul crushing, a nearly life changing experience its so bad.
• On that note, actress Radha Mitchell is quite the diverse actress. She can go from a Woody Allen film (Melinda and Melinda), to a horror movie (Silent Hill), to a sci-fi film (Pitch Black and Surrogates) to z dramatic muse (Finding Neverland and Henry Poole is Here). You ma'am are a fantastic actress.
• This movie is wonderfully frighting. I mean crap yourself in the pants I can't believe what I'm watching frightening. The director sets up an incredible mood throughout the entire film backed by a fantastic script. This is one smart horror movie.
• The Crazies is all about humanities most basics of depravities and the depths we sink as people, crazy or not just to survive. Yeah a B-movie with a message. Who would've guessed.
  
• On that note, this film reminded me a lot of the 2008 film Blindness, but you know good, and instead of blind people you have rednecks.
• There's just so many amazing gore and death scenes, all worthy of being true grade B goodness.
  
• I just love the fact that while the crazed humans in the film are close to zombies, there's enough different about them that you never question if they are in fact dead. You're scared of them for different reasons. Zombies scare you because they'll eat your brains and turn you into a zombie. The crazies in this film are scary because they'll butcher you slowly all the while watching you with these dead-behind eyes. Damn.
  
• On that note, while not a zombie film, this is how you do a f'n modern zombie film!!
• This is one of the better horror movies I've seen in the last 5 years.
  
• Seriously I'm like Olyphant's biggest fan, and he's not even a particularly good actor.
  
• And lastly, this is just great B-movie fun and I know this may sound crazy (and yes I meant the pun) but this is better than the original George Romero film. Blasphemy you say? Perhaps. But it's true.