Crazy good suspense (Posted 3/2/2010 08:00 am)
February is turning out to not be such a bad month for movies in 2010.

I’m not sure what about February screams horror, but it seems to be the month for studios to release their scary films not completed in time for Halloween. The most recent “horror” film, The Crazies, is better described as a suspense thriller, but there are plenty of zombie-like people in the movie to allow it to fall into the category of horror.

The re-make of a 80s George A. Romero film follows Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) in the town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. Residents in the town slowly begin turning into violent psychopaths. After a few occurrences of townspeople trying to kill their neighbors, the government steps in to quarantine the area.

Dutton, his wife (Rhada Mitchell) and two other unaffected townspeople band together to try to survive the infection as well as the government quarantine.

The Crazies is somewhat advertised as a zombie film, and, while Romero is the godfather of zombie films, this film has a great story without the presence of the undead. Not that there is anything wrong with zombie movies. I, for one, am a big zombie fan, but anyone turned off by the thought of re-animated corpses in the movie can breathe a sigh of relief.

The film is an excellent example of what a suspense film should be from start to finish. It starts out with a few minutes of get to know you, but when the action — and scares — starts, they don’t stop until the last minute of the movie.

If you go through a film constantly jumping and on edge, it limits the little lights in the theater of people checking the time on their cell phones. It is impossible to pull yourself away from the screen — unless you need to take a break from the stress of the suspense. If you do that, however, you will be robbing yourself of a great example of what movie-going should be.

Movies are meant to pull an audience to another time or place for two hours and not make them think about what is going on in their world. Crazies makes you forget if you left the stove on at home and makes you wonder if the characters are going to be able to get out of this situation alive.

It also leaves a lasting impression after the film, again making you worry less about your stove and more about your plans in case your neighbors have gone crazy by the time you get home.

The story itself is good and the action is great, but Olyphant, Mitchell and Joe Anderson are the glue holding everything together. The performances are all spot-on, making it even easier to forget you are not watching real people.

You want to believe the actors are real people to make it a full experience. Horror films are too often filled with screamers and overactors. Suspense movies are often filled with over-the-top chase scenes or action sequences.

The acting keeps the audience believing the people, and the action keeps the audience believing the situation. There are no “guns-blazing-as-we-run-through-fire” scenes to snap the audience back to their seats. There are tense scenes to keep the audience on the edge of their seat and walk the fine line of “just enough crazy.”

The filmmakers were successful in making the film enjoyable for a wider audience. Everyone can enjoy watching someone trying to get away from a bad situation, but a lot less people like the idea of zombie folk eating brains. Crazies can appeal to the zombie-lovers and the action-lovers alike.

Anyone looking for a great movie-going experience and two hours to sit back and be transported to another place, go see the Crazies.
Luke Harris is the movie reviewer for the Star Group Newspapers. He has a plan if all of his neighbors turned crazy and it involves camping out in Walmart, moving the snack section to the electronics section and playing video games. It is a perfect plan. He can be reached at www.burlesonstar.net.
Thank you to Premiere Cinemas in Burleson for allowing Luke Harris to screen this film.