Immediately following the events of “Diary of the Dead,” “Survival of the Dead,” is the 6th film from George A. Romero to look at a world where Humans are in the minority and the zombies rule.
Off the coast of Delaware sits the cozy Plum Island where two families are locked in a struggle for power, as it has been for generations. The O’Flynn’s, headed by patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) approach the zombie plague with a shoot-to-kill attitude. The Muldoons, headed by Shamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick), feel that the zombies should be quarantined and kept ‘alive,’ in hopes that a solution will someday be found.
The O’Flynn’s, who are clearly outnumbered, are forced to exile Patrick by boat to the mainland, where he meets up with a band of soldiers, headed by Guardsman Sarge (Alan Van Sprang). They join forces and return to the island, to find that the zombie plague has fully gripped the divided community.
As the battle between humans and zombies escalates, the master filmmaker continues to reinvent the modern horror genre with wicked humor and pointed social commentary.
On a small island off North America’s coast, the dead rise to menace the living. Yet…the islanders can’t bring themselves to exterminate their loved ones, despite the growing danger from those the once held dear. A rebel among them hunts down all the zombies he can find, only to be banished from the island for assassinating his neighbors and friends. On the mainland, bent on revenge, he encounters a small band of survivors in search of an oasis on which to build a new life. Barely surviving an attack from a mass of ravenous flesh-eaters. They commandeer a zombie-infested ferry and sail to the island. There, to their horror, they discover that the locals have chained the dead inside their homes, pretending to live ‘normal’ lives…with bloody consequences. What ensues is a desperate struggle for survival and the answer to a question never posed in Romero’s Dead films: Can the living ever live in peace with the dead?
The Hollywood production line continues to churn out remakes of old horror films, this months outing is a reimagining of George A. Romero’s 1973 The Crazies…
When a small town is plagued by a mysterious virus, the military are called in to control the infected citizens. Sherriff David Dutton and his nurse wife Judy attempt to make their way to a safe place while dodging their crazy neighbours and the military with their shoot on sight policy.
Before we have even settled in to our seats the first ‘incident’ occurs on the town baseball field, a local man shot dead by Sherriff Timothy Olyphant. What follows is a slow building creep crawl as more of the town members begin to be struck down by the virus. Some nice, tense scenes including one which features a combine harvester create some solid tension before the military intervene, declaring martial law on the town. This is where the film switches to the predictable formula that we have been accustomed to for the past few years. You know exactly what to expect in each scene, where each ‘crazy’ is, what the outcome will be, all of this accompanied with a slow pull out and pan with accompanying screeching music. Eisner manages to botch some major set pieces with the technique, and by the time he fails to capitalise on what could have been an all so terrifying car wash sequence, you know this isn’t moving far out of mediocre territory. The crazies themselves are weak; except a Joker-esque laughing Crazy and another scraping a pitchfork across the ground, the rest are dull, veiny faced Madonna lookers.
You do have to credit Eisner however, as he manages to avoid the ‘torture-porn’ route, but you do wonder if a gore-fest may have been more fun than an attempted nerve shredded from the man who brought us Sahara. Romero films have always been signalled out as having underlying political themes and in his original he touched on the idea of surveillance but you’d be scraping the barrel trying to find such stuff in this version. I sincerely hope that the line, “The Crazies are loose!” was an attempt at embracing its B movie origins, if not it deserves a lower rating!
Verdict: **
While there may be enough to satisfy a few, it’s not quite the fun many had expected leaving us another by the book horror remake.
Imagine living in a small town where everything is safe and happyuntil suddenly it isnt. Imagine your friends and neighbors going quickly and horrifically insane. In a terrifying tale of the American Dream gone horribly wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown in The Crazies, a reinvention of the George Romero classic directed by Breck Eisner
David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his own houseafter locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Within days, the town has transformed into a sickening asylum; people who days ago lived quiet, unremarkable lives have now become depraved, blood-thirsty killers, hiding in the darkness with guns and knives. Sheriff Dutten tries to make sense of whats happening as the horrific, nonsensical violence escalates. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marshwith insanity.
Now complete anarchy reigns as one by one the townsfolk succumb to an unknown toxin and turn sadistically violent. In an effort to keep the madness contained, the government uses deadly force to close off all access and wont let anyone in or out even those uninfected. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Sheriff Dutten; his pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell); Becca (Danielle Panabaker), an assistant at the medical center; and Russell (Joe Anderson), Duttens deputy and right-hand man. Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a horrifying struggle for survival as they do their best to get out of town alive.
A very nice piece of artwork by Mr Adlard.
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