The Crazies (2010 film)

The Crazies is a 2010 American science fiction horror film directed by Breck Eisner, with a screenplay from Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name. George A. Romero, who wrote and directed the original, served as an executive producer. Starring Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, it focuses on a fictional Iowa town that becomes afflicted by a military virus that turns those infected into violent killers. The film was released on February 26, 2010 to generally positive reviews from critics, and was a modest box office success.

The Crazies
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBreck Eisner
Produced byMichael Aguilar
Dean Georgaris
Rob Cowan
Screenplay byScott Kosar
Ray Wright
StarringTimothy Olyphant
Radha Mitchell
Joe Anderson
Danielle Panabaker
Music byMark Isham
CinematographyMaxime Alexandre
Edited byBilly Fox
Production
company
Participant Media
Imagination Abu Dhabi
Distributed byOverture Films
Release date
  • February 26, 2010 (2010-02-26)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[1]
Box office$55 million[1]

Plot

In the town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, residents begin to exhibit bizarre behavior and some act violently, such as a man entering a town baseball game with a shotgun or a neighborhood farmer trapping his wife and son in a closet and setting fire to the house. These changes are observed by David (Timothy Olyphant), the sheriff of surrounding Pierce County; and his pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell), the community doctor. David and his deputy, Russell Clank (Joe Anderson), eventually discover that a military aircraft crashed into the town's river, leading David to suspect that the plane's cargo contaminated the water supply and is the cause of the strange behavior.

Soon afterwards, all communication services are lost in Ogden Marsh and military soldiers arrive to quarantine the residents of the town at a high school. The soldiers begin checking the temperatures of the evacuees and while David passes the infection test, Judy does not, and the couple are separated. When the infected cause a violent riot at the high school and a perimeter breach is caused the military personnel swiftly evacuate and David escapes the quarantine, where he and Russell are able to rescue Judy and her assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker).

The four attempt to escape from the Ogden Marsh while trying to avoid both the soldiers, who have been ordered to shoot all civilians on sight and burn their bodies, and the infected townspeople, who are becoming increasingly violent. They manage to obtain a vehicle to aid them in their escape, but Becca is killed when they try evading a military helicopter and the helicopter destroys their car. Continuing on foot, the survivors are able to subdue an intelligence officer, who reveals that the cargo plane contained a Rhabdoviridae prototype and biological weapon called Trixie, which did contaminate the town's water source.

Russell begins to act oddly and suddenly shoots the intelligence officer, prompting tension between David and Russell, until Russell begins to suspect that he is infected. When the group reaches a military roadblock, Russell sacrifices himself to provide a distraction and allow David and Judy to sneak past the soldiers.

David and Judy arrive at a truck stop to search for a vehicle, where they discover that the military has executed the residents who believed they were being evacuated. After killing more infected, they escape in a semi-truck while a massive bomb destroys Ogden Marsh. The explosion disables their truck and they are forced to walk on foot. As the couple heads towards Cedar Rapids, however, they are spotted by a military satellite and the military prepares to contain the city. In a mid-credits scene, a news report on the explosion in Ogden Marsh is repeatedly interrupted by footage of infected individuals before the signal is lost.

Cast

Lynn Lowry, who portrayed Kathy in the original film, makes a cameo appearance as an infected woman on a bicycle.

Production

Much of the film was shot in central Georgia, and Lenox, Iowa, with settings including the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Priester's Pecans in Perry, Georgia, the Fountain Car Wash in Macon, Georgia, areas in Dublin, Georgia, Peach County High School in Fort Valley, Georgia, and areas of Cordele, Georgia (the truck stop used during filming is an old TravelCenters of America site).[2] The film was produced and distributed by Overture Films.[3] The special effects were created by Robert Green Hall.[4] Actress Lynn Lowry, a star from the original film, makes a cameo in the remake billed as "Woman on Bike".

Makeup
The final stage of the Trixie disease took three hours in the make-up chair to complete.

The makeup for the film was designed by Almost Human Studios, who also did makeup for other horror films such as Quarantine, Frankenfish and Prom Night. Director Breck Eisner's first visions of what the infected would look like were zombies. He and the makeup crew made many molds and sketches of what the infected should look like, with deformities and skin hanging off and so forth. Eventually, he grew tired of the "zombie" look which he believed to be too cliché and decided to go for a more realistic "go under the skin," in which the blood vessels would appear to be bursting forth and face and neck muscles and tendons tight and wrought. Eisner described this look as "hyper alive."

The director's one and only rule for the makeup design was that they would have to research in medical books and consult medical professionals for the design of the infected. Lead make-up artist Rob Hall said "If we were to pitch something to Breck, about, if you know, one side of his face should look like this, Breck would immediately want to know what disease it came from, and what version of reality it could be implemented into Trixie. But the most important thing was to make sure it felt real. Make it feel like you could get it, too." The basis of the makeup the crew used was mainly rabies, tetanus and Stevens–Johnson syndrome.

Each "Crazy" design had about 21 separate pieces that took over three hours to apply for the final effect seen in the film. Robert stated the final effect in the film seen was not just the makeup, but the lighting, camera angles, and post-production effects were the main factor. The main theme for the design was "stress." He stated he wanted the "Crazies" to look stressed out. The veins and eyes were the main focus of the design. The contact lenses covered the actors' entire eyes and required eyedrops every five minutes to prevent permanent eye damage.[5]

Release

The film premiered on February 24, 2010 in Los Angeles[6] and received a wide release in the North America on February 26, 2010.[7] The Canadian DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released June 29, 2010.[8] The DVD and Blu-ray Disc + Digital Copy combo pack was released in the North America on June 29, 2010 and in the UK on July 19.[9]

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating of 71% based on 148 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent, The Crazies is a horror remake that, unusually, works."[10] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune awarded the film 3½ stars of 4 commenting that he "greatly prefer this cleverly sustained and efficiently relentless remake to the '73 edition. It is lean and simple."[13] Eric M. Armstrong of The Moving Arts Film Journal wrote that "The Crazies is a solid B-movie and one of the few remakes that actually surpasses the original."[14] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film 3/4 stars touting the film as "extremely solid stuff – about as good as you could hope from a B-movie retread."[15] Variety film critic Dennis Harvey also praised the film, writing "While not a slam dunk, this revamp by helmer Breck Eisner (of the enjoyable but underperforming Sahara) emerges an above-average genre piece that's equal parts horror-meller and doomsday action thriller.[16]

However, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film a C, writing, "I don't care how this premise has been dressed up, we've seen it a jillion times before."[17] Mike Hale of The New York Times wrote a mixed review stating "The filmmakers seem so determined to make a serious, respectable horror movie that they have only the bare minimum of fun."[18] Amy Biancolli, writing for San Francisco Chronicle, wrote that the remake "boasts less of the plot and fewer characters than the original, but the hairdos are spiffier and the special effects have graduated from cheapo stage blood to the extravagant gross-outs that horror audiences now routinely expect."[19]

Box office

The film opened at #3 behind Cop Out and Shutter Island with $16,067,552.[20] By May 2010, the film has grossed an estimated $50 million worldwide.[1]

Nominations
YearAwardCategoryResult
2011 People's Choice Awards Favorite Horror Movie Nominated

Merchandise

On February 23, 2010, an iPhone app, Beware the Infected, was released.[21]

Comic book

On February 17, 2010, iTunes released a graphic novel adaptation of the film.[22] A comic book was also released chronicling how the virus was spread. It went on for four issues.

Browser game

On February 24, 2010, Starz Digital Media released a Facebook game based on the film.[23]

References
  1. "The Crazies (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
  2. ‘Crazies’ remake filming under way in Perry Archived 2009-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Exclusive: Rob Hall Talks Effects on Remake of The Crazies". DreadCentral.
  4. "Exclusive photo: THE CRAZIES love Fango!". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 2009-10-25.
  5. The Crazies DVD Special Feature(s): "Paranormal Pandemics," "Rob Hall make-up featurette," "Behind-the-scenes with Breck Esiner"
  6. "Massive Image Gallery: The LA Crazies Premiere". DreadCentral.
  7. "The Crazies (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  8. "The Crazies Hit Canadian DVD and Blu-ray in June". DreadCentral.
  9. The Crazies (US - DVD R1|BD RA) in News > Releases at DVDActive
  10. "The Crazies (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
  11. "The Crazies reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
  12. "Kicking & Screaming – CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  13. Phillips, Michael (2010-02-25). "'The Crazies': Remake bests the master". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  14. Armstrong, Eric M. (2010-03-10). "'The Crazies (2010)'". The Moving Arts Film Journal.
  15. Burr, Ty (2010-02-26). "'The Crazies' movie review". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  16. Harvey, Dennis (February 25, 2010). "The Crazies Review – Read Variety's Analysis of the Film, The Crazies". Variety. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
  17. Gleiberman, Owen (2010-02-25). "The Crazies". EW. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  18. Hale, Mike (2010-02-26). "Movie Review – The Crazies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  19. Biancolli, Amy (2010-02-26). "Review: 'The Crazies'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  20. "Weekend Box Office Results for February 26–28, 2010". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  21. The Crazies By Petrol Advertising
  22. "Trailer for 'The Crazies' Motion Comic Book". BloodyDisgusting.
  23. "The Crazies Comic, iPhone App, and Facebook Games Are Here". DreadCentral.
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