The Crazies

Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R-N.J.) said during an Axios News Shapers event Wednesday that a part of her hopes "all the crazies do win" during next week's midterm elections so that Americans realize the consequences before the next presidential election.

The Crazies

In a sleepy small town in Iowa, a blank-faced man walks into the middle of a baseball game carrying a gun, and the local sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to shoot him. The sheriff's wife, the town doctor (Radha Mitchell) sees patients with similar behavior. It turns out that an experimental military virus has been set loose in the town, turning everyone into mindless, homicidal maniacs. Soon the military shows up, trying to contain the problem, but they cause as much violence and destruction -- if not more so -- than the "crazies." The sheriff, his wife, the deputy, and a teenage girl decide to flee across the county lines to safety, all the while fending off attacks from both sides, and risking contracting the virus themselves.

A remake of George A. Romero's 1973 Vietnam-era movie, THE CRAZIES retains all the social commentary of the original, but streamlines it and smoothes it into a regular horror film. It cuts down on the many talking and bickering sequences in the original, and turns the military men into faceless, voiceless spooks who are more or less the equivalent of the "crazies." In a way, the new film is perhaps even more direct in getting Romero's anti-military message across. 041b061a72