The crazies is the latest horror movie featuring a small group of survivors in a town trying to escape from monstrous bad guys. Its actually a remake of a 1973 film of the same name by horror master George A. Romero, who also serves as executive producer on this one. Its basically a theme we've seen millions of times from 30 Days of Night, to Children of The Corn, to almost any zombie movie ever made.(hence the Romero connection) The only twist is that these are not monsters but the normally boring town folk being turned into homicidal maniacs. This comes MINOR SPOILER........courtesy of the U.S. government and some virus they created. A plane transporting the virus to a military incinerator crashes into the local lake. The same lake that happens to provide the water for the town. You can figure out the rest from there.
The hero of this story is the town Sheriff played by Timothy Olyphant (Hitman, Live Free or Die Hard, and my personal favorite The Girl Next Door). He turns in a typical performance of a small town sheriff trying to figure out whats going on and save the town, specifically his pregnant wife. They pick up a few other towns people along the way in an attempt to escape the crazies and the military who, surprise surprise, want to kill everyone in the town to contain the outbreak. The performances are what you would expect in this type of movie. The one to watch for is Joe Anderson who plays Deputy Russell. He turns in an actually really good performance in a supporting role. The plot is generally predictable as are the scares and the gore. But nothing to really write home about, or disparage either. It was a typical hour and half horror flick with all the typical expectations. On a rainy or snowy day it's a decent way to burn a few hours at the theatre. You could do much worse these days.
Overall 3 out of 5 stars. Great horror escapism.