FROM the director of Sahara comes a remake of the seldom seen George A Romero flick The Crazies.
When a local farmer turns up at a small-town baseball game armed with a shotgun, Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to violently deal with the situation.
But it soon appears this is not an isolated incident.
As other residents soon start to exhibit similar strange and murderous symptoms, the town is rocked by the arrival of military personnel who may not be offering the help the people need.
Can the townspeople escape this strange epidemic, or will they succumb to the Crazies?
Dive straight in
Director Breck Eisner hits the ground running by diving straight into the chilling premise.
Riffing on the zombie narrative - infected regular folk attack the unprepared - The Crazies has the potential to be a scream-a-minute fright-fest.
But from the outset, a lack of flesh-eating carnage or fear of any ‘one-bite-and-you’re-a-gonna’ infection immediately makes the film somewhat underwhelming.
This is just deranged people being mad and bad.
Ticks the boxes
Eisner tries to tick the required boxes by throwing out a few simple jump-scares and the occasional gore-drenched squeamish scene.
But once he offers up the frights once, his generic paint-by-numbers techniques become all-too predictable.
And once the distracting element of the military is brought in, the film loses complete focus; much like Eisner’s previous muddled treasure-hunting/disease-solving/rom-com adventure Sahara.
Had he merely elaborated on the gripping first act, it could have been a very different and far more terrifying film.
Solid stock characters
Timothy Olyphant brings the required cool head and steely authority to the insane and demented situation, while Radha Mitchell as his doctor wife compliments the stock characters with scientific solutions.
But the surprise performance comes from British actor Joe Anderson as Olyphant's Deputy, who adds depth and believability to the disease-led story.
It is the solid acting chops which just about saves the questionable script by remake alumni Scott Kosar (the man behind the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror updates) and Ray Wright, which culminates in a painfully disjointed and somewhat over the top finale.
While not the most disturbing horror ever made, for a dose of quick shocks The Crazies is certainly a sane decision.
6/10 - Raving bad.