Based on a George Romero original, the inhabitants of Ogden Marsh are acting strangely. There lethargic nonsense soon evolves into violent insanity. Soon after, soldiers and other government employees show up to quarantine the town. The sheriff trying to rescue his wife from the soldiers uncovers a conspiracy revolving around a crashed plane. The plane was carrying a chemical weapon causing the symptoms, and they soon realize that the military is not going to let any of them survive.
Horror movie cliches are abound. It has all the elements of the average horror film, practically a text book example. The trailer promised a slow-moving but creepy pace, but the film has a much faster, action and gore motivated pace. It takes full advantage of "jump scares." The music bangs as something or someone quickly appears on the screen. It makes you jump (hence the name) out of your seat, but it leaves no lasting impression. No real sense of fear, just a fleeting startle.
The infected also showed very inconsistent symptoms. It all starts with a complete loss of inhibition. Anything and everything seems possible, and the infected's delusions drive them to desperate feats of violence. This is where it gets fuzzy. Some infected become zombie like leaving all aspects of their personality and memories behind. They become practically faceless, while others retain them. They reach back and dig up their darkest memories to justify their obviously unstable behavior. One character even goes as far to not show a single symptom until it is the most convenient. Even more absurd is that it happens after a "rule" is explained that basically proves that he should okay.
This is unfortunate because as I watched the original The Crazies, I thought that this movie would make a very good remake. Getting better acting and gore would have made the already impressive story great. Unfortunately, this lacks the social awareness of the original. Romero had the Kent State shooting on his mind where the Ohio National Guard opened fire on some student protesters. The analog worked perfectly, but nowadays, it is far too trendy to vilify the U.S. military. A serious opportunity has been missed considering that just 5 years ago there were accusations of National Guard abuse in the Louisiana Superdome during the Hurricane Katrina relief attempts. Keeping the film to a confined space would certainly accentuate claustrophobic paranoia from both the trigger happy military and the potentially sick.
The movie is not without its moments of tension. Most of the beginning and a certain carwash scene was notably well directed, and the acting was very good. Timothy Olyphant, Joe Anderson, and Radha Mitchell made for a great cast. They were easily relatable and likable. This allows the movie to succeed where so many modern horror movies fail, you are truly rooting for the protagonist. The audience has no iconic killer and entertaining death scenes to cheer for, nor are the characters vapid high school students focused solely on losing their virginity played by CW soapopera stars.
The caliber of the cast is not enough to rise this mediocre film and missed opportunity to greater heights. This is nothing more than a mildly entertaining horror film.
5/10
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