Netflix Minute is a weekly feature highlighting a title from Netflix's catalog of instant view films. If you want to spend a night snuggled up with a bag of popcorn and don't want to drive to the video store, this is for you.
I should admit something right away... I'm not a big fan of horror movies. It's not as though I don't respect them for a lack of cinematic value or anything pretentious like that; I simply don't really like to feel scared. There are exceptions to this rule as there are with any broad matter of opinion, in this case the offenders are zombie films. There's a fundamental dynamic of humanity that's questioned in such films, asking the viewer how they might react in such a hopeless situation when it's difficult to know who to trust. In recent years, the archetypal zombie flick has been gently altered in key ways, often adding some complexity to the barebones "reanimation + flesh eating" formula by means of viral outbreaks and such. One such attempt at altering the classic formula was made in Breck Eisner's latest, The Crazies.
In this particular case, the zombies are barely zombies at all. A small town in Iowa becomes far more weird than it has a right to be when a man stumbles onto a busy baseball field wielding a loaded shotgun. When the town's sheriff confronts the seemingly drunk man, the shotgun is leveled at his chest and he's forced to shoot the suspicious man dead. When more cases of seemingly insane yet lethal acts spring up all over town, the sheriff is forced to investigate the matter and discovers that an infection of catastrophic proportion is quickly spreading through the town.
What really makes The Crazies unique is that the infection isn't just a more scientific or modern way to explain zombies, it actually converts the town's residents into deliberate, calculated killers. The people are stripped of all inhibition and conscience, driven to near insanity while still retaining the same intelligence that a normal human might. Beyond that, the infected don't look like the decaying, shambling corpses of zombies in more traditional films, instead appearing with bulging veins, sweaty faces, and crazed eyes. These creatures seem almost supercharged by comparison, which adds a level of suspense and stakes to every encounter.
Beyond the complexity added makeup of these monsters, The Crazies deserves recognition for the way it handles horror. Rarely do the key characters seem like bumbling idiots who only have strength in numbers, rather they have the wits to battle the intelligent killers in their path. The town's sheriff, played by Timothy Olyphant, is the most charismatic character of the bunch, summoning an unprecedented level of levelheadedness and confidence in the face of a hopeless situation. In addition to the strong characters, the horror is less insulting than in competing movies because it doesn't rely on constant jump scares and an oppressive score to create fear, rather constructing scenarios where you truly fear for the safety of the protagonists.
Through all of these aspects. The Crazies is one of the most interesting horror films I've forced myself to watch in years. There are certainly weak points in the film's formula, like a huge dependence on one's ability to question the government's motives. These weak points are supported by new, unexpected elements of what appears to be a tired formula from the outside, ultimately resulting in a breath of fresh air in the scheme of things. If you have an affinity for zombie or horror flicks but feel a little worn out by the Hollywood machine of mediocrity, The Crazies is definitely worth a try.
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