Weekly Review -- Relative madness

The Crazies (2010) -- When it comes to representations of insanity in the horror genre, the portrayals range from intensely disturbing to pure so-bad-it-is-good camp. The Crazies takes a solemn approach to the topic, injecting insanity into the heart of middle America and causing quite a commotion within the American dream... or is it a nightmare?

Ogden Marsh is a rural Iowa town where everybody knows everybody. When some inhabitants start exhibiting paranoid, repetitive, homicidal and all-around frightening tendencies, it is up to the sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) and his doctor wife (Radha Mitchell) to figure out why their neighbors are suddenly bug-eyed and bent on murder. They discover the shocking answer along the way, but is it too late to save their home?

While I am not familiar with the 1973 George Romero original, I really enjoyed this movie, partly due to the candid performances and partly due to the eerie, somber screenplay by Scott Kosar -- of The Machinist fame -- and Ray Wright. The 1973 version was a protest and commentary against the Vietnam war; the 2010 version also happens to be arriving during a period of great political and economic upheavals in the U.S. and the world, though maybe unintentionally so, and makes some great points about mass mentality and political machinations at the cost of human life. From the beginning, it is apparent that there is something truly atrocious happening in Ogden Marsh, a fact which the film enhances through the use of underhanded camerawork and shadowy silences. The once idyllic town quickly dissolves into chaos, the relations between residents crumbling and the entire palette of utopia coming apart. At the time of British Petroleum committing crimes against our planet, the economy still in the process of stabilizing and discrimination still blooming in various forms, the tale of a happy town being tainted by outside forces rings genuinely and disastrously honest.

The cast is well chosen and relatable. Olyphant is quietly authoritative as the sheriff, who does not allow himself to be overwhelmed by the situation, while Mitchell employs and explores nuances in her role as a woman with a lot to lose, and Joe Anderson's deputy sheriff gets a very nice character arc. I also have to mention the gorgeous cinematography by Maxime Alexandre, whose work in High Tension was the stuff of sinister genius. The darkly metallic blues, greens and grays highly complement the theme of ordinary, non-spectacular existence descending into cataclysmic desolation. The film is a joy to behold in terms of effectively outlining its message through both written and visual means, by viewing its characters as everyday people whose routine comes to a crashing halt and by exploring its subject of intrusion in an unflinching, uncompromising manner.

Despite its title, The Crazies is sane in more ways than one. It is a cautionary tale of excess and greed, humans going against their own kind and the everyman being stomped on by nothing less than the loss of all control. Come to think of it, this story sounds very familiar. Seen the news lately? That, my fellow horror fans, is the core of real insanity.

9/10