The Crazies was a film that really didn’t need a remake. The 1973 original is not a very well known film, and aside from having a good title and a connection to George Romero, I don’t see the benefit of paying any amount of money to do it. That being said, it’s a competent and often scary movie that I enjoyed watching.

The remake of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead opens with Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around”, and this film rips that idea off by using Cash’s “We’ll Meet Again”. The song  is a lazy choice doesn’t fit lyrically or musically and just seems to be thrown in there for street cred.

The film opens with a crazed, seemingly drunk local who interrupts the opening game of little league by stumbling on to the field with a rifle. The sheriff (played by multi-layered “Deadwood” Sheriff Timmy Olyphant) confronts him , and let’s just say, it doesn’t end well.

Turns out a plane filled with mind altering chemicals crashed into the town swamp, which disgustingly serves as the local supply for tap water. The Sheriff puts this together and warns The Mayor to turn the water off, and in a scene stolen from Jaws, he is worried about the impact to the farm business and refuses. The Sheriff then goes and turns the water off anyway, making the scene a waste of time, and pretty much everyone in the town is infected, so that’s 10 total minutes of nonsense that served no purpose whatsoever.

There are 2 very well done scenes that are genuinely scary that are at least in the 200 Scariest Movie Scenes Of All Time.

The best of which is a bit where survivors drive their police cruiser into a car wash. The Crazies come to attack them while they’re in the car and the car wash turns on. First you see them through the windows, then they get covered with suds, making you wonder where they are. The car can’t get enough traction to leave, so it’s stuck in there while arms bust through windows, and try to pull people out, foiled by the giant red scrubbing wheels. It may keep you from using a car wash ever again.

Another scene features a room full of possibly infected normal folks strapped to beds in a makeshift medical ward. The lights are flickering and you can hear the unholy metal on concrete squeal of a pitchfork dragging on the concrete. A crazy comes in and starts systematically stabbing people who can’t escape. It’s sadistic and horrible, and pretty fucking horrifying.

There’s also a couple of Sam Raimi-esque fight scenes, involving a bone saw and using a knife impaled hand as a weapon that are pretty good dark comedy.

The ending is just plain silly (wait about 60 seconds into the credits to see the epilogue), but I wasn’t bored and it was a lot better than most horror films that have been released as of late. Ultimately The Crazies is a competent, entertaining, and often scary film that’s worth a look.