Breck Eisner’s 2010 remake of the Romero classic drops most of the political subtext and satire to make an out-and-out monster movie. Luckily, it’s a damn good monster movie, which you can now (finally) own on 4k from Lionsgate Limited!
Welcome to Reb00t! A series where I dig deep through the 2000’s to find all the horror remakes that we were inundated with over that weirdly bleak decade. Sometimes they’ll be good, sometimes they’ll be terrible, sometimes they’ll be great. In a few, rare times, they’ll be better than the original! These are all my personal views, obviously, so feel free to tell me I’m insane in the comments.
This week, we’ll be revisiting 2010’s The Crazies, while also taking a dive into the new 4k release from Lionsgate Limited!
Coming at the tail end of the horror remake boom of the aughts, The Crazies exists in a bit of an interesting time, both in the horror cycle, as well as in society at large, not too dissimilar from the film it is remaking. Is it able to do something interesting with all of that? Mostly!
First, a bit of a strong opinion; I view the original The Crazies as a genuine masterpiece from Romero, arguably up there with his Dead series in pure societal satirization. Released in 1973, in the waning years of the Vietnam War, The Crazies is Romero’s response to the world around him, specifically, the way the U.S. military had completely and utterly fucked up Vietnam. A pseudo-zombie film that focuses more on the government’s response, The Crazies is absolutely pitch black in its humor, showing us a government response team who consistently botch every single step they take towards containment, ripping the town to pieces in the name of “national safety”.
It is a world where everything is fucked; the dead being robbed by the containment teams, the living forced into tight quarters, spreading the disease quicker, and the only man who can possibly cure the illness held back by beauracracy and voice recognition software. It is a reality where the loss of over a 3rd of the population is considered a “successful containment”.
That isn’t even delving into the incredibly dark journey of the few survivors we follow. Admittedly a bit thinner characters than Romero is known for, the group of survivors we follow through the Western PA woods are still put through the meat grinder, their lives unraveling with each passing hour. They all start to succumb to the disease, their minds slipping into insanity, becoming either totally docile or incredibly violent (or, in the case of one really harrowing moment, incredibly lustful). As we watch the last survivor carted away, his entire life destroyed in front of him, he is placed with the rest of the crazies, his uninfected but haunted visage enough to convince the doctors he is incurable. This thing is bleak.
So, 37 years later, the remake was released. In 2010, we were still recovering from a recession, and the ghosts of both Afghanistan and Iraq were fresh. It isn’t too dissimilar a world than that of ‘73. So, how did the filmmakers fare in remaking this anti-war film for the modern audience?
By not really making an anti-war film at all! 2010’s The Crazies instead shifts the focus, turning it into more of an outright zombie film. Which, you know what? It works! For the most part!
Dropping pretty much all of the government bureaucracy angle from the original, ‘10 The Crazies instead focuses on the town and the townspeople themselves. While they were presented more as overall statistics in the original, the remake spends the first act fleshing out these characters, giving us an idea of what the town of Ogden Marsh was like before everything went to hell. We grow attached to these characters, and genuinely care about how they’ll fare throughout, which is admittedly an improvement on the original.
It’s also just an out and out horror film. The ‘73 The Crazies is much more of a pitch black satire with a few horror elements. In the 2010 remake, though, the mission is to just scare the hell out of you. Even 15 years later, it is still pretty successful at that, really digging into the horror of a whole town gone homicidally insane.
The one slightly interesting caveat to that, though, is the fact that The Crazies came at the very end of not only the remake phase, but of the nihilistic horror phase. Obama was in the White House, we were pulling out of the recession, and spirits were starting to rise, especially in our media (remember, this came out right at the start of the MCU era; right when movies became “happy” again). This was the end of angry, mean horror films; the Blumhouse “haunted house” style of horror was about to take over. As such, this does feel noticeably toned down from something like The Hills Have Eyes or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remakes, with a bit of a “happier” ending than the original (or, at least, not as bleakly nihilistic). It’s still mean as hell, but you can feel the brake being pumped here and there.
Honestly, the most interesting change between the original and the remake is the view on the military. In ‘73, the military was presented as an absolute carnival of morons, all of them tied up tight by bureaucracy. Consistently, the containment is hamstrung by slow responses and missing equipment. In the end, after all the bloodshed, they didn’t even contain it, realizing that it had clearly spread days before they arrived.
In 2010, though, they’re a whole other beast. The military comes swooping in in the night, quickly establishing a base camp and containment zone in what seems to be minutes. The entire town is quickly under the control of masked individuals who shoot on sight. This is pure “shock and awe” military spectacle, and one of the few times the film seems to reflect the era, as Apache’s roam the skies and tanks block the highways. It is a full 180 degree shift from Romero’s perspective, while still coming to the same conclusion; no matter if you are a bumbling group of stooges or jacked-up storm troopers, containment is useless.
It is a distinctly different approach to Romero’s source, but still works great on its own terms, creating its own hellish quarantine zone.
The Specs:
And, hot damn, was it great to watch this gem from 2010 in glorious 4k! I was stuck watching the real beat-to-hell Blu from back in 2010, and seeing this in 4k was a treat, especially in the color throughout (almost forgot how great real fire looks on film!). The audio is also top notch, with Dolby Vision Atmos, that makes every single gunshot pop incredibly loud and immersive.
The new release also comes substantially packed with extras. The Lionsgate Limited exclusive extras include a new 2025 commentary with director Breck Eisner, several BTS extras such as establishing the shot with Breck Eisner, Sculpting The Horror of The Crazies, and storyboard to screen: car wash. There is also an alternate ending included that hasn’t been featured on any of the previous releases. Also included on the standard Blu are a collection of BTS features, trailers, and motion comics. For a release in 2025, it is seriously packed with extra goodies!
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The 2010 The Crazies is very much its own thing. While Romero’s original was a scream in the night, anger at a nation that not only failed, but patted itself on the back for it, the remake is more of a classic monster film, not as concerned with political subtext. Luckily, though, it is a top notch monster movie that is still incredibly mean-spirited and dark. Easily one of the best from this era of horror filmmaking.
The Crazies (2010) is now available on Lionsgate Limited in an exclusive steelbook!
