The Crazies: 1973 v. 2010

VERSUS



The Crazies – 1973 and 2010

I find very few movies where the remake vastly surpasses the original. In fact, I can’t think of that ever happening before, now that I really think about it. Of course, I saw the 2010 remake before I saw the 1973 original, so I wonder if my opinion would be different if that was reversed. In any case, I was so beyond bored when I was watching the original, and the 2010 version is pretty awesome, especially in comparison.

First I’ll talk about the original, although I have to admit I stopped paying much attention pretty quickly because it was so boring. About half way through my boyfriend said to me “I don’t know why you’re a fan of Romero. He sucks.” And you know what? I couldn’t argue. Out of all of his movies, I really only like a few, like the first three …Of The Dead movies. Coming five years prior to Dawn of the Dead, I feel like he used a lot of the same imagery but it worked so much better in Dawn. The Crazies really feels like Dawn of the Dead at times – not to mention Richard France is in both of them. I feel like the 1973 The Crazies is Dawn of the Dead’s unsuccessful older brother. I was so bored that I didn’t even notice that the couple having sex is father and daughter until I rewatched it (and my girl MogulArmy told me).

So both movies are about a small town that is overwhelmed with a biological weapon “Trixie” accidentally spilled into their water. The government comes in and seemingly tries to quarantine the infected while saving the uninfected. The main message is active distrust of the government. That’s really all the two versions have in common, and they both achieve this in drastically different ways.

Comparatively, the government is much more evil in the remake, and “the crazies” are much scarier in the remake, too. In the original they’re much more stereotypically “crazy.” There’s really only one murder committed by them – in the very beginning when a random farm father kills the mother and tries to burn their house down with their two kids inside. Only one of the children dies, and it’s sometime later after they’re rescued. Once the police show up, the father is laughing hysterically, then seems to understand what he’d done and begins sobbing and screaming to help his family. However, as I said they’re much scarier in the remake. They become almost as zombies hell-bent on killing everything. There’s no reasoning with them. In the remake, the same farm father (who only has a wife and one child in this version) locks both of them in a closet and torches the house. It’s an effective scare. In fact, the remake is filled with effective scares, both by the crazies and the government. Although I do want to point out that the ending of the 1973 version is sad. Even though I wasn’t paying much attention by that point I was still saddened by the ending. But really, do you want a touching ending to a horror movie? I’d much prefer that last scare. It feels more satisfying.

I wasn’t terribly sold on the 2010 version when I first saw it. I thought it was pretty decent, but I didn’t think it was amazing. Then I saw the original. It’s so much better than the original. This might be considered a spoiler, but I’m going to go ahead and say it because it was pretty much given away in the commercials and I find it important in comparing the two. In the original, out of approximately 2,000 residents, they have something like 1,300 survivors – “if you can call them that.” However, in the remake there are only a small handful of survivors.

I don’t really want to give too much away with the 2010 version but I highly recommend it. I wouldn’t even bother with the original if I were you. It left me still wondering why I consider myself a fan of George Romero and wanting to leave him angry tweets for effectively stealing my affection for this long. The 2010 remake isn’t going to keep you up at night, but it’s perfectly entertaining. The gore is decent and the suspense is wonderfully done. I found myself questioning one of the characters out loud through most of the movie. I do have to say, though, that the characters make a lot of stupid, obvious mistakes and it’s fairly predictable. But it was a good ride.

I give the original 3 and a quarter stars, Star Search style, except it’s out of 10 so what does that tell you?

I give the remake 8 stars.

Oh and I should say that this movie was highly recommended by my girl NotSoAnnoyed and she has been hounding me to get the review done. So here. <3