I saw a film called 'The Crazies'.
WHAT A COMPLETE MINDF**K.
THERE ARE SPOILERS! Don't read if you don't want to know the story.
So, fairly generic story line: Happy town in a part of rural/countryside America, all happy as larry. Then a megavirus wipes everyone out. Apart from two people.
It's essentially The Shining combined with I Am Legend, lacking Jack Nicholson and Will Smith. And there aren't any cool-ass dogs.
Ok, so there's this couple, a policeman (actually, a Sheriff) and a doctor and they're married and she's expecting (n'aww). Then one day, this crazy motherf**ker wonders into the middle of a football/baseball game with a gun and decides to threaten the Sheriff. He looks rather weird in that he stares constantly and repeats fragments of speech. Anyway, Sheriff dude shoots this mofo and he dies. Virus develops. Few dead bodies found.
We then switch to an infected guy at the doctor - given no diagnosis. Family get home, mother finds that their combine harvester is on in the barn (I've got a brand new combine harvester, and I'll give you the key...ahem, do excuse my tangent) so then mother lady goes out and STANDS IN FRONT OF IT. Common sense comes into play and she checks if there is anyone in it. She turns it off and then her son screams. Son says 'Dad has a knife'. So they hide in a CUPBOARD (stuuuuupid) and then Dad saunters along in the hall with a knife and shit. He then locks them in the cupboard, pours petrol throughout the house (wooden house I may add. Americans don't use common sense or bricks for houses) and BOOM, it's goes up like a f**king inferno. It IS a f**king inferno. So Sheriff and Doctor go along. Sheriff investigates. Goes to lake, where the town get their water supplies. Finds a big arse plane/jet that leaks this chemical shit and infects the water supply.
Then this bit is pretty weird. Loads of soldier dudes take the whole town and separate them into Infected or not. Sheriff and Doctor are separated. Doctor lady taken into a unit with other infected - though she is not infected herself. Sheriff and Deputy go back for her and her friend. Some crazy zombie has a spadefork thing and decides to stab some of the Infected - proper hardcore. Doctor and friend are saved. Then they go to Doctor's friend's boyfriend's house. He is found. His mother is shot. He goes out. He is shot. Then a f**king FLAMETHROWER is used to incinerate their bodies. Gf upset. Negotiations with soldier dude.
Then they try escaping. Most memorable is the car wash scene. Loads of Infected come and attack them in the car. By this point, whole town has gone up in flames. Gf (Rebecca) gets caught by the neck. She dies. Car explodes. Sheriff, Deputy and Doctor lady all walk. Deputy becomes infected. Is used as a distraction for S+D to cut through what seems to be an extermination camp to get onto the 'highway'. They proceed to a service station. More zombies. They find a lorry. They escape. There is a strange countdown on the walkie-talkie. At first, presumed to be a zombie attack.
You could not get more wrong, my friend.
F**CKING NUCLEAR BOMB!
Yeh, I know. Mindfuck.
They SOMEHOW survive and go onto next town. They are spotted by a helicopter and then a technical screen comes on and says 'Initiate 'something' protocol' (I can't remember what the something is). So we assume that the process starts again.
So, generic horror/thriller. I am a naturally jumpy person so there were many points where I did jump (and squeal slightly). On the whole, it was good, quite 'enjoyable' if you can call it that. Slightly disappointing in that there wasn't a more complex story line. Essentially it was:
Happy town --> Virus --> Zombie attacks --> Nuclear bomb.
Could have done with more development to be honest, but it was a simple story to grasp, which meant that you could concentrate on the action.
On the whole, I'd give it 6.5 out of 10. It was good, a bit predictable and not a great story line.
Ja, there is my blog for the day.
Laura x
