It's Just Movies

— by TOM ELCE —

If the use of Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” was used to grand effect in one of the closing scenes of Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko,” it’s used to bluntly whack home a concept in the trailer for “The Crazies,” which — if first impressions are anything to go by — appears to redux an early Romero movie in the “smalltown invaded” style of Stephen King adaptations past (think “Storm of the Century” and “The Mist”).

As the film’s title implies, people are going bonkers, yet there’s nothing particularly unnerving about this look at Breck Eisner’s horror, just a summing up of the film’s arc with nothing that greatly clutches you.

Do trailers for horror movies need to be so over-explanatory? “The Last House on the Left” practically gave away the whole plot in its trailer, now “The Crazies” goes and follows up its own dusty old poster with this unspectacular “tease.”

Digging for a reason to care, we find that scripter Scott Kosar’s got an uneven past, having seen over the plot of 2003’s underrated “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake and also 2005’s suspense-deprised ghost horror “The Amityvile Horror” – another remake.

Accompanying the seemingly unoriginal scribe, director Eisner’s someone with whom I am unfamiliar.

As for the cast members, they’re also-rans in desperate need of a winning project. Olyphant’s gone five years without being in anything memorable, Radha Mitchell’s done the same and Danielle Panabaker headlined the sorry remake of “Friday the 13th” audiences were subjected to earlier this year. Here’s hoping they’ve brushed up on their script-choosing skills for this one, lest “The Crazies” turn out as generic as it appears to be.

“The Crazies” arrives in theaters Feb. 26.

And here is the movie’s new international trailer:

Source: Trailer Addict

Follow Tom Elce on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tom_elce.