Taglines: Welcome to Ogden Marsh, the friendliest place on earth.
David Dutten is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his own house-after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside.
Within days, the town has transformed into a sickening asylum; people who days ago lived quiet, unremarkable lives have now become depraved, blood-thirsty killers, hiding in the darkness with guns and knives. Sheriff Dutten tries to make sense of what’s happening as the horrific, nonsensical violence escalates. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh with insanity.
Now complete anarchy reigns as one by one the townsfolk succumb to an unknown toxin and turn sadistically violent. In an effort to keep the madness contained, the government uses deadly force to close off all access and won’t let anyone in or out – even those uninfected. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Sheriff Dutten; his pregnant wife, Judy; Becca, an assistant at the medical center; and Russell, Dutten’s deputy and right-hand man. Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a horrifying struggle for survival as they do their best to get out of town alive.
The Crazies is a 2010 American science fiction horror film directed by Breck Eisner, with a screenplay by Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The film is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name by George A. Romero, who is an executive producer of the remake. The original film follows two stories, one about the civilians and soldiers in the town and the other following politicians and military leaders away from the town.The remake focuses on a family that lives in the town and has to survive the outbreak.
The Crazies stars Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell. The film takes place in the fictional town of Ogden Marsh, Pierce County, Iowa, “friendliest place on Earth,” whose town water supply is accidentally infected with the “Trixie” virus. After an incubation period of 48 hours, this virus gradually transforms the mental state of the infected into that of cold, calculating, depraved, bloodthirsty killers, who then prey on family and neighbors alike. The film was released on February 26, 2010 to positive reviews from critics, and was a modest box office success.
About the Production
In 1973, horror auteur extraordinaire George A. Romero unleashed his fourth feature film, The Crazies, a provocative story about a small town infected with a deadly virus that spreads even faster than the panic it creates. Breck Eisner’s new, nail-biting reimagining of Romero’s classic movie goes even further than the original in creating a terrifying world in which an experimental bio-weapon brings out its victims’ darkest thoughts and puts them into action.
“We’ve obviously taken reality and bent it and stretched in some extreme ways,” says Eisner. “But the core of this movie, the inception of the movie, is based in a reality that could happen.”
Producer Rob Cowan says he initially envisioned The Crazies as a relatively small, contained story. “But when I read the script, I realized it was a huge step above most movies in this genre, although it still delivers all the terror and suspense horror fans love.”
Cowan credits Eisner with taking the script to an even higher level. “Breck is such an interesting filmmaker, he really elevated the material,” says the producer. “He approached the script with respect and then added his own unique sensibility, while keeping it extremely scary and creepy.”
The new film was adapted from the original by Ray Wright (Pulse) and Scott Kosar (The Amityville Horror). Wright confesses he never saw the original film until just before he began starting his first draft. “The dramatic situation was so compelling—a small town under siege—and that attracted me to the project. Also, George Romero is a film legend, so I felt privileged to work on something he created.”
Working closely with Eisner, the writers took Romero’s original concept and updated it, resulting in a screenplay that is both truly terrifying and extremely thoughtful. “Breck was involved at every stage of the writing process, from scene construction to line edits,” says Wright. “In the end, I probably did a half-dozen drafts, but most of the significant revisions happened in the first round.”
Eisner adds, “Scott’s initial draft had significantly more military in it. It was closer to the original movie in that it was told from the point of view of the townsfolk as well as the military itself. We developed this version of the movie more towards the horror, more towards the people in the town. We kept the military in it but we took the movie out of their point of view and told the whole story through David and Judy’s eyes.”
When The Crazies began production, Cowan found himself in the midst of a shoot that was often epic in scope. “We had military convoys and planes,” he says. “There was an armada of helicopters that came in and corralled all the people in the town. Every day we had some kind of big stunt. It was nonstop.”
Two aspects of its plot help The Crazies transcend the horror genre, says the producer. The first is that it’s set in an idyllic farming community that has everything going for it until it’s torn apart from the inside out. “The threat is from people you know well. The film takes a lot of time getting to know the people who become the Crazies. They are often people with whom our main characters have relationships.”
“The other interesting element is the military and how they react,” he says. “They are a real threat, so our heroes are not just dealing with the Crazies. There are two forces coming after them and they have nowhere to turn for help except each other.”
Brian Frankish, associate producer of The Crazies, says Eisner’s energy and outlook helped take the film out of the realm of the ordinary. “Breck has the spirit of youth,” he says. “He also has an eye for seeing what the lens sees. He picked wonderful artists to be on his team, like Andrew Menzies, the production designer, and Maxime Alexandre, the director of photography. It all adds up to a piece of eye candy that will hold the audience’s attention visually while they think about what’s going on in front of them.”
This high level of the production values help set the film apart from its predecessor, made on Romero’s customary shoestring budget. “The thing that makes the original film interesting is George Romero,” says Frankish. “It has great writing and the concept he came up with is the same concept we’re dealing with here. It’s not women or teenagers in jeopardy. It’s not a terrible monster stalking a small group of people. This is something bigger. It’s terrifying in a much larger sense.”
Radha Mitchell, who plays Dr. Judy Dutton, the sheriff’s wife and the town doctor, finds the premise of the film more chilling for exactly that reason. “Generally the threat in a film like this is coming from outside,” she says. “In this case, the story is set in a small town where everybody knows everybody else, and the threat is everybody around you. Taking what’s familiar and making it unfamiliar is always an interesting tactic.”
“One of the things I love about this movie is that it takes place in the heartland of America,” Eisner continues, “It is these vast open spaces, these wheat fields and corn fields that go on for miles and miles, these endless plateaus of nothingness that create an epic landscape. There are no trees, no houses, no buildings. You can walk down a road with visibility for thirty miles in every direction and that alone limits your options; there is nowhere to hide. Our characters need to avoid the military, the Crazies, and the disease itself as they travel this open and exposed landscape, a landscape that evolves from beautiful to terrifying.”
Adding to the film’s shock value is the speed at which the infection spreads: the virus devastates the entire town in a mere three days. “We shot a scene with David, Tim Olyphant’s character, walking down a pristine, peaceful street,” says Frankish. “A few days later, we see broken televisions lying in the street and cables pulled out and cars set on fire. The Crazies have taken over the town and the military is unable to contain it. The aftermath is like the riots in Los Angeles or Hurricane Katrina. It’s mayhem.”
The Crazies promises to be thought-provoking entertainment that will prompt audiences to discuss it after they see it, according to Frankish. “I can see students sitting in coffee shops all over the country after seeing this picture saying, ‘What about this? What if that?’ I think it has that lasting value.”
Olyphant, the film’s leading man, points out parallels between the social climates of the era in which Romero wrote the original script and today. “The thing about all Romero’s movies is that they’re clearly about something more than just being scary,” says the actor. “He dialed into some things that were going on at the time, like the Vietnam War. We are in similar circumstances, with a war that people are very divided about.”
But any larger message, says Cowan, is secondary to the entertainment value of the film. “We didn’t try to make a huge message movie. There are elements built into it that reflect the times we live in, and the way people feel about their safety and security. All of that gets into the story without us really having to do much about it. That underlying social commentary is one of the reasons I liked the script.
“Primarily, though, I want people to have fun when they see The Crazies. There are fundamental themes that people can take away from it if they want. But at the end of the day, we just want them to enjoy some surprises and maybe forget their troubles for a couple hours. People come in with a lot of built-in fears. In this movie, some of them are played out, and the audience can feel good about it, because it all gets resolved and it’s just for the fun of it.
“The thing about The Crazies that I initially responded to is the journey the characters are forced to go through, the journey that David and his pregnant wife Judy must endure. The audience’s passion for these two characters to escape starts from the first minute of the movie and builds to the last.”
Casting To Crazies
The four central characters in The Crazies form a tight-knit alliance in order to survive. The filmmakers knew that during the often grueling shoot, the performers playing them would need to develop a similar kind of camaraderie, and kept that in mind as they assembled the cast.
“The first character we cast was David Dutton,” Eisner recalls. “Throughout the whole process the one guy I always wanted was Tim Olyphant. We had lists upon lists and Tim was always at the top. So we sent the script to him and he responded. It’s pretty rare and lucky that the guy you want, who is at the top of your list, is the guy who wants to do the movie.”
“Tim has a sort of Gary Cooper-Everyman quality about him that is perfect for this character,” says producer Rob Cowan. “He’s just a simple guy who’s trying to raise a family and live up to his father’s expectations, a small town sheriff who gets thrown into this extraordinary circumstance.”
Eisner agrees: “Tim is a movie star and he has that aura about him. But he also feels like a regular human being; he has a realness about him, an honesty and intelligence that was perfect for the role.”
For Olyphant, the quality of the screenplay was paramount. “The script was fantastic,” he says. “It was entertaining from the first minute. First I thought, ‘Oh, this is fun,’ and then it stayed with me for days. And I loved the title. If you watch the trailer for the original, they keep repeating it: ‘The Crazies! The Crazies!’ I just love that title.”
Olyphant admits that he loves a good fright fest. “I remember as a kid wanting to see them and being told I was too young. That right there makes them fantastic. I remember my brother describing movies to me shot by shot, scene by scene, frame by frame—and he’d have never seen the film!”
Working with Eisner was an extremely collaborative experience, recalls Olyphant. He says their ongoing discussions revealed as much about the character as the original source material did.
“We had this great back and forth that started even before the shoot,” Olyphant says. “We had phone and email conversations. I would meet him in his office and we’d go over the script. We talked endlessly. The more we talked, the more interesting the character became, and the more interested I became.”
The exchange of ideas continued during shooting. “For Breck, the script was a guide,” says Olyphant. “Everything was still open. He allowed me to participate, and that meant a great deal to me.”
One of the concerns Olyphant expressed to Eisner was about the relationship between David and his wife, Judy. “I remember saying to Breck, ‘I don’t know about you, but that’s not my marriage.’ Marriage is tricky. Marriage is complicated. I wanted to see the fragility of it. If you start with a relationship that seems unsure and then you throw all these other things at them, it either does them in or ends up bringing them together.”
The characters and their relationships are central to the film, says Olyphant. “We have found great characters that are very real and I’m hoping that it elevates beyond what you often see in this genre. It starts with an interesting and very real relationship between a man and his wife and it extends to all of the other relationships in the film. There’s a real back and forth there between the sheriff and his deputy, Russell, and between Judy and Becca, the young woman who works for her.”
Radha Mitchell plays Dr. Judy Dutton, the sheriff’s wife. “We were looking for somebody for the role of Judy who had a down-to-earth quality but still had the special spark that Radha has,” says Cowan. “Radha liked that Judy was not just the girlfriend, and not just the wife. She’s a doctor, as well, with her own story arc.”
“I’m a big fan of Radha,” says Eisner. “She’s done some amazing work and it was such a pleasure to have her in this movie. She brings an intensity to the role as her character is forced to fight for her life, desperately trying to survive. She brings a raw and visceral emotion to her work which is fascinating to watch.”
As a small town physician, Judy has an intimate relationship with many of the townspeople. “She’s delivered their babies,” says Mitchell. “She’s seen them in extremely personal situations. It shocks and mortifies her to see what they turn into. But by the time my husband and I figure out that there’s something in the water supply, the military drags us off to a camp where David and I are separated.”
That Judy is pregnant with her first child only raises the stakes, says Mitchell. “She’s got another life inside of her and that’s a strong motivation to get through this.”
The role called for a very physical performance from Mitchell, partly because of what she refers to as the “minimalism” of the script. “You feel and react to most of what’s going on, but there are really no words for it,” she says. “The physical aspect of that was especially interesting and fun. I’m in some really bizarre scenes, scenes unlike anything I’ve seen before and that’s always exciting to be a part of.”
Mitchell, who has appeared in her share of thrillers, says she finds the intensity of the experience cathartic. “You get to express a lot of things you wouldn’t in your real life,” she says. “I don’t get to scream in my real life, but I do in these movies. I’ve done a lot of screaming in this one!”
And she can scream, according to others on the set. “Radha screams like nobody’s business,” says Olyphant.
“They got lucky with how well that woman can scream. On movie sets, when there’s going to be gunfire, everybody gets little earplugs. They also do it when Radha screams. It’s awesome.”
Cowan concurs with Olyphant’s observation. “Radha is great in a scary scene. She really knows how to fight and scream, and it’s helped send the fear level soaring.”
The first horror movie Mitchell remembers seeing is The Hunger. “David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve are vampires,” she says. “It’s just a scary, scary movie and I was way too young to see it, so it stayed in my mind. Some movies are so intense that they leave this imprint. You really feel like you’re in the movies.”
The Crazies (2010)
Directed by: Breck Eisner
Starring: Radha Mitchell, Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker, Joe Anderson, Christie Lynn Smith, Brett Rickaby, Brett Rickaby, Lisa K. Wyatt, Larry Cedar, Justin Welborn, Gregory Sporleder
Screenplay by: Scott Kosar, Ray Wright, George A. Romero
Production Design by: Andrew Menzies
Cinematography by: Maxime Alexandre
Film Editing by: Billy Fox
Costume Design by: George L. Little
Set Decoration by: Cynthia La Jeunesse
Art Direction by: Greg Berry
Music by: Mark Isham
MPAA Rating: R for bloody violence and language.
Distributed by: Overture Films
Release Date: February 26, 2010