THE CRAZIES

THE CRAZIES: The modern zombie that has evolved from director George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” is often completely unsupernatural in origin. Danny Boyle’s gutmunchers in 28 Days Later and its ilk are usually toxic in nature; a side-effect of man’s meddling with forces beyond his control. But before you dismiss Romero’s less genetically-complex creations out of hand, check out his take on The Crazies, an early roadmap for his seminal zombie opus, Dawn of the Dead, and a precursor to the man-made monstrosities that are currently all the rage. The town of Evans City, Pennsylvania falls under a state of martial law when a germ warfare experiment gets out of control. The symptoms materialize as rampant psychosis and spreads throughout the population. A mismatched group of survivors attempt to make it out of the hot zone to freedom, but find themselves falling victim to the “superbug” at an alarming rate. Typical of Romero’s homegrown productions, this one stars a cast of unknowns (although there’s a few familiar faces from the director’s later work and a small role for cult horror heroine Lynn Lowry) who rage against the social / military establishment. Released at the tail end of Vietnam, The Crazies makes no bones about its criticisms of military mismanagement. It points fingers and then pulls the trigger. Likely conceding to his producer’s wishes for more blood and gore, the film displays a fair share of the red stuff, but nothing like what would come later. The Crazies is more notable for its ambitious attempt at creating an Outbreak-style catastrophe on a shoestring budget. Romero would have much more success replicating the formula in Dawn five year later. But Blue Underground should be applauded for putting this lesser-known title in the best light possible, now upgraded to Blu-ray with a Romero commentary, Lynn Lowry interview plus trailers and TV spots.

DEAD SNOW: Believe it or not, there actually are enough movies about “Nazi Zombies” to qualify for their own section in your Netflex queue. You can count the good ones on one hand…with a couple of fingers left over. But get ready to add Dead Snow to that short list. Made with a wink-wink-knudge-knudge to filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, this Norwegian import that played to great success at Sundance in 2009 starts off slow and serious then lets loose with an intestinal explosion of gore, laughs and ludicrous situations. The setting is a typical self-referential horror film: 6 twenty-something med students having fun at an isolated winter cabin awaken an entire troop of vengeful zombie soldiers who are still on patrol…and righteously pissed off! Director Tommy Wirkola manages to genuinely creep you out for the first half-hour, but once the Nazi hordes appear in full sunlight he throws in the towel on scares and focuses on deliver bigger, better, over-the-top setpieces designed to make you chuckle…or up-chuck, depending on how you look at things. That tonal shift can be a bit off-putting initially (one can’t help but wonder how the film would have played with a straight-face), but Dead Snow earns enough gory goodwill to make up for it in the end. The Blu-ray makes for some beautiful mountain scenery and packs into a good amount of featurettes on the effects and sound design, plus outtakes, trailers and more.

THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT - CIRQUE DU FREAK: Let me put on my pretentious movie critic hat for a minute. “You know the problem with Hollywood today?” Uughhh…I know, bear with me. “They’re more concerned with creating a viable franchise than making a good movie.” Witness The Vampires Assistant. Based on a series of young adult books dealing with warring vampire clans peppered with the occasional love interest, it doesn’t take much imagination to smell another Twilight lurking in there somewhere. And, trust me, movie executives are sniffing. But in the film’s defense, The Vampire’s Assistant couldn’t be more different than the stodgy emotionally-overwrought teenage angst of Twilight. In fact, it’s witty, original, engaging, creative, and often wonderously unique in the way that Tim Burton’s early films were. So why am I giving it such grief? Because about half-way through, it just gives up and succumbs to open-ended plot devices, half-sketched characters and other hints that everything you wanted and more will be revealed in the next installment. But it turns out, The Vampire’s Assistant tanked in theaters. There will be no next installment. So the adventures of young, naïve Darren, his vampiric mentor Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and all the other freaks in the mysterious traveling circles are over…finito…kaput. And that second half of a movie, the one that was all set-up and no delivery, was just wasted time that could have been better spent following through on the first fantastic 45-minutes. Ah well, we’d could always crack a book, I suppose! Universal’s Blu-ray is a lush presentation of a fabulous looking film, but it’s a little light on extras with only a smattering of exclusive deleted scenes and typical Making Of fluff.