George E. Romero when he made 'The Crazies' back in 1973, the people of America went through a rough phase in the early sixties due to the Cold war which predicted an imminent nuclear war and the use of biological weapons as the means of mass destruction. Directors, especially horror movie directors, cashed on the element of fear in the public and gave a visual shape to it with a tinge of their own creativity. The zombie movies churned out by George E. Romero (which ensue because of nuclear fall out or a crashing satellite) were successful because they could speak out the public's fear, one of imminent apocalypse, where there were weapons everywhere, even worse, when man himself was the greatest weapon to his society. The horror then had a meaning and a deep sociological impact too. But the same impact, the same feel is almost absent in today's zombie horror. The claustrophobic "there's no escape" setting isn't enough at all to create the chills, the audience have grown out of the 70′s and so have their fears. But there are a few people who still haven't understood the dynamics of the horror audience, like for example, Breck Eisner, who has remade "The Crazies" and set it in a contemporary scenario but doesn't add anything which betters the atmosphere. There's blood, yes, there are zombies, yes, will you be afraid? No! At times a simple, long close up shot of a character (like in the last shot of Hitchcock's "Psycho"- the mother of horrors) is good enough to make the audience wet their anterior ends that're are plastered to the seats. But the filmmakers simply choose to go in the old, tried and tested way without bringing in their contribution of the film (Another notable mention here is "Carriers" which is even lucky to even see the light of the day). In this respect, the 70′s to the modern day transition has been done by only one director I know, Alexandre Aja, who has managed to heightened the fears of the late 70′s Wes Cravern's "The Hills have Eyes" so much in his 2006 remake that it remains as one of the most authentic horror experiences I have had in recent times. Is anybody listening?
Review of The Crazies
