Good horror films are a rare commodity these days, good horror remakes even more so. That said, “The Crazies” is an entertaining, suspenseful film that will often catch you off-guard, just because of how well-made it is. It’s never particularly scary, at least in this reviewer’s opinion. I got slightly irritated at the film’s over-reliance on “jump-scares”, but the film tells a compelling story really quite well, a rare feat not just for the horror genre but recent film in general.

It’s yet another “disease outbreak” story, the plot being essentially this: Government airplane crashes with dangerous chemical aboard, taints town’s water supply, turns most into zombies. The town sheriff, his deputy, wife, and her friend all attempt to survive. It doesn’t help that the army has been deployed to seal off the town and shoot anyone who tries to escape.

It’s really a masterfully-made film: Not often does one stop to marvel at a particularly beautiful camera shot, but it happened to me several times during “The Crazies”. It’s fairly well-acted, with Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell in the lead roles. Timothy Olyphant has been in tons of somewhat trashy, yet very entertaining films recently (I submit to you “Die Hard 4″ and “A Perfect Getaway”). He’s really quite good here as the sheriff of the town afflicted by chaos. One aspect of the film that rather bugged me: The four main characters go through a fair amount of physical pain throughout the movie, but are bandaged up and press onward without the slightest showing of pain.

“The Crazies” is a fairly gruesome film. There’s a few shots in the film where one winces. But what makes “The Crazies” exceptional is that it doesn’t squander terror for cheap scares; rather, it harnesses it to help tell a cohesive story. Seeing “The Crazies” won’t change your life, but it’s probably be the last good horror film for a long while.